Dhar Mann Studios has just unveiled the trailer for a brand new Halloween series, Secrets of the Shadowswhich is set to premiere at the Dr Mann Studios Youtube channel on October 21. Dhar Mann, who has amassed over 120 million followers across platforms, will surprise fans with a spooky set of gear thanks to the new anthology project. With 9 daily episodes leading up to a grand Halloween finale, Secrets of the Shadows Combines supernatural thrills with Mann’s signature heartfelt messages for a family-friendly yet terrifying shared universe.
Describes man himself as similar to Goosebumps or “Are you afraid of the dark? Meet your husband.” Secrets of the Shadows follows in the footsteps of the studio’s previous Christmas specials on YouTube (which reached more than 40 million combined views) but with a whole new holiday. The series introduces a world filled with vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, ghosts and more that offers many mysteries for viewers to unravel while still learning valuable lessons about leading with compassion and kindness.
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Screen Rant had the opportunity to check out the first trailer for Secrets of the Shadows and interviewed Dhar Mann himself about the origins of Dhar Mann Studios and how the latest series is a new twist on his brand’s classic mission statement. The content creator also teased the familiar YouTube faces that will appear in the episodes, the climactic finale, and the brand new set designs and visual effects.
Secrets of the Shadows is a shared universe unlike anything Dhar Mann Studios has done before
“Think along the lines of Goosebumps or are you afraid of the dark? Meet the man.”
Screen Rant: What is most exciting to you about Secrets of the ShadowsAnd what inspired this new direction in content for you?
Dhar Mann: I’m really excited about the launch of Secrets of the Shadows, which is a suspenseful, spooky anthology series that’s still perfect for the whole family to watch. I think the best way to describe it is to think along the lines of goosebumps or are you afraid of the dark? Hit Dhar Man. And by that, I mean it still has the heartwarming, inspirational messages that our fans love and have come to expect from Dhar Mann Studios.
The series premieres on October 21st, and will have daily episodes every weekday going all the way to Halloween. It’s full of all the traditional horror favorites: vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts. But what makes it really special for us is that each story still delivers a meaningful takeaway. As you know, we’ve always been about creating content that’s not only entertaining, but uplifting, and Secrets of the Shadows is no different. It’s a brand new genre for us to explore, but the core of it remains true to our mission of inspiring people and making a positive impact.
Screen Rant: I was going to ask you about the comparison to Goosebumps. What would you say is the chain of the spooky story in these episodes? You mentioned many supernatural creatures. Are we going to dive into sci-fi or body horror if it could be heartwarming?
Dhar Mann: It’s still family-friendly, but it’s right on the line of scary enough to make it feel like it fits into the horror genre. With the vampires and witches and werewolves and ghosts, everything centered around supernatural elements. Each episode is standalone, so there are brand new characters and storylines each time, but it’s connected by this larger supernatural universe, which we’ve never explored in this fashion before. It’s something really new, and I think it’s going to be really exciting for existing fans.
Also, one of the goals is to attract a new audience that is interested in this type of content. It’s amazing just to see the proliferation of horror content on YouTube, especially with this resurgence, and we’re really excited to dip our toes into it.
Secrets of the Shadows star Top YouTubers and familiar friends to Dhar Mann Studios
“The last episode is definitely a special twist that you won’t expect.”
Screen Rant: I’ve read that it will culminate in a jaw-dropping finale on Halloween, which is really exciting. Can you tease something about the shared universe in which the stories take place and how they are connected?
Dhar Man: Oh. First, I will say that each episode features many top YouTubers. I’m really, really excited about some of the special guests we have that the audience members will definitely see and recognize – even when they’re in their full zombie makeup or looking like ghosts or witches.
But I would say the final episode is definitely a special twist that you won’t expect. I’m just worried that if I give anything away, it will ruin the excitement, so I think I’ll leave it there.
Screen Rant: How to draw the top YouTubers and familiar faces? What made them want to jump on this particular project, and how much of Dhar Mann Studios’ stable of actors will we see?
Dhar Mann: To be a successful content creator, you have to start by finding your niche and developing an audience and a community, and then organically build relationships with other creators, whether it’s them reaching you or you reaching them. When you’re a smaller creator, it’s much harder. You send a lot of messages, and maybe one in 10 or one in 50 people respond. But it’s about persistence.
One of the things that I think has made Dhar Mann Studios successful is that we are very collaborative. We support the creator community because we’ve been working with creators pretty much since the beginning. We are also a hub with various resources to offer creators, such as helping them reuse their content, helping them with post-production or using our sets. I think the more collaborative you can be in trying to provide value for others—in any aspect of your life, not just in creative collaborations, but also in friendships and finding mentors for work opportunities—it’s much easier to ask for something in return. .
These are all people with whom we have built long relationships. We’ve done a lot of projects together, so it’s a lot easier for me to pick up the phone and say, “Hey, I need you to be on this series.” And they are all very excited about it too. It’s definitely something like that stems from friendship first.
Screen Rant: You talked about repurposing content. Is there anything you’ve had to recreate to fit into the world because you’re going for the family-friendly vibe? Because with horror, you can always be a little more mature.
Dhar Man: Yes, in a way. For us, going into horror is primarily about expanding our audience. It’s about broadening our content diversity and also continuing our mission of ​​spreading positivity through this new genre, so we consistently put out holiday-themed content every year. In this sense, this is not something new for us. For example, our Christmas specials, which have reached over 40 million views on YouTube, are released every year. But depending on how it goes, it could also be a permanent staple for our studio to continue making spooky content even outside of Halloween.
At the end of the day, for us, it’s all about engaging our audience in a new and exciting way and staying true to our core values ​​of spreading positivity and inspiration – whether that’s through drama, action, comedy, romance or now horror . I’m so excited for everyone to see Secrets of the Shadows and see the unexpected twists and turns we’ve crafted for them.
We’ve taken a whole new approach to how we set decks and do makeup and cast. The actors are mainly ones you have never seen before in any of our videos, and you won’t be able to recognize many of the actors even if you watch a lot of our videos because the setup and art teams have such a Amazing work. I have glimpses of the makeup and the special effects, and this is definitely our content on steroids. As similar as it is in the sense of inspiration, family-friendly and brand-safe, it is different in the sense that everything is much more elevated and consistent with other horror elements.
Dhar Mann recalls his humble YouTuber origins and how they shaped his mission
“When I was 30 years old, I celebrated my birthday at the lowest point of my life.”
Screen Rant: Going back to your roots of inspirational, heartwarming, family-oriented content, what first made you want to turn this into your niche? Where did the inspiration come from?
Dhar Man: When I was 30 years old, I celebrated my birthday at the lowest point of my life where I was literally on the verge of being kicked out of my apartment because I couldn’t afford it anymore. I was unemployed, I was going through a bad breakup, and I had all these family issues going on. This was the lowest point I’ve ever been on a milestone birthday where most people want to feel like they made it to a special place.
The only thing that helped me through the dark times in my life was reading stories of successful people in the world who were able to overcome all the challenges they experienced in life and were so close to failure or had so many failures and still succeeded .
As time went on, I climbed out of that depression I was in, and I started making money and getting back on my feet. I started doing well, but something inside of me couldn’t help but think of the person who was there experiencing the types of feelings I had when I turned 30. I knew I wanted to help inspire that person; To let them know that better days are ahead, and what they are going through, they will get through it.
I actually started on my couch in the living room, just talking to the camera and trying to give people advice to live by: “Don’t give up on your dreams and things will work out in the end if you keep going.” Slowly but surely, I kept learning how to put out more and more videos. And then at some point, it turned into me writing screenplays on napkins and asking friends and family to be actors in my videos, but we still shot everything in my kitchen. It started with just a simple mission to help people become the best versions of themselves by spreading inspiration and positivity, and that’s at the heart of everything we do.
Screen Rant: I love that. Finally, is there anything else you want fans and new potential viewers to know about this project?
Dhar Mann: The series premiered on October 21. As I mentioned, new episodes will be dropping every day until Halloween. As you can see in the trailer, it is definitely something that is very exciting and you will be hooked on. I can’t wait for the audience to give us their feedback and share their experiences!
Source: Screen Rant Plus