The Trailer for Netflix's 'Eric' Is Dark & Full of Puppets

Netflix’s Eric is undoubtedly one of the odder new releases heading our way this spring. It’s a missing child thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) as a father who becomes convinced a giant puppet is the key to finding his lost son, but darn if the trailer the streamer just dropped isn’t good enough to make anyone a believer. Cumberbatch plays Vincent Sullivan, a talented creator and puppeteer who’s the brains behind the wildly successful children’s program Good Day Sunshine. But when his son Edgar disappears on his way to school one day, Vincent is left desperate to find him and becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea that bringing his son’s drawings of a puppet named Eric to life, it will help him find his way home.

“Eric is a dark and crazy journey into the heart of 1980s New York — and the good, bad, and ugly world of Vincent,” creator and writer Abi Morgan (The Hour) told Netflix’s Tudum.

The trailer itself is surprisingly forboding, following Vincent’s spiral into what could well be considered madness as he obsesses over Edgar’s Eric art, drinks too much, and begins crafting a real-life version of the creature. Set to a stripped-down version of ABBA’s “S.O.S.,” the clip is full of dark imagery, from street brawls and neon-lit nightclubs to Sullivan’s visions of Eric in his head. (And since Cumberbatch also voices the seven-foot-tall, blue puppet, that’s definitely not creepy at all.