Netflix has made itself one of the best streaming services out there when it comes to horror and horror-adjacent series and movies. It's long been putting out impressive entries in the genre, and many of its best efforts blend genres to scare you and keep you tense while also juggling some other elements and tones.
Now it's finally shown off a proper trailer for the upcoming series Wayward, and it confirms that the show is likely to go to some really creepy places in its exploration of troubled teens and the adults who set out to "fix" them by any means necessary. Anchored by what looks like a terrifying turn from Toni Collette, it's a really impressive first look.
The show comes from established comedian and performer Mae Martin, who also plays a leading role as a new police officer moving to a picturesque town with a pregnant wife who grew up there. She lived briefly at a local institution, Tall Pines Academy, which specialises in helping "troubled teens" turn their young lives around.
Its methodology, though, seems potentially horrendous, and Toni Collette is the leader of the school. Whether it's a school, a conversion camp or even a psychological prison seems to be central to the plot of the series. Martin's character seems to have an encounter early on with a teenager who's escaped from the academy, and that harrowing moment clues them in that something funky is going on.
There are clear glimpses of moments where the show will get properly terrifying, especially if you have any skin in the game in terms of America's big "troubled teen" industry, which seems to be increasingly powerful as time goes on. Martin's got great form, too, although I haven't seen that much of their acting – their writing is stellar, and this could be a breakout moment for them.
The show drops on 25 September, so there are only a few weeks to wait if it seems up your street. It'll be very interesting to see how it's received, since Netflix does have some real form with the genre.
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