Everything to Know About My Sad Dead: Netflix’s upcoming miniseries My Sad Dead, directed by Pablo Larraín, the mind behind Maria and El Conde, is a four-episode series that takes inspiration from the unsettling universe of Argentine author Mariana Enríquez. The premise does not exactly give the kind of ghost story where you can simply watch on the lights and pretend everything is fine.
After the San Sebastián International Film Festival premiere, the miniseries is set to release on Netflix on September 24, 2026. The festival announced that My Sad Dead will be part of the Official Selection competition at its 74th edition. Here is everything to know about the series before its Netflix release.
Everything to Know About My Sad Dead: What Is It About?
At the centre of My Sad Dead is Ema, a recently retired doctor who has an ability to see the dead. Unusual and deeply inconvenient!
Seeing the ghosts is not necessarily the biggest problem in her life. Ema is already trying to process the death of her mother while carrying unresolved matters of her own. Things turn stranger when her niece arrives, and three teenagers are murdered in Piedrabuena, a suburban neighbourhood marked by violence. Then the boundary between the living and the dead begins to crack.
Netflix writes, “What had been Ema’s burden until then begins to spread throughout the neighbourhood: the dead start to make themselves present, and no one will be able to escape the sound of their own ghosts”.
Basically, imagine grief refusing to remain personal and taking shape as an unsettling phenomenon, and that is perhaps where My Sad Dead gets particularly interesting, as ghosts here do not seem to exist merely to provide the jump scares. They become a part of the neighbourhood, carrying violence and pain; the dead are no longer just memories belonging to individual people, becoming presences that everyone has to confront.
Series Is Based on Mariana Enríquez’s Stories
One of the reasons why the series stands out is because of its literary source material. The series is based on Mariana Enríquez’s short story My Sad Dead, while also weaving in passages and characters from her other works, including Julie and A Sunny Place for Shady People.
The combination of the literary works itself says quite a lot about the kind of darkness we might be getting into. Enríquez’s work often places the unsettling elements inside recognisable social realities rather than treating horror as something completely different from ordinary life. The approach seems particularly fitting, set in Piedrabuena, where violence and grief exist before the story lingers.
My Sad Dead Cast
The series features an ensemble cast led by Mercedes Morán, Dolores Fonzi, Alejandra Flechner, and Carolina Álvarez.
The cast list also includes Carlos Portaluppi, Germán de Silva, and Chilean actress Luz Jiménez. Mercedes Morán leads the story as Ema, the retired doctor at the centre.
Who Directed My Sad Dead?
My Sad Dead is directed by Pablo Larraín, a Chilean filmmaker known for films like Maria and El Conde. Larraín is also a producer of the series with Juan de Dios Larraín and Ángela Poblete. The production comes from Fabula, with Álvaro Cabello and Cristián Donoso as executive producers.
Rodrigo Bazaes manages design while Sergio Armstrong serves as director of photography.
When Will My Sad Dead Release?
My Sad Dead will release on Netflix on September 24, 2026, as a four-episode miniseries.
Before its Netflix release, the series was presented at the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival.
What Makes My Sad Dead Interesting?
There is something unsettling about the idea of ghosts spreading across the neighbourhood. Ema’s ability begins as something personal: she sees the dead, carries the burden, and is dealing with the death of her mother, but suddenly the problem is no longer just hers.
My Sad Dead appears to be playing in the uncomfortable space where horror becomes a language for everything people would leave buried and that might perhaps be what makes the series intriguing than a straightforward supernatural mystery.
With Pablo Larraín directing, Mariana Enríquez’s stories forming the literary spine and a cast led by Mercedes Morán, My Sad Dead is shaping up as a four-episode series and horror, grief, violence, family and a neighbourhood with supernatural elements seem to form its core.
My Sad Dead releases on Netflix on September 24, 2026.
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