Stranger Things trailer: supernatural forces torment Winona Ryder

Following a critically-acclaimed performance in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, Winona Ryder is making a return to TV in a big way, leading the upcoming Netflix thriller Stranger Things. The just-released trailer for the project gives fans a glimpse of the actress’ return to top dramatic form.

The series is set in small-town Indiana in the 1980s, where a mother, Joyce Byers (Ryder), searches for her missing son after he disappears under mysterious circumstances. She enlists the help of local authorities in her quest to locate the boy, though she uncovers a series of government experiments and supernatural forces along the way.

“Ninety-nine out of 100 times a kid goes missing, the kid is with a parent or relative” David Harbour, playing a police officer, tells Ryder in the trailer. “Well, what about the other time? You said 99 out of 100. What about the other time? The one?” she responds. Accompanied by a haunting electronic score, the clip goes on to show various characters searching for the lost boy, a team of ominous-looking people navigating through a darkened building in hazmat suits, and a van that flips into the air after colliding with an invisible (presumably supernatural) force.

Stranger Things will span eight episodes. Netflix said, via press release, the series functions as a “love letter to the ubiquitous cult classics” of the 80s. Joining Ryder and Harbour among the cast are& Finn Wolfhard, Millie Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin.

“It’s all about trying something new,” 44-year old Ryder previously told PEOPLE of taking on her first leading role on a TV series. “This is a genre that I enjoy watching, but haven’t necessarily explored before, which drew me to the project… I think the audience will love the nostalgic voyage back in time before technology had completely took over. Kids were asked to put their toys away at dinner – not their phones. Yet, there were astronauts were going to space and government conspiracies loomed. It was just such a different world back then.”

Watch the new trailer for Stranger Things in the video above. The series premieres July 15 on Netflix.