The Devil’s Hour Season 1 Review – A devastatingly effective psychological thriller

The Devil’s Hour is one of the biggest surprises this year. On the surface, this looks like a very simple psychological thriller, taking elements from Netflix’s Criminal series and throwing in a smattering of investigative drama to track down the culprit behind a series of gnarly crimes. However, it soon becomes apparent that The Devil’s Hour is so much more than that.

Amazon Prime’s latest thriller demands that you pay attention to the minute details, and with a string of clues along the way, the narrative throws up several big reveals that completely change the game. The protagonist that deals with all of this shock and drama is Lucy Chambers, who awakens every night a 3.33am after having a series of nightmares.

For some reason, her reality is distorted and she finds herself struggling to make sense of the world around her, seeing things that aren’t there, repeatedly dreaming of an interview with a serial killer called Gideon, and struggling with her son Isaac.

In fact, Isaac is the key to a lot of what’s going on and his increasingly erratic and bizarre behaviour comes to a head when the truth about his past – and future – becomes apparent.

I won’t spoil much more about the story here but suffice to say, the narrative really cleverly ties together a lot of the clues we’ve been given in a way that’ll catch you completely off-guard. There are a few similarities to shows like Shining Girls and Belgium series Tabula Rasa, but to compare to either of those would be a disservice to this one, as The Devil’s Hour feels structurally very different.

The pace can be a little slow at times, and episode 4 in particular applies the brakes and take a more leisurely approach than some may be happy with. However, this chapter is actually pretty necessary for what follows, and in many ways serves as a proverbial deep breath before taking the plunge into much more dramatic waters, where big reveals change the game.

The tone throughout The Devil’s Hour flits between outright horror, psychological thriller/mystery and more conventional crime dramas. However, it’s the way this show manages to marry all three together that makes it such an enthralling watch. This is obviously helped a lot by the acting which is outstanding across the board.

While Peter Capaldi is likely to get the plaudits here, it’s Jessica Raine and Benjamin Chivers who really stand out. Both play their respective characters so well and Isaac in particular is chilling and really brings his A-game, which is pretty impressive given this is one of his first productions! This young man has a bright future ahead of him in acting.

Ultimately, The Devil’s Hour is a well written and devastatingly effective psychological thriller. The show manages to do a great job with its characters and tone, eventually leading to some pretty shocking reveals. This is a show you really need to pay attention to and if you do just that, Amazon’s newest show will reward you in kind with one of this year’s best thrillers.