For more than 30 years, Don Mancini has been chilling and thrilling audiences with his creation, Chucky, a doll possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who’s slashed his way through everything from apartment buildings to military schools and even a psychiatric hospital. Now he’s poised to bring his iconic character home with the new Chucky series. 

In the run-up to the release, Syfy has released a new promo featuring the out creator, writer, and director offering hints on what audiences have in store for them in the first season. He also promises that along with the screams, he hopes to elicit plenty of tears — because at the heart of this series is a queer coming-of-age love story.

“People will laugh and they will scream in the ways that they expect but I also hope to make people cry,” Mancini says in the video. “We explore a very sweet teen gay romance that I think people might be surprised at the depth of it, and I think it has a whiff of real-life pain, scenes from my own life replayed a young gay anxious kid with issues,” he explained. “Longstanding fans will of course find plenty of what they’ve come to love, but new fans are going to find a surprisingly rich story, with complex characters.”

In the upcoming series, Chucky’s latest reign of terror begins after the doll turns up at a yard sale in a small town. “An idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets,” the first season’s synopsis reads. “Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies — and allies — from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.”

Chucky premieres October 12 on Syfy and USA. Watch the featurette video below: