What Is an Eldritch Terror? The Next ‘Sabrina’ Big Bad, Explained

Just when you thought Chilling Adventures of Sabrina couldn’t get crazier, here comes Part 3 in all of its horrific glory. The new Sabrina half-season expands the show’s mythology in terrifying ways, introducing a whole host of pagan deities while alluding to the next nightmare that will soon plague Greendale: the eldritch terrors.

But what is an eldritch terror and what trouble does it entail for Sabrina and the Order of Hecate? We don’t know much just yet, but what we do know is downright troubling. The Spellmans need to watch out.

What do we know about the eldritch terrors?

We don’t know a lot about Sabrina’s next big adversary, but we do know that the show’s been building to this for a minute. Specifically, Chapter 15 from last year has a big nod towards the events unfolding right now. In that episode, the Spellmans and their friends visit a fortuneteller one by one who gives them warnings of dire events to come. In Harvey’s fortune, he leaves Greendale to study at the Arkham Colony of the Arts. In this vision of a possible future, Harvey’s roommate Howard is tormented by visions of beings from another realm, visions that drive him to paint the horrors onto canvas. He calls the beings “harbingers of the void” and “old ones” as well as “demons” and “gods.” The visions eventually drive him to hang himself, leaving Harvey alone to inspect their room. He opens the door and peers into an endless void filled to the brim with dread.

But that’s just a fortune! That’s not really happening, is it? After all, Harvey hasn’t left Greendale! Turns out, nope, those harbingers of the void have also been calling out to Father Blackwood.

What is Father Blackwood’s connection to the eldritch terror?

Prudence and Ambrose track Blackwood down to Loch Ness in Scotland in Chapter 22, where they crash one of his rituals. He summons a monster identified as the Deep One who gives Blackwood an egg. Blackwood tells Prudence and Ambrose that he’s spent 15 years in a time bubble purifying himself and learning to contain dangerous magicks. Why? Because with Hell leaderless, the old ones are returning to claim the Earth and then, he warns, come “the eldritch terrors.”

Part 3 ends in Chapter 28 with Blackwood finally getting to complete a summoning ritual, as he calls upon the eldritch terrors in the name of the Void. He stabs the egg and summons a shrieking, unseen beast (and a whole helluva lot of lightning). We don’t know what Blackwood called forth. We only know that, as he tells Agatha, they birthed something that will bring about “the end of all things.”

What are eldritch terrors?

First of all, “eldritch” is an adjective that means weird, sinister, or ghostly. So, apt. Eldritch terrors are themselves a prominent part of sci-fi and fantasy fiction, so numerous that they even have their own TV Tropes page. They’re described as otherworldly beings so powerful and terrifying that they are beyond human comprehension. Reality bends to their will and minds are driven mad just by coming into the briefest contact with them. They are unknowable and unstoppable.

The originator of this specific strain of fictional monster is widely credited as H.P. Lovecraft, so much so that eldritch monsters are often called Lovecraftian. The most recognized eldritch, Lovecraftian monstrosity is Cthulhu, an immensely powerful cosmic being with octopus and dragon characteristics. Lovecraft also created a canon of elder gods, the Great Old Ones (sound familiar, Sabrina fans?).

CAOS is far from the first show to dig into terrors of the eldritch variety. Buffy had the Hellmouth, Lost had the Black Smoke, Stranger Things has the Mind Flayer—seriously, there are a lot of examples. Now Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is jumping into the eldritch fray and introducing its own twisted take on this terrible mythos.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4 has not been given a release date yet, but we’ve got a hunch as to when it will come out.

Stream Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix