If you are looking for something spooky, fun, and with the right amount of teenage angst, here are five reasons why you should binge Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
1. It’s Spooky Scary without the Nightmares
While this show is full of nightmarish scenes, scenarios, and plot twists, you’ll get the hebbie jeebies and the occasional chill down your spine, but you won’t lose sleep over them. Okay, you might lose sleep over how hot Satan actually is, and the fact that the Spellman front garden graveyard brings back the dead, but there are no jump scares like a normal “scary” movie or show (I’m looking at you AHS!)
2. The Chilling Aesthetic
“In the town of Greendale, where it always feels like Halloween” are the first words the chilling Kiernan Shipka say (S.1, Ep.1). Halloween isn’t just a holiday for some, it’s a lifestyle. Halloween is quickly becoming an “aesthetic.” Seriously, go look on Pinterest and Instagram!
So what is the aesthetic of the “new Sabrina?” I like to think of it as a modern, romantic gothic novel, set in a place where you don’t quite know what year it is and that Greendale lives in a Twilight Zone of perpetual October.
3. Fashion, a.k.a Last-Minute Costume Ideas
The show’s amazing costuming also seems lost in time! Sabrina Spellman and her human friends look like they just stepped out of a dELiA*s catalog, with her 90’s revival and ode to the 60’s with the miniskirts and turtlenecks.
Her aunts, as unique as they are, have their own particular fashion. While Hilda may seem like the crazy cat lady, if you look closely, you’ll see her vintage plaids and prints, even if they are hidden under her cozy, oversized sweaters. Zelda and Ms. Wardwell/Madam Satan/Lilith, have the whole dark dominatrix look going for them. I mean, they are both trying to make dark, powerful men their bitches.
It goes back up to point #2- aesthetics!
4. Salem and Ambrose
As much as I love the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina and the adorable Salem Saberhagen, you know the always talking black cat that was a warlock who tried to take over the world. Well much like the first show, this adaption separates the cat and the warlock. In the Chilling Adventures, Salem is actually a demon familiar who (thank Satan) doesn’t talk and Ambrose is the imprisoned warlock who tried to blow up the Vatican. Ambrose is the perfect substitute to the talking cat, he’s witty, charming, and has his own secrets.
5. The Magic of Halloween
People often talk about the magic of winter holidays, but no one seems to talk about the magic of Halloween! The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reminds us that when black cats, witches’ hats, and maybe even a few shadows out of the corner of your eyes, that fall is coming to an end and winter is soon upon us, and there’s something magical about that.
Halloween is the perfect time to open yourself up to the possibilities of the unknown, even if it is for one night, and Sabrina is sure to help with that!
If you’re staying in tonight, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a great bet for a binge! How will you be celebrating Halloween?
