Netflix Breathes New Dark Life into Sabrina – Ellie Lu
Nothing gives alludes to Satan like the number 666—or in this case, the number 16, as in Sabrina Spellman’s 16th birthday, which we’re happily, pardon me, creepily celebrating in the first trailer for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which dropped this morning. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina appears to be about as much Sabrina the Teenage Witch as Riverdale is The Archie Show: which is arguably understandable considering they’re both separate (though perhaps connected?) brain children of writer and producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a new Netflix series based on the comics of the same name, set to debut on October 26th, just in time for Halloween. The trailer shows Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) sitting with family and friends to celebrate her birthday, namely her cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo), her boyfriend Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch), Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), and who appear to be the other two witches making up the trio of Weird Sisters, while her Aunts Hilda and Zelda (Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto, respectively) stand behind her shoulders. Sabrina herself is the guest of honor for her birthday, of course, and thus sits at the head of the table, but it’s oft forgotten that, like many demonic creatures, a table has two heads, and opposite Sabrina sits a horned, demonic creature, perhaps the Devil himself.
In the comics, it is on Sabrina’s 16th birthday that she is destined to conjure Satan and write her name in his black book, so this is a likely connection between the original story of the comics, and what seems to be a new story specific to the show. Other connections to the comics that we see in the trailer is the Spellman Mortuary, which Hilda and Zelda own and operate, both as a serious business and as their front for the fact that, while being witches, they’re cannibals as well. The third detail I made note of is that the comics take place in the year 1966, and as shown by the clothing in the trailer, the series may as well, though honestly with fashions of decades past blending with what is stylish today, it’s tough to tell. And finally, the only episode title that’s been released is that of the first episode—“Chapter One: October Country,” which is an allusion to the Ray Bradbury book of the same name, a published collection of short stories and novellas all of which are macabre in nature.
Though, through all this, I find myself asking the same question over and over again—who’s voicing Salem? There’s no credit, no cast listing, nothing. Personally, I’ve been jonesing for Nick Bakay to voice this iteration of Salem as well, as his voice is ever iconic in the 90s sitcom, and perhaps the lack of casting notes for Salem lends itself to be a nice surprise for cult fans (no pun intended). But alas, we won’t know for sure until the first season of what’s being called a “dark, coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, occult and, of course, witchcraft” is released on Netflix on October 26th.
