Thanks to Disney, we might think of fairytales in terms of princesses and cuddly animal sidekicks, but the original stories are much more scary, deadly, and, well, Dark. Don’t go in the woods, children. A time-travelling creature might eat you.
The first full trailer is out for Netflix’s new German series Dark. It’s about four families from a small town in 1986 who are caught in a mind and time-bending mystery that spans three generations, each one happening exactly 33 years after the last one. After two children go missing, the families’ secrets and double lives are exposed — further complicated by the fact that the past and future are not only connected, but also seemingly influencing each other.
The first teaser immediately grabbed our attention, and this trailer only serves to amplify the excitement. It feels similar to Stranger Things, which show creator Jantje Friese told Deadline is a flattering, albeit seemingly unintentional, comparison. Netflix did greenlight the series five months before the first season of Stranger Things aired — and given how Stranger Things was a surprise hit, I doubt Dark was designed solely to piggyback off its success.
But beyond that, it really feels like a modern fairytale, a cautionary story about the consequences of wrongdoing, harkening back to truly frightening legends like The Girl Without Hands or The Hare’s Bride. Sure, medieval Germans might not have thought a lot about time travel, but the art of the modern fairytale is about reflecting where we are now and garnering lessons from our mistakes through supernatural metaphors. It’s similar to science fiction, only with a few extra warnings about not going into the woods. Dark comes out December 1 with 10 episodes. You can check out the trailer below.
[Deadline]