Devil in Ohio: Emily Deschanel shelters cult escapee in Netflix series

Earlier this year, we learned that a limited series adaptation of Daria Polatin’s debut novel Devil in Ohio (pick up a copy HERE) was in development at Netflix. Now the series is being filmed in Vancouver, and it has been revealed that Emily Deschanel is in the lead role. The eight episode series will show what happens

when hospital psychiatrist Dr. Suzanne Mathis shelters a mysterious cult escapee. Her world is turned upside down as the strange girl’s arrival threatens to tear her own family apart.

The description of the novel Devil in Ohio, which is said to be “based on a true story”, offers some more information:

When fifteen-year-old Jules Mathis comes home from school to find a strange girl sitting in her kitchen, her psychiatrist mother reveals that Mae is one of her patients at the hospital and will be staying with their family for a few days. But soon Mae is wearing Jules’s clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, edging her out of her position on the school paper, and flirting with Jules’s crush. And Mae has no intention of leaving.

Then things get weird.

Jules walks in on a half-dressed Mae, startled to see: a pentagram carved into Mae’s back. Jules pieces together clues and discovers that Mae is a survivor of the strange cult that’s embedded in a nearby town. And the cult will stop at nothing to get Mae back.

Deschanel, who is best known for her 12 season run on the show Bones, is being joined in the cast by Sam Jaeger as Peter, Gerardo Celasco as Detective Lopez, Madeleine Arthur as Mae, Xaria Dotson as Jules, Alisha Newton as Helen, and Naomi Tan as Dani.

When we first heard about the Devil in Ohio show, Emma Tammi – director of The Wind and the Into the Dark movies Delivered and Blood Moon – was attached to executive produce and direct the pilot. Tammi is not mentioned in today’s Variety article about the show; instead, the list of directors consists of John Fawcett (Ginger Snaps), Brad Anderson (Session 9), Leslie Hope (Christmas on the Bayou), and Steven A. Adelson (Riverdale).

Polatin, who has also worked as writer and producer on the TV shows Castle Rock and Jack Ryan, wrote the adaptation of her novel and serves as showrunner on the series. She’s also an executive producer alongside Rachel Miller of Haven Entertainment and Andrew Wilder. Devil in Ohio is being produced by Ian Hay.