There’s no shortage of teen survival stories out there: Yellowjackets, The Wilds, and The Society all came out in just the last few years. But in all of them, the survival efforts were a desperate last resort born from a plane crash, supernatural elements, or, in the case of Yellowjackets, possibly both. It’s unusual, to say the least, to see a survival story where the main character chooses to struggle against the brutality of nature because it’s more desirable to them than their normal life.

But voluntary survival isn’t any less terrifying, and a new Netflix series shows how “finding yourself” can mean the most beautiful moments and the most dangerous threats can come only seconds apart.

Penelope, created by Mel Eslyn and Mark Duplass, is inspired by the feeling everyone’s had at least once in their life, especially if they spend all day in front of a screen: what if you just left everything behind and walked into the woods? Penelope (Megan Stott) is a 16-year-old girl who dances at a silent rave, gets friendly reminders from her mom about SAT prep, and otherwise seems to live a mundane, comfortable life, but one day she takes an early morning walk and decides to just not come back.

The long-awaited Adult Swim adaptation of Uzumaki, the horror manga by Junji Ito, has fans twisting themselves into knots in anticipation. While Ito’s most iconic work has been adapted before, the prospect of an achingly detailed recreation of his immersive drawings via the medium of animation just hits differently.

Uzumaki imagines a seemingly normal Japanese town that becomes engulfed in spirals. These simple shapes turn sinister, whether it’s a teenage girl’s out-of-control curly hair, boys turning into slimy snails, or whirlpools that consume all who fall into them. One of the most mundane parts of life, a naturally occurring shape you can find practically everywhere, becomes a hellish curse that engulfs all who fall into its spin. The four-part series (critics received only the first part before the premiere) is an achingly faithful recreation of the manga, panel-for-panel in most scenes, with Ito’s hyper-detailed art style given a kind of uncanny fluidity through movement. The combination of hand-drawn animation, CGI, and motion capture gives Uzumaki a decidedly unreal sensation, as though everyone moves just a little too smoothly to be truly human.