Without a doubt, Stranger Things is one of the most popular shows of recent years, and one of the most iconic Netflix series. As a matter of fact, its fourth season held an audience record on the platform until Wednesday overtook it earlier this month. This creation of the Duffer Brothers, which is also directed and produced by them, alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, has been making waves since its premiere back in 2016, and, to this day, keeps building a fan base worldwide. Stranger Things is set in the 1980s, in Hawkins, Indiana, a small town that is suddenly caught up in a series of odd supernatural events triggered by secret government experiments that come to light after Will Byers’ sudden disappearance.
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Stranger Things stars a terrific ensemble cast that includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp, to name just a handful of actors. Over the course of its seasons, other brilliant performers joined the cast, such as Sean Astin, Maya Hawke, and Sadie Sink. Both the actors and the overall show were widely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, garnering tons of nominations and awards over the years. From the very beginning, Stranger Things proved to be a sensation with audiences, and spawned hundreds of fan theories seeking to explain the show’s shocking events. Still, its fourth season, released last May, exponentially boosted these theories, leaving audiences eagerly awaiting the show’s fifth and final season.
The Duffer Brothers stated in many interviews that, in order to create the show, they drew inspiration from the 80s pop culture, horror movies and many other elements that shaped their childhood and teenage years. But how real are the events that torment Hawkins and its residents?
An 80s Horror-influenced Show
Netflix
An in-depth analysis of each Stranger Things episode will probably reveal dozens of references to 80s pop culture all over the place: from the sets to the characters’ costumes, all the way to the script itself. Even the tiniest details are designed to mimic different aspects of the decade, a fact that drove fans wild. Yet, there is something that deeply shaped the show: the films of that decade, especially horror movies. In many ways, the Duffer Brothers created Stranger Things as a tribute to their favorite directors and cinematic and literary classics, blending elements from artists such as Steven Spielberg, David Lynch and Stephen King, among others.
While there are many references to movies and books in the story, Stranger Things is strongly marked by two cinematic classics: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The first one inspired, in a way, Eleven’s story, a lost girl who is different from the other kids, and how she was saved by a group of local children. The latter, on the other hand, served as inspiration to create the different creatures that haunted Hawkins throughout the seasons who, just like Freddy Krueger, targeted their victims through their subconscious and used their weaknesses against them, blurring the line that separates the different realities, or in this case, Hawkins from the Upside Down. In fact, in the fourth season of the show, the Duffer Brothers cast Robert Englund, the actor who portrayed Freddy Krueger himself. Other horror films that influenced these creatures’ creation and the story are Alien, IT and Halloween, but there are also references to classics from other genres, such as The Breakfast Club, Ghostbusters and Gremlins, among others.
Is Stranger Things Actually Based on a True Story?
When creating Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers had a major goal in mind: that all supernatural elements of the story should have, in one way or another, a scientific explanation. This is why they built the story around two elements: the MKUltra project and the conspiracy theory known as “The Montauk Project.” The first one was a secret operation designed and conducted by the CIA that ran from 1953 to 1973. It subjected a lot of people to experiments involving different therapies, drugs, and both physical and mental abuse, among other things, in an attempt to develop mind-control techniques to use against enemies in the Cold War. This operation, quite similar to the one carried out in Dr. Brenner’s lab in Stranger Things, resulted in a large number of deaths, and while most of its records were destroyed, the remaining ones became public in July 2001.
The Montauk Project, on the other hand, is a real-life conspiracy that became very popular over the years, that claims that the US government conducted secret experiments in Montauk, New York, in order to develop psychological warfare techniques, weapons, and to investigate topics such as time travel. Some of the experiments in this program were allegedly conducted on children and involved mind control, as with Eleven in the show. This conspiracy theory arose from Preston Nichols and Peter Moon’s book Montauk Project: Experiments In Time. In fact, the Duffer Brothers were so heavily influenced by this theory that Stranger Things was initially titled Montauk.
Satanic Panic: The Story That Inspired Eddie Munson’s Character
In Stranger Things’ fourth season, the Duffer Brothers brought another real event into the story: the Satanic Panic, a conspiracy movement that tarnished for decades the image of role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, video games and rock bands, considered “devil’s music” by some Christian groups and leaders. It was believed that these elements promoted witchcraft, crime and violence among children and young people in the 80s and 90s. Within this context, they introduced Eddie Munson, who quickly emerged as one of the most beloved characters in the entire series.
This character’s story draws inspiration from a group of teenagers known as the West Memphis Three, and particularly, from one of them: Damien Echols. These young men were wrongly accused of murdering three children in a satanic sacrifice and their story was portrayed in the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Like these youngsters, Eddie was wrongly accused of the murders that haunted Hawkins with no real evidence, and had he not died fighting in the Upside Down, he would have been wrongfully imprisoned for them.
