Pop some popcorn, bring out the snacks and hit the switch on the lights — the devil has arrived in Ohio.
The Buckeye State is the backdrop for the new Netflix limited series “Devil in Ohio.” The eight-episode series, which will debut on the streaming service on Sept. 2, chronicles the curious case of Mae (Madeleine Arthur), a young woman in flight from a satanic cult who is hospitalized and comes under the care of a psychiatrist, Suzanne (Emily Deschanel, star of the hit Fox series “Bones”).
Things take a turn for the weird after Suzanne offers Mae a place to stay in her home in a fictional Ohio town (meant to be a couple of hours from Cleveland). From there, unnerving complications ensue, including Mae’s unwelcome rivalry with one of Suzanne’s children, Jules (Xaria Dotson).
The series is the handiwork of creator, executive producer and showrunner Daria Polatin, a playwright and veteran of other episodic series, including Hulu’s “Castle Rock,” who first wrote “Devil in Ohio” as a young-adult novel in 2017.
In a recent phone interview with The Dispatch, Polatin, a Boston native now living in Los Angeles, discussed the true-life inspiration for the book and show, her longtime friendship with star Deschanel and why Ohio made a moodily menacing setting for one of the new season’s most anticipated new chillers.
Q: What’s your literary background?
Polatin: I actually studied at Boston University with Emily Deschanel. We went to college together and did plays together, so it’s a very small world.
I wrote and produced plays, and directed some theater, in New York City. I came out to Los Angeles, and just worked my way through the ranks. I worked on “Jack Ryan” for two seasons. I worked on “Castle Rock,” the Stephen King Hulu series, which is really fun. I’ve kind of worked across all different genres. I’m usually just drawn to character and story.
Q: What’s your literary background?
Polatin: I actually studied at Boston University with Emily Deschanel. We went to college together and did plays together, so it’s a very small world.
I wrote and produced plays, and directed some theater, in New York City. I came out to Los Angeles, and just worked my way through the ranks. I worked on “Jack Ryan” for two seasons. I worked on “Castle Rock,” the Stephen King Hulu series, which is really fun. I’ve kind of worked across all different genres. I’m usually just drawn to character and story.
Moving into the series, we based it off the book, but really reframed it to be through the psychiatrist mother Suzanne’s perspective. That was a lot of fun, because we got to really branch out in the storylines.
Q: What can you say about the true story that inspired the book and series?
Polatin: The bones of the story are true and happened, and I wanted to take that as a jumping-off point. It’s inspired by true events, but it’s not a documentary. That’s just a different kind of storytelling. For this, I felt that the best outlet would be to free it up creatively and fictionalize the details and let it take on a life of its own. (The real story) did take place in Ohio. . . . (Polatin would not divulge any details about the actual event on which the series is based.)
We made up a fictional town in the story, but we really wanted to be as specific as we could for the Ohio viewers and give those Easter eggs for the audience. Suzanne and (her husband) Peter met while they were studying at OSU, and Peter talks with an old friend about Mirror Lake. I wrote the specific dialogue on the radio . . . to be discussing Ohio teams. I was really, really trying to make it specific. (In one scene), they’re watching a football game and there’s a touchdown and the crowd goes: “OH-IO!”
Q: Did the Ohio setting work creatively for the series, too?
Polatin: Because I went (to Ohio) before I wrote the book — for separate reasons, I was visiting friends and family — I felt that it was a very specific but also very universal (place). It’s very Everytown in a really wonderful way. I thought that it would be hopefully relatable, and people could see themselves (in it). It’s like the story takes place a town away. It kind of has that “it could happen to you” feeling.
Q: You shot the series in British Columbia, but it looks very authentic to Ohio.
Polatin: You try not to get those big BC evergreen trees. We really tried to make the forest, the woods look like Ohio.
Q: How did your old college friend Emily Deschanel come up for the role of Suzanne?
Polatin: My producer and I thought of her. We were putting together names … and my producer and I were texting: “What about Emily Deschanel?” I’m like, “I love her and I know her.” And she knew the book; she was a fan of the book. She and I sat down and had a nice, long chat about it. We just were so happy that she signed on and it was such a perfect fit.
Q: If someone has not read the novel and has not seen the series, does it matter if you watch first and read second?
Polatin: It doesn’t matter. They both function on their own. They both have their secrets to uncover and mysteries.
