On her 16th birthday, Sabrina has to make a choice – the witchy life with her family, or the world of mere mortals with her friends and boyfriend. The first full-length trailer for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has dropped, and things look very complicated, and very, very occulty.
The trailer starts out light: Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) and her boyfriend (Ross Lynch) bid farewell from date night, and the teenage witch switches some music on with her powers – all seems cute and non-threatening so far, but then it builds up to her ‘dark baptism’. Sabrina, forehead marked with blood in the ritual and ready to sign her name in the book to become a bride of Satan, bottles it – ‘I can’t do this!’
There’s some rapid, disturbing shots of spells, battles, monstrous creatures and bitchy, lethal witch cliques. We also get a glimpse of Sabrina’s favourite teacher Mary Wardell, who becomes possessed by the devil’s handmaiden and goes on a quest to destroy Sabrina and all she holds dear. There’s also a clip of Salem, and Aunt Hilda and Zelda (Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto).
Born from the same universe as dark teen mystery show Riverdale in the Archie Comics, this version of Sabrina promises to be dark and frightening. Instead of copying the original campy sitcom, the Netflix reboot will be taking on a darker tone, in line with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Exorcist, and Rosemary’s Baby.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina drops on Netflix October 26.