Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s not just a school, but a school is the center of it all. Wayward is a Netflix limited series from late 2025, about a city-sized commune that brainwashed its people so well over the decades that the adults can come and go but they choose to stay. Behind it all is a psychopath like you’d expect of any cult leader named Evelyn Wade, played by Oscar-nominated actor Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense). The show has a women’s prison show vibe, and although the school has young men and young women, all of the story threads center on five key women players. Canadian comedian and show creator and writer Mae Martin stars as Alex Dempsey, a trans cop married to Laura, played by Sarah Gadon. Laura is from the reclusive town of Tall Pines, and Alex thinks he’s simply joining her on a move to her quaint hometown for her to give birth to their baby. But is Laura really back to reignite a dark path toward replacing Evelyn as leader of a scary tribe that takes teens from their parents to rehabilitate them into its bizarre lifestyle?
As much as the school has all the elements you’ve heard of from those dangerous gay conversion therapy institutions, this cult doesn’t address LGBTQ as an issue for its kids at all. Here the effort is spiriting away kids away from bad parents–parents who don’t give their kids the nurturing they deserve–and the smart writing threads a story that works as an unusual entry for the horror genre.
Parts of the story may conjure the subculture of Task, others may assume the gay cast and characters are intended to make you expect that the cult is there to take down all LGBTQ activity in the vein of They/Them. Is Tall Pines the site of another Wicker Man or Midsommar, or something less supernatural, like the cult of The Clearing? The lack of knowing what is going on and the title even harkens back to the supernatural series Wayward Pines.
Some of the enjoyment of the show is the anticipation, not knowing what lies behind the secrets of the town and its creepy leader or even what genre you’re getting into. The rest is all about getting to know the teens who end up at Tall Pines Academy, all handed over by their parents. The teens are kidnapped and forced to live in a rigid, jail-like atmosphere that has plenty in common with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Alyvia Alyn Lind leads the young cast as teen rebel Leila. She has a drug history, and is her own worst enemy like Cotton in Bless the Beasts and Children. But Leila would do anything to maintain her friendship with BFF Abbie, played by Sydney Topliffe. So when Abbie is kidnapped and dragged off to Tall Pines, Leila finds her way there to break in and try to bust her out. An interesting thread begins when she befriends new cop Alex Dempsey, who is quickly learning all is not right in Tall Pines. Abbie, Leila, and Alex all pursue a sort of detective mystery, and soon learn many students of the academy have gone missing, never to be heard of again.
Martin does a good job of creating a cult that mimics those from real life. Key to this are tenets that sound reasonable enough–until they are worked into the long-term agenda of the leader. Toni Collette supplies the acting skill to have you believe some of these folks would really follow her. Anyone familiar with the 1971 Standford Prison Experiment will understand how her character early on seized control of an entire community, and now runs the academy like a prison with its former “inmates” as the new guards tormenting the new recruits.
Yes, this is a creepy one. For a different kind of horror vibe, stream all eight episodes of Wayward now on Netflix.
