Stranger Things: The Horror Influences In Season 4 Are A Good Move For The Series

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The following contains spoilers for Season 4 of Stranger Things.Being the cultural touchstone that it is, Stranger Things constantly has to find ways to reinvent itself and ensure that the story and style of the show don't become stagnant. It would be easy for the show to fall into the same patterns because they are familiar and easy, and while this is something that the show does often do, it's also good about making each season feel distinct from the others. Season 4 was certainly no exception to this, as even comparing the characters and the overall tone to that of the first season reveals that Season 4 feels entirely different.

One of the reasons why this is the case is that Season 4 drew a lot of influence from classic horror movies and tropes. Stranger Things has always been built on the idea of nostalgia and constructing its story around those cultural objects of the 1980s, but Season 4 took that and shifted the focus to horror stories specifically. Not only are the nods to those classic scary movies fun for horror fans, but the shift to a horror tone also helped make this season feel darker and more adult in a lot of ways.

Stranger Things Uses Nostalgia For A Purpose

Stranger Things has always had a dark tone, which would be pretty hard to avoid in a story about monsters and evil forces that drag people into a hell-like realm or possess their bodies. However, there was something about the first few seasons that managed to keep a bit of lightness. Whether it was the tone itself or simply the fact that the core cast were all still young kids, certain aspects lent a certain hint of innocence towards the events of the story.

In Season 4, however, the characters are much older, and at this point have been through their