Netflix’s ‘My Sad Dead’ Release Date, Time, Plot, Cast and Trailer

Pablo Larraín is heading back to television with a horror miniseries that trades jump scares for grief, and Netflix subscribers are about to find out why that distinction matters. ‘My Sad Dead,’ known in its original Spanish as ‘Mis muertos tristes,’ is a four episode horror drama produced by Fabula and adapted from the acclaimed Argentine author Mariana Enriquez, built on the idea that the true terror isn’t the supernatural itself but the horrors society chooses to hide.

Between the pedigree of its director and the literary weight of its source material, this is shaping up to be one of the more distinctive genre offerings Netflix has released this year. Here is everything confirmed so far about when ‘My Sad Dead’ arrives, who is starring in it, and what the story is actually about.

‘My Sad Dead’ Netflix Release Date and Time

‘My Sad Dead’ drops on Netflix on September 24, giving fans a very specific date to circle after months of anticipation. The rollout has an added layer of prestige attached to it, since the series was not simply dumped onto the platform without fanfare.

The show had its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it competed as part of the Official Selection at the festival’s 74th edition. It screened there in a feature length format before making its way to streaming just days later. The festival itself ran from September 18 through September 26, meaning ‘My Sad Dead’ premiered to a live festival crowd only days before regular viewers could stream it at home.

That festival placement alone says a lot about how Netflix is positioning this project. Larraín called the selection meaningful, noting his gratitude at returning to a festival where Spanish language storytelling and culture take center stage. It is a rare thing for a streaming horror series to premiere on a festival stage before it ever hits a queue, and it signals Netflix sees this as awards adjacent programming rather than pure genre filler.

‘My Sad Dead’ Cast Includes Mercedes Morán and Dolores Fonzi

The series stars Mercedes Morán, Dolores Fonzi, and Alejandra Flechner in roles that anchor the story’s emotional core. Carolina Sánchez Álvarez rounds out the main ensemble, and the cast also includes Carlos Portaluppi, Germán de Silva, and Chilean actress Luz Jiménez.

This is a deeply Latin American production both in front of and behind the camera. Filming took place in Buenos Aires for exteriors and location work, while interiors were shot in Santiago, Chile. That geographic split mirrors the story itself, which is rooted in Argentine neighborhoods and the specific social textures Enriquez writes about.

Larraín’s own résumé gives the project instant credibility with awards season watchers, given his history with films like ‘El Conde,’ ‘Maria,’ and ‘Neruda.’ He described Enriquez’s writing as particularly visual, brilliant, and dangerous, calling the project a casual, domestic horror that he expects will inspire future film and television adaptations.

Enriquez herself expressed excitement about the adaptation, saying she views adaptations as readings and that she has high expectations for how Larraín and Fabula interpreted her stories. She also noted how meaningful it was to have the series released on a platform with Netflix’s global reach while still being produced locally in Latin America.

What Is the Plot of ‘My Sad Dead’?

The story follows Ema, a 60 year old doctor who can see and hear the dead, referring to them as presences, and who has spent her entire life avoiding letting that gift connect her to other people’s suffering. She is described as a reclusive figure whose supernatural abilities have kept her isolated, until a disruption forces her hand.

That disruption comes in the form of family. Ema is recently retired and trying to process both her mother’s death and her own unresolved history when her niece Julie arrives. Around the same time, three local teenagers are murdered in Piedrabuena, a suburban neighborhood marked by poverty and violence, and that combination of events triggers a strange phenomenon that breaks the fragile balance between the living and the dead.

The horror escalates from there in ways that feel less like a haunted house story and more like a slow unraveling of a community. What had previously been Ema’s private burden begins to spread throughout the neighborhood as the dead start making themselves present, and no one is able to stop it. The show is built around the idea of a city defined by poverty, violence, and people who have been forgotten, with abandonment, death, and love all woven through it, even as the terror remains rooted in the everyday rather than the fantastical.

The source material pulls not just from the original short story ‘My Sad Dead,’ but also weaves in characters and passages from Enriquez’s other works, including ‘Julie’ and ‘A Sunny Place for Shady People.’ The adaptation itself was written by Enriquez alongside Guillermo Calderón, Anastasia Ayazi, and Larraín.

‘My Sad Dead’ Trailer and What to Expect

Netflix has already released a trailer ahead of the September 24 premiere, giving audiences their first real look at the atmosphere Larraín is building. The official synopsis promises that Ema can see the dead, but when her niece arrives, thousands of lives are shaken in what is described as a chilling miniseries. Netflix has tagged the series with descriptors like chilling, understated, ghosts, Argentinian, and keeping secrets, which gives a strong sense of the slow burn tone fans should expect rather than a traditional scare fest.

IMDb lists the series as a Spanish language psychological horror with supernatural elements, and production credits confirm Fabula and K&S Films behind the project. Given Larraín’s track record with atmospheric, character driven storytelling, the trailer leans more into dread and grief than gore.

For horror fans who have been craving something with genuine literary DNA and a filmmaker of Larraín’s caliber attached, ‘My Sad Dead’ looks like it could be one of the standout genre releases of the fall season. What remains to be seen is how international audiences respond to a story this specific to Argentine social reality once it reaches Netflix’s massive global platform.

Once you have seen Ema face down her own grief alongside the dead of Piedrabuena, share which moment in ‘My Sad Dead’ left you the most unsettled.