Netflix’s smash hit, Stranger Things, is chock-full of references that pay tribute to the 80s, specifically, 80s horror. Since Season 1, the Duffer Brothers have been carefully curating these aspects into the show and even cast popular actors from the decade to take on leading roles. One of whom being Winona Ryder who had a prominent career in the 80s and 90s. Season 4, which was released in two parts earlier this year, introduced one of the biggest villains that the series has seen to date: Vecna. Stranger Things’ newest big bad is here to stay, and he has Freddy Krueger’s DNA all over him.
Stranger Things is one of the many shows on Netflix that blends the lines between mature content and kid-friendly horror. However, one thing that the Duffer Brothers get right every season is that the show has a great deal of heart, and the creators have a lot of love for the content they’re paying tribute to. In a series as epic as Stranger Things, it is important to make sure that the details are curated as unique ideas playing on those of the past.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Stephen King of it All
Netflix
Stranger Things’ creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have never been quiet about their love for Stephen King’s works. King was crowned the “King of Horror” after his long-standing success in pop culture and horror fiction. His first novel, Carrie was published in 1974, and a film adaptation followed just two years later. Carrie is the story of a 16-year-old girl with telekinetic powers. However, this isn’t the last time that King ventured into the world of telekinesis. In 1984, Firestarter was released featuring a young Drew Barrymore as the lead protagonist. Like Carrie, Charlie has the ability to influence the world around her with her mind, but the main difference is Charlie can start fires. Firestarter and Carrie were both huge influences in the character creation for Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown).
Despite the drawing board for Eleven being heavily influenced by two of King’s most infamous women characters, the plot is a product of the novel that produced horror’s most feared killer clown. From the very first season of the show, IT has been a guiding factor for the Duffer Brothers. IT’s story begins in the town of Dairy Maine when a young boy named Georgie goes missing. Stranger Things’ first season starts off the very same way, having Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) go missing after a night of Dungeons & Dragons with friends. The group of friends in season one hold a significant amount of similarities to the Losers Club from IT. All the bike riding, the bullies, and even the boy-girl ratio in the group are dynamics straight from the novel. In an interview with The New York Times, the Duffer Brothers even commented that they pitched the idea of Stranger Things using an old Stephen King book cover.
80s Thrills and Chills
21 Laps Entertainment
Since the beginning, Stranger Things has paid tribute to all things 80s, right down to the outfits. Ghostbusters Halloween costumes, Eleven dressed up like E.T, and posters referencing The Thing all help to reference relevant pop culture for the time. However, the Duffer Brothers pull from horror classics to drive the plot and storyline forward. In Season 1, Joyce Byers (played by Winona Ryder) uses a makeshift alphabet and Christmas lights to communicate with her son, who is trapped in what is referred to as The UpsideDown. This may seem familiar to fans of Tobe Hooper’s 1984 film Poltergeist. However, there is a moment when it is not Will who is communicating with his mother, and a figure emerges from the wall much like the Freddy Krueger figure that hovers above Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The show’s second season does a mix-up between Alien and Gremlins references. Despite Will having returned home, The Upside Down is very much alive and still has plenty of monsters to unleash. Dustin (played by Gaten Matarazzo) comes across an interesting looking polywog that he decides to keep as a pet. Much like Billy’s Gizmo in Gremlins, Dart the polywog starts out seemingly innocent until he grows and eats Dustin’s cat. It is later revealed that the questionable polywog was actually a baby demo-dog and holds a lot of similarity to the evil gremlins in the 1984 classic.
The long-awaited fourth season introduced the show’s biggest bad yet, and gave a long awaited backstory to the ever prevelant Mindflayer. Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) is the mastermind behind Stranger Things’ Upside Down, and holds a connection to Eleven. Like Freddy Krueger, Vecna attacks his victims when they are in an altered-mind state. However, like King’s infamous killer clown, Pennywise, Vecna makes his victims float and knows all of their darkest fears and memories. Vecna’s makeup alone, easily makes him the series’ best villian, having the use of almost all practical effects. However, unlike the gooey monsters of past seasons and the Mindflayer, Vecna communicates with his prey before ending their lives.
John Carpenter and 70s Classics
While the third season of Stranger Things focuses heavily on the Starcourt Mall and the whitty Scoops Ahoy banter, one of the darker elements of season four relys heavily on Billy Hargrove (played by Dacre Montgomery). On his way from a failed date with Mike’s mom, Billy finds himself at an abandoned warehouse. While attempting to flee the scene, Billy is dragged back into the doors and possessed by the Mindflayer from The Upside Down. Not long after Billy is “taken,” he begins to lure other Hawkins residents to become a part of his army. The plot is heavily based on 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is a remake of a 1956 film. Both versions of the film focus on an invisible antagonist that takes over human bodies and consumes them. Although it is not confirmed, it can be argued that the Duffer Brothers also drew reference from a lesser known 80s horror film called Night of the Creeps, whose premise is similar to that of Invasion of the Body Snatchers but with an interesting catch. The humans in Night of the Creeps get taken over by a slug-like creature that rockets itself into the mouth of the victims. This similarity is much closer to the polywog creatures from the Duffer’s Upside Down.
Stranger Things is set in the 80s for a wide variety of reasons. However, one of the most pressing is the heavy influence that 70s horror had on the horror creations of the 1980s. John Carpenter’s classic, Halloween can be argued as one of the greatest horror films ever made, and the simplicity of its plot has been used as formula for decades. The mask alone has been referenced in the series twice, once when Max (played by Saddie Sink) greets the gang trick-or-treating and then again to conceal the identity of Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn). Season four’s resurgence of the Michael Myers mask is no mistake, and holds a key significance to season’s finale.
After being shot by Nancy (played by Natalia Dyer) multiple times, Vecna falls out of a second story window. However, when the gang goes down to finish him off, Vecna, much like Myers at the end of Halloween, is nowhere to be found. Little is known about the show’s final season, however, the Duffer Brothers claimed that the script made Netflix execs cry. Traces of horror are sprinkled throughout each season of Stranger Things, and the show holds the ability to create a darkness like that of a Stephen King work and the child-like wonder of a Steven Spierlberg production.
