#we're broke as fuck n didn't have any data or stuff

[bellflower-goat]

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[magratpudifoot]

We watched The Devil in Ohio in its entirety yesterday because that's the kind of thing we have time for these days, and I think I completely broke my Netflix profile by telling it we didn't like it. I never, ever give streaming services more data than they are already mining just from tracking the things I'm watching, so it's a testament to how much we didn't like it that I actually clicked the thumbs down.

We were watching it as a kind of endearingly over-earnest bit of nonsense with some vaguely interesting stuff going on, and we were having a decent time (though neither of us were engaged with it enough that we didn't get up and do chores without pausing it). But then the ending...

Literally the only way the ending doesn't send me into apoplectic rage is if we're meant to understand that the protagonists' nuclear family is also a cult with the father as leader, and I AM HERE FOR THAT INTERPRETATION (let me show you my vast array of non-fiction about cults and the many forms they take), but that feels like an oppositional reading that is too smart for the piece.

It's possible I could have been persuaded to give it that much credit, but nope, not after reading more. In googling to try to get to the bottom of how someone gets to act as both executive producer and writer on the adaptation of their first novel*, I came across an article claiming that the novel/series was "based on true events'', citing the author's hearing second hand about the experiences of an anonymous source** and "research" that included Gone Girl, that noted non-fiction account of a cult survivor.

Presumably "based on true events" here means that cults exist and sometimes people leave them.

Of course, the fact that the big bad in the story was specifically a satanic cult*** had pretty well convinced me that the writer of this thing had never heard of Steve Hassan, Rick Ross, or Janja Lalich...which would be more forgivable if the main character weren't a trauma psychologist who presumably would at least do a quick look round to see if there is any scholarship on how to help people who have escaped from cults.

JEEBUS.

*A first novel which I, as someone who goes directly to the horror section in bookstores and occasionally attends a sf/fantasy/horror literary conference, had never heard of. WHERE DID THIS COME FROM, AND WHO DOES THE WRITER KNOW??

** Obviously obviously obviously this is EXACTLY the sort of story that would be sourced anonymously. I am not doubting the existence of people who escape horrific abuse and don't want their business publicized to the world. But before we go making "true story" claims, I'm going to need some more substantial evidence of corroborating research than a couple pieces of fiction, a recovered memory testimonial, and one legitimate documentary about a not-even-remotely-related cult. (Holy Hell is an incredible doc if you have the stomach for it [trigger warning for sexual abuse if you do look for it], but N O T H I N G about it has to do with Devil in Ohio, to the point where I honestly think the writer may have just claimed she watched it because it sounds like it should be about Christian theology in some way.)

*** Heads up for those who don't spend 90% of their free time reading about cults, satanic cults are...pretty fucking rare, compared to Christian cults and capitalist cults and white nationalist cults and extraterrestrial cults and cults that spring up around random people with malignant narcissism. But what isn't rare is people weaponizing the specter of satanic cults against marginalized people, so this is a particularly fucked up time to have the (rural isolationist terrorist) cult be ~~spooky satanists~~. Hat tip I guess for at least having them use some of the trappings of Christian religiosity?

Also, HEY, remember that time they tried to do a Heathers series where all the awful popular characters were people of marginalized identities, and the kids they were picking on were white? There's a whiff or two of that going on here, too, for all its attempts to be Inclusive(TM).