REVIEW: Stranger Things Season 4: A Bigger, Badder Blockbuster for the Summer

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Stranger Things Season 4 Vol 1 premiered on May 27th 2022. It promised and delivered a great spectacle with Eleven and her friends going on a journey to discover the terrifying truth about how the dark dimension the Upside Down and its dark secrets connected to the Town of Hawkins, Indiana. The action scenes are elevated and the horror and monsters are turned up to an eleven. Pardon the pun. The Duffer Brothers went into some details in regards to the story arcs and tones in a interview with Felicia Day on Netflix’s Geeked Week! event.

The Duffer Brothers said:

“A lot of the horror comes from the humans in the story and the darkness within all of us, and so every season we really do want to have that play a major role, and this season is no different.”

We meet a new terrifying foe in the form of Vecna from the Upside Down, which puts the town of Hawkins, Indiana in far greater danger then the towns people realise. He has a dark and sinister connection to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). The whole gang in season 4 are split up with Eleven, Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) having moved to Lenora Hills California. Hopper (David Harbour) is still stuck in prison in Russia before Joyce and Murray (Brett Gelman) go across the Atlantic to rescue him. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) flies to California for spring break to see Eleven, while Dustin, Lucas, Max, Nancy, Steve, and Robin, are still in Hawkins to solve and investigate the connection of the Creel family to the upside down. We are joined by new characters – Argyle (Eduardo Franco), Chrissy (Grace Van Dien), Eddie (Joseph Quinn), 001 (Jamie Campbell Bower), and horror film legend Robert Englund as Victor Creel. Familiar faces also return such as Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) and Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser).

The higher level of horror and violence dovetails with the the kids all now teenagers and becoming young adults. They’re experiencing real world issues such as bullying, abandonment, identity issues, loneliness, and family dynamics, and how that is linked to the supernatural horrors and government related science experiments that has plagued Hawkins for a decade. The scope of Volume 1 exceeds expectations and is so big that it takes place in 2 different continents, in Europe and North America. If Vecna and the monsters of the Upside Down are not stopped the implications could be catastrophic not just for Hawkins, Indiana but also for the rest of an unsuspecting world. The Duffer Brothers have mentioned in interviews before of the inspiration of 1980’s films, I would describe it as a love letter to the genius of filmmakers such as John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Wes Craven and writer Stephen King as the main influences. One of the bonuses is always the re-emergence of 1980’s music classics such as ‘Running Up That Hill (A deal with God)’ by Kate Bush, ‘Can’t fight this feeling’ by REO Speedwagon, and many more throughout the seasons.

From left to right: Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin).

Below is the link to the official Stranger Things twitter page for more new news and content:

Stranger Things Season 4 : Volume 2 will be released on July 1st on Netflix.

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