Chilling Adventures of Sabrina -- a review

Not having seen the original Sabrina TV series (and not really having any great desire to) I went into the brand new Chilling Adventures of Sabrina completely cold and unknowing of whatever the previous incarnation was about. But I wound up enjoying the new version immensely. Thankfully, the new Sabrina has ditched the cheesy sitcom trappings of its predecessor in favor of an hour-long drama format--and thanks to it being on Netflix, we really get full-hour episodes. Also thanks to Netflix, the new Sabrina series is allowed to fully embrace its horror-movie inspirations.

This was the first great thing that the new series has done: diving head-first into the horror genre with full-on gore and some genuinely frightening scare moments that managed to catch this old horror movie fan off guard. Like the original sitcom, Sabrina is a teenage witch who lives with her two witch aunts and whose familiar is a cat named Salem. Unlike the sitcom, the cat never speaks but transforms into a really scary creature that protects Sabrina from supernatural threats (little Salem’s rescue of Sabrina in a maze was one of those classic horror movie jump scares that managed to catch me off guard).

The second best thing the new series has done was to cast the amazingly good Kiernan Shipka in the lead role of Sabrina. Perhaps best known for her role in Mad Men, Shipka shines here as Sabrina by creating an engagingly warm and sympathetic performance without being smarmy. Shipka is surrounded with a sturdy cast of actors like Miranda Otto (who plays Zelda, one of Sabrina’s aunties), Lucy Davis (auntie Hilda), Michelle Gomez (Missy from Doctor Who), and Chance Perdomo as Sabrina’s warlock cousin Ambrose. The entire cast in this series is superb.

Developed by the same creative team that gave us Riverdale (the Archie Comics TV show that’s seemingly too embarrassed to name itself after its source material), the new Sabrina has a nice blending of comedy, drama and a healthy dose of horror (there are nods in here to The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, and even lesser known horror gems like Mario Bava’s Black Sunday). Given these elements, Sabrina reminds me fondly of another favorite horror/drama/comedy series of mine: Buffy The Vampire Slayer. If you’re looking for a fun series that will tickle your ghoulish side, then spend some time with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Happily, a second season is already on its way. Bring it on! --SF

Comments

Explorer From Another World

It’s Friday night during the summer in Beutter county, an idyllic farming community in Indiana, and the good folks are settling in for what should be another humdinger of an evening. Until their plans are shattered by the arrival of an Explorer From Another World! This turns out to be an alien (Gemma Sterling) who starts savagely killing people from the moment it disembarks from its flying saucer. Local kids Eddie (Colin McCorquodale), Marybeth (Sage Marchand) and Culpepper (Nolan Gay) are planning on seeing a movie, but it looks like they’ll be battling for the very survival of the human race instead! Explorer From Another World is a wonderfully done throwback to the B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Ably directed by Woody Edwards (who gives himself a small cameo as Hank in the sheriff’s jail cell), the film is forty five minutes long, but manages to tell its torrid but funny story very effectively in the time allotted. And the short running time tracks when you...

Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusaders -- a review

Holy animation,, Batman! Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusaders is a loving tribute to the 1960s TV series that manages to feel like the second 1960s-era Batman movie, thanks to the voice-casting of original Batman and Robin stars Adam West and Burt Ward, along with Julie Newmar, who reprises her role as Catwoman. Taking place in the same time period as the series, the film is filled with the social mores of the time, such as having Catwoman demurely step to the side whenever Batman and Robin battle the villainous henchmen (complete with the customary BIFF! BAM! and POW! word balloons the original series always flashed during the fight scenes). Catwoman is a part of a fearsome foursome of rogues that includes the Joker, Penguin and the Riddler as they set out to work together to wreak havoc on Gotham City. The fact that these villains team up, along with their use of a penguin-themed zeppelin later in the film, is a nice nod to the original 1966 Batman movie that was relea...

My Top Five of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is returning (finally!) on the 17th of July with an all-new third season. To celebrate the return what has become my favorite of the new Star Trek shows on Paramount+, I decided to create a list of my top five episodes from the first two seasons. Memento Mori After several episodes of hinting at their presence, Memento Mori is the first big confrontation between the Federation and the Gorn. First introduced in the TOS episode Arena , with a memorable fight between Captain Kirk and a slow moving, green-skinned humanoid lizard, the Gorn have popped up in the episode The Time Trap of ST: The Animated Series , and in the In A Mirror, Darkly Part Two episode of ST: Enterprise (using really bad CGI that wasn’t much of an improvement over the Gorn suit used in Arena ). We never actually see the Gorn in Memento Mori , except for their ships, which look like angry claws ripping their way through space. This is a wise move, because not showing the...

The View From The Mountain

Search This Blog