ABSTRACT
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2014–) offered a dark recasting of the bubbly comic (and later TV) series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, with the Netflix series debuting Halloween 2018. While the setting is moved from the 1960s of the comic to the present day, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa keeps the comic’s established aesthetic by replicating the artwork in the title sequence, as well as the costuming and sets mimicking 1960s style while the characters interact with modern technology and popular culture references.
As per established canon, Sabrina is half mortal/half witch, struggling to reconcile the mundane and the magical within herself. As the narrative evolves from establishing the world and rules, to questions of theology, truth, and the nature of evil, Sabrina becomes the heroic centre for the mortal and witch realms. The Teenage Witch series (1996–2003) focused on Sabrina’s need to keep her witch half secret while navigating the perils of high school; this coupled with the teen audience and episodic nature meant for little scope for character development within a set narrative arc. In contrast, Chilling Adventures takes its cue from female-fronted supernatural dramas [Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed] where the weekly Big Bad storylines build to epic season finales, affording deep character and plot development as well as expansive world-building. It is telling that Sabrina in Chilling Adventures chooses to eschew the secrecy and instead embraces her dual nature by revealing her witch-hood to her mortal friends.
However, the reimagining of Sabrina in Chilling Adventures moves further than its predecessors. Taking Buffy’s central premise of the Final Girl becoming the central heroic figure who hunts rather than is hunted and expanding it towards the uprising of a powerful and underrated youth challenging the corruption of the establishment, this Sabrina is a radical force for change because she did not grow up fully immersed in the dictats of the Church of Night. Indeed, it’s Sabrina’s hybrid nature that allows her to critique and change the Church of Night and (eventually) the structure of Hell.
This chapter will explore the evolution of Sabrina from teen witch to Queen of the Underworld and examine how those journeys to Hell situate her as a truly heroic girl for the 21st century.
