Swipe Right On The Devil is a three-part docuseries, directed by Brian Biegel, that details the 2017 disappearance and death of Sydney Loofe and how law enforcement eventually arrested Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail for the murder. In between, however, police and federal agents found out about a mini-cult that involved women looking for sugar daddies, a man looking to put together a witches’ coven, and other bizarre happenings.
SWIPE RIGHT ON THE DEVIL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Scenes of Lincoln, Nebraska at night. Then a male voice says that people get their ideas about witchcraft from TV shows and movies, but it’s not like that.
The Gist: Via interviews with Loofe’s friends and family, as well as the law enforcement officials who worked the case, we find out about what led Loofe to meet Boswell via Tinder. Growing up in a small Nebraska town, Loofe was publicly out to her friends and family, but felt she needed to move to Lincoln to live the way she wanted. Still, it was hard for her to find women to date that weren’t going to ghost her or “try out” same-sex dating. She matched with Boswell and had a great first date. It was when she was about to go on her second date that she disappeared.
Via some bold action from Loofe’s friend Brooklyn McCrystal, law enforcement found Boswell, who was living with the much-older Trail in a strange, sugar-daddy-type relationship. The investigation led them to two young women, Ana Golyakova and Ashley Hills, whose relationships with Boswell led them to be ensnared in Trail’s coven/cult, where they had to call him “daddy” and engage in sex with him. Eventually, he completed his coven with thirteen women, and was seeking a person to sacrifice.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Swipe Right On The Devil reminds us of any number of true crime docuseries, like Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.
Our Take: Swipe Right On The Devil is the kind of docuseries that could have been told in two hours, but was given three, and the director had to somehow fill the time. So what we get is a first hour that spends a lot of time describing how tough it was for Syndey Loofe to be openly gay in Lincoln, how generous of a friend she was, and how vulnerable she was.
But then the episode pivots to Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail and their strange cult/coven and completely away from Loofe. This is when we’re introduced to Golyakova — who is so traumatized by her experience that the only way she can talk about it is in the third person — and Hills. At this point, Loofe goes from a person looking for love and companionship to a figurehead victim, because the situation involving Trail is so bizarre.
Maybe we should be satisfied that Biegel at leaves gives time to the victim before launching into the story of the perpetrators. But the story of the killers is so strange that it should have been brought up earlier, with Loofe’s story mixed in as the story went along.
Parting Shot: “She’s either dead or they still have her,” Hills tells police when they ask her about where they think Loofe is.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite moving a bit slow, once Swipe Right On The Devil gets to the heart of its story, which is the coven that Trail had created, it becomes an interesting true crime watch.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.