By Gabrielle Smith
Arts & Entertainment Editor

On Oct. 26, “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” was released on Netflix. The 10-episode series is a modern, dark twist on the ‘90s television show “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

Sabrina Spellman (Keirnan Shipka), who is half human and half witch, is about to turn 16 and will be celebrating her Dark Baptism. This means that she is to write her name in the Book of the Beast, sign her name over to the Dark Lord and give up her mortality by becoming a full witch.
After doing so she is expected to go off to the Academy of Unseen Arts and leave behind the mortal life that she’s known, including her friends and boyfriend.

Although it saddens her to have to give up that part of herself, she is at first on board with having her Dark Baptism. Then she realizes it has a much more sinister meaning than she expected. Everyone that she knows has gone through it, including her live-in cousin Ambrose and two aunts and guardians, Zelda and Hilda (Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis), who reassure her that this is what her parents wanted.
Sabrina changes her mind after having multiple visions that bad things are to come if she gives herself to the Dark Lord and gives up her mortal side.

This is when Sabrina’s life gets shaken up. The Dark Lord gives the High Priest, the leader of the communities’ coven, an order that Sabrina must sign herself over to him. A demon takes the shape of her teacher, Ms. Wardwell, and constantly plants a sinister idea in Sabrina’s mind, helping push her in the direction of the Dark Lord.
All the while, she has trouble with three witches, orphan sisters, who are students at the Academy of Unseen Arts, and are trying everything to stop a half mortal like Sabrina from joining their school.

While Sabrina is being manipulated to sign herself over, her mortal life becomes harder as her friends and boyfriend become targets for mischief, not knowing that she is a witch. Discoveries about themselves and their family histories are also made, which connect to Sabrina on a certain level.

It is definitely a binge-watch-worthy Netflix series. It is much different from the ‘90s version. Since it is on Netflix, they had more room to do much darker things with the series, including gory kill scenes and disturbing looking creatures.
The show also likes to end on cliff-hangers, so be prepared to never stop hitting the ‘next episode’ button.

It is also by the same creators of the television show “Riverdale,” which is based on the “Archie” comics. They exist in the same universe as the town Riverdale is mentioned a few times throughout the season. Even though Halloween has passed, this show will definitely rekindle the spooky feeling of the fall season. Any witch fans and supernatural lovers alike are highly advised to watch this show. Not to mention the infamous Salem the Cat
makes appearances throughout the series.

With Christmas upon us, Netflix recently announced that a Christmas episode will be released on Dec. 14. The second season release date has also been announced for April 5, 2019.

Hopefully, this show will surpass a second season because it has a lot of potential as a series.