Dhar Mann Studios has just unveiled the trailer for a brand-new Halloween series,Secrets of the Shadows, which is set to premiere on the Dhar Mann StudiosYouTubechannel on October 21. Dhar Mann, who has amassed over 120M followers across platforms, will surprise fans with a spooky change of pace thanks to the new anthology project. With 9 daily episodes leading up to a grand Halloween finale,Secrets of the Shadowscombines supernatural thrills with Mann’s signature heartfelt messages for a family-friendly yet frightening shared universe.
Described by Mann himself as similar toGoosebumpsor “Are You Afraid of the Dark?meets Dhar Mann,“Secrets of the Shadowsfollows in the footsteps of the studio’s previous Christmas specials on YouTube (which have reached more than 40M combined views) but with a whole new holiday. The series introduces a world filled with vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, ghosts, and more that offers plenty of mysteries for viewers to unravel while still teaching valuable lessons about leading with compassion and kindness.
10 Scariest Goosebumps Books I’m Still Thinking About As An Adult
Despite reading them at such an early age, some of the Goosebumps books have stuck in my memory as being particularly scary, even if I was just a kid.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to check out the first trailer forSecrets of the Shadowsand interviewed Dhar Mann himself about the origins of Dhar Mann Studios and how the latest series is a new twist on the classic mission statement of his brand. The content creator also teased thefamiliar YouTube faces who will appearin 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? meets Dhar Mann.”
Screen Rant: What is most exciting to you aboutSecrets of the Shadows, and 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? meets Dhar Mann. And by that, I mean that it still has the heartwarming, inspirational messages that our fans love and have come to expect from Dhar Mann Studios.
The series premiers on October 21st, and it’s going to have daily episodes every weekday that go all the way to Halloween. It’s full of all the traditional horror favorites: vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts. But what makes it really special to us is that each story still delivers a meaningful takeaway. As you know, we’ve always been about creating content that is not just entertaining, but is also uplifting, and Secrets of the Shadows is no different. It’s a brand new genre for us to explore, but the heart of it remains true to our mission of inspiring people and making a positive impact.
Screen Rant: I was going to ask you aboutthe comparison toGoosebumps. What would you say is the range of the spooky storytelling in these episodes? You’ve mentioned lots of supernatural creatures. Are we going into any diving into sci-fi or body horror, if that can 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 in the horror genre. With the vampires and witches and werewolves and ghosts, it’s all centered around supernatural elements. Each episode is standalone, so it’s brand new characters and storylines each time, but it’s connected by this larger supernatural universe, which we’ve never explored in that fashion before. That’s something really new, and I think it’ll be really exciting for existing fans.
Also, one of the goals is to draw in a new audience who is interested in this type of content. It is amazing just seeing the spread of horror content on YouTube, especially as it’s making this resurgence, and we’re really excited to be dipping our toes into it.
Secrets Of The Shadows Stars Top YouTubers & Familiar Friends To Dhar Mann Studios
“The final 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 anything about the shared universe in which these stories are taking place and how they’re each connected?
Dhar Mann: Yeah, absolutely. First off, I will say that each episode features many top YouTubers. I’m really, really excited about some of the special guests that we have that for sure audience members are going to see and recognize - even when they’re in their full zombie makeup or look 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 any away, it’s going to ruin the excitement, so I think I’ll leave it there.
Screen Rant: How do you draw in these top YouTubers and familiar faces? What made them want to jump on board this specific project, and how much of the stable of Dhar Mann Studios actors will we see?
Dhar Mann: Being a successful content creator, you have to start with finding your niche and developing an audience and a community, and then organically building relationships with other creators, whether that’s them reaching out to you or you reaching out to them. When you’re a smaller creator, it’s a lot tougher. You’re sending lots of messages, and maybe one out of 10 or one out of 50 people respond. But it’s about persistence.
One of the things that I think has made Dhar Mann Studios successful is that we’re very collaborative. We’re very supportive of the creator community because we have been working with creators pretty much since the very beginning. We’re also a hub with various resources to offer creators, such as helping them repurpose 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 creator collaborations, but also in friendships and finding mentors for job opportunities - it’s much easier to ask for something in return.
These are all folks that we’ve built long relationships with. We’ve done a lot of projects together, and so it becomes a lot simpler for me to pick up the phone and say, “Hey, I need you to be in this series.” And they were all very excited about it too. It’s definitely something like that stems from friendship first.
Screen Rant: You spoke about repurposing content. Is there anything that you had to reshape to fit into this world given the family-friendly vibe that you’re going for? Because with horror, you’re able to always veer a little more mature.
Dhar Mann: Yeah, absolutely. For us, going into horror is first 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’ve consistently been putting out holiday-themed content each year. In that sense, this is not anything new for us. For instance, our Christmas specials, which have reached over 40 million views on YouTube, have been released every year. But depending on how this goes, it may also be a permanent staple for our studio to continue to do 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 while 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 watch Secrets of the Shadows and see the unexpected twists and turns that we’ve crafted for them.
We did take a brand new approach to how we set dec and do makeup and cast. The actors are mainly ones that you’ve 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 set dec and art teams did such an amazing job. I’ve got glimpses of the makeup and the special effects, and it’s definitely our content on steroids. As similar as it is in the sense of being inspirational, family-friendly, and brand-safe, it’s different in the sense that everything is much more elevated and consistent with other horror elements.
Dhar Mann Recalls His Humble YouTuber Origins & 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 that into your niche? Where did that inspiration come from?
Dhar Mann: 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 could not afford it anymore. I was jobless, I was going through a bad breakup, and I had all these family issues that were happening. It was the lowest point that I had ever been at on a milestone birthday where most people want to feel like they’ve made it to some special place.
The only thing that helped me through that dark period in my life was reading stories of successful people in the world who were able to overcome all of the challenges that they experienced in life and got so close to failure or had so many failures and still succeeded.
As time went on, I climbed out of that depression that I was in, and I started making money and getting back on my feet. I started doing well, but something inside of me could not help but think of the person who was out there experiencing the types of feelings that I did when I turned 30. I knew I wanted to help inspire that person; to let them know that better days were ahead, and that whatever they were going through, they were going to get through that.
I actually started on my living room couch just talking to the camera and trying to give people life advice: “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 as I 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 core 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 premieres on October 21. As I mentioned, new episodes will be dropping every single day all the way up until Halloween. As you see in the trailer, it’s definitely something that is very exciting and that you’re going to be hooked on. I can’t wait for the audience to give us their feedback and share their experiences!
Secrets of the Shadowswill launch on October 21 throughDhar Mann Studios' YouTube channel, dropping new episodes every weekday and culminating in a show-stopping finale on Halloween.
