Eli Roth is getting back to the small-screen horror business — and with Jason Blum, no less. The duo teamed up for the demon-hunting tale South of Hell, and the first-look trailer has hit the airwaves. We all struggle with our own inner demons, but the Hemlock Grove creator takes this to a whole new level.

Mena Suvari, American Beauty-turned-Chicago Fire actress, takes the lead role of Maria, a demon-hunter-for-hire living in South Carolina. It’s like Jessica Jones meets Constantine, if Jones’ inner demons were literal. As she fights to exorcise evil forces from others, the one living inside her grows stronger. In our current entertainment climate with horror being the new “it” thing for TV, this would blend into the background with its Syfy channel-worthy effects. However, Roth and Blum, the latter of which recently produced Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, already has my attention.


Watch the trailer below:

Here’s the official plot synopsis for South of Hell:

Charleston, South Carolina is an elusive city with many faces and the perfect home for Maria Abascal (Mena Suvari, Chicago Fire), a stunning, 30-year-old demon-hunter-for-hire. Alongside her brother, David (Zachary Booth, Keep the Lights On), she is skilled and fearless in her pursuit of the demons that live in others. Like those that she hunts, Maria is divided within herself, struggling with her own demon, Abigail, who resides inside of her, feeding on the evil Maria exorcises from others. Maria and Abigail share a soul and a destiny, but as Maria desperately tries to overtake Abigail, she will discover how far Abigail will go to remain a part of her.


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Rounding out the cast are Bill Irwin, Drew Moerlein, Lamman Rucker, Paulina Singer, Slate Holmgren, and Lauren Velez.

In an attempt to fuse the Netflix approach to series premieres into a marathon, WE tv will debut all seven hour-long episodes of South of Hell back-to-back beginning Friday, November 27th, at 6 p.m. At the conclusion of this “binge,” the episodes will be available via VOD, download-to-own, and TVE platforms. It’s a unique approach, I’ll give them that, but how many interested buyers will sit through the entire seven episodes? It’ll be an interesting experiment to see if this is a viable strategy for TV shows, but that lends even more pressure to the pilot episode to hook the audience.


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