The Stranger Things Cast Lists Movies That Shaped Season 4

Nostalgia is burned in each level of Strange things. In the first season, it’s impossible not to notice how each group – children, teenagers, and adults – are all trapped in a different 1980s horror plot only for all three groups to merge into one. a great battle.

Since then, creators Matt and Ross Duffer have worn their influence up their sleeves. But the cast of Strange things says twin creators have also begun to write to their own strengths.

“We were never really given any homework, because I think at this point the Duffers know us very well,” Finn Wolfhard said during a roundtable with Strange things cast. “I think they’re going to have to throw us a giant curved sphere so we can do some different things.”

That said, the cast has cited several influences on season 4. Talked to Polygon at a press release before Stranger Things 4they came up with movies that the Duffer brothers discussed with the cast while they were working on the fourth installment.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Image: Video Home New Line

Perhaps the most obvious of all the horror movies mentioned, Wes Craven’s 1984 classic was “definitely discussed,” according to Natalia Dyer, who played Nancy on the show. Strange things.

“They love the genre and all the stories they pull from it,” says Dyer. “I think the brothers are quite open to their references and ideas.”

The exact nature of the reference is best to be seen; suffice it to say that the show carried its horror roots towards the end of the first episode. But the most obvious connection is no secret: Robert EnglundFreddy Krueger originally from A Nightmare on Elm Streetplays Victor Creel, “a disordered and terrifying man who is incarcerated in a mental hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s.”

But Strange things not just pulled from the first Elm Street movie. There are also quite a few references Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Vecna ​​has her own version of Freddy’s Nightmare Church in Dream World, and Eleven and her superpowers have a lot in common with Alice, one of the main characters of the series. Dream Master.

Carrie

Image: Warner Bros.

The Duffer Brothers often talk about inspiration Carrie for them when it comes to Eleven.

In one video for Wired from 2019, the couple said, “Of course, you have a high school girl with this amazing strength and amazing ability, and we always watch how King handles that when we talk about Eleven. Thought she had these amazing abilities, but is she dangerous in the end? ”

This season, however, the Duffers play with this idea a little more than usual, almost putting us in reverse. Carrie story. Instead of a bullied girl discovering her powers, Eleven begins the season as a bullied girl who has just lost the powers that once protected her.

Indiana Jones

Image: Paramount Home Entertainment

In other parts of the world Stranger Things 4, Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett Gelman) are walking behind the Iron Curtain to rescue Sheriff Jim Hopper. That storyline spawned several action-adventure movies that departed from Strange things‘horror influence.

Gelman told Polygon during a virtual studio visit last year, “Very much like Indiana Jones to me, describing the character’s upcoming installment. “The way it consistently balances the tension of adventure with humour.”

The Empire Strikes Back

Image: Lucasfilm

While season 3 of Strange things begins with a more upbeat tone change than season 2, Stranger Things 4 promises to go into the dark than what the series has ever experienced before. At the end of season 3, with the (supposedly) deaths of loved ones and enemies alike, the Duffer brothers turned to one of the most popular sci-fi movie sequels for their inspiration. excited.

“We talked a lot about The Empire Strikes Backit was – maybe not now – but for a long time it was the darkest movie in Star Wars,” said series creator Matt Duffer in an interview with IGN. “We talked a lot about that and wanted to capture that tone.”

Fear Street: 1978

Image: Netflix

While this isn’t an obvious point of reference for Duffers – it was produced relatively concurrently with season 4’s production – the overall cast of Sadie Sink (Max in Strange things and Ziggy in 1978) at least helped the actress get some space for the new season. Especially considering that Max has gotten over the spiral, emotionally and physically, in Stranger Things 4.

“I think the physicality of Fear Street really helped — just got you comfortable with a lot of stunt work and stuff in that field,” says Sink.

Movie stoner

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

While Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and his new friend Argyle (Eduardo Franco) are no longer immune to the horrors of Stranger Things 4 than their teammates, it’s clear that both are more concerned with making it easy to get things done wherever they can – namely by going high. Both put some fun comedy into a bit of dark horror.

Heaton and Franco say Duffers quoted Quick Time at Ridgemont High as an influence on the arc of the characters in this season. But none of them have seen it. Instead, they draw more from the cultural consciousness of the stoneworkers over the years.

“We don’t sit down and say, ‘Yo, let’s see this and, let’s try and copy it.’ But I think culturally, you already know those movies,” Heaton said. For him, that means drawing from more than just ’80s classics and including things like Pineapple Express and Seth Rogen wider film. With that said, Heaton and Franco will find their dynamics, noting that “what we find funny during the day” tends to affect their performance.

Amores Perros

Image: Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment

This is probably the most concrete example provided by Strange things cast. Wolfhard notes that while it’s not hard for them to see anything specific, the Duffers did play a particular scene from Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first film, Amores Perros.

“There is a scene in the car [in episode 5] where we’re all together and it’s very stressful. And the Duffer brothers really wanted me to see this movie by Iñárritu,” said Wolfhard. “There is a scene […] that is very similar to [Agent] The scene of the accident in the back of the truck. […] It’s really chaotic and bloody – and obviously they took a lot of inspiration from the movie.”

Part 1 of Stranger Things 4 drops on Netflix on May 27.