Editorials
10 Things to Expect from “Stranger Things” Season 2!
The time for strangeness is almost upon us again!
On October 27, the citizens of Hawkins will be dealing with alternate realities, adolescent mischief, and a whole lot of Stranger Things.
With interest at a fever pitch and speculation coming from all directions based on a handful of posters, episode titles, and an incredible trailer, there is enough information to cobble together a list of possible season two elements to get excited over.
Here are ten things we’re looking forward to.
10) Bigger Set Pieces
Though no one complained about the quality of the first season, creators the Duffer Brothers discussed how the tight budget of the first season made them change planned elements and rethink ideas. It turned out great, but fans wouldn’t complain if the show had a little more money this time around. Though Netflix is tight-lipped with specifics, rumor has it they spent much more on season two, which means we should be seeing even more spectacular set pieces than the levitating van and the Demogorgon fight scene.
9) Extra Doses of Steve Harrington and Will Byers
Barb may be the supporting character with the largest and most organic online support, but she will unfortunately not be returning for season two. However, there are two characters who we’ll be seeing more of this season. Actors Joe Keery and Noah Schnapp have been promoted to series regulars for season two, which means Steve Harrington (long-lost father of Jean-Ralphio from Parks & Recreation) and Will Byers (who spent most of season one cold and terrified in the Upside Down) will be featured more prominently in this season. That makes sense for Will, given his connection to the Upside Down, but what’s in store for Nancy’s super-cool boyfriend Steve?
8) The Ultimate Fate Of Dr. Brenner
Matthew Modine’s shady doctor made an indelible impression on viewers, both channeling Peter Coyote from E.T. and creating a complex villain whose emotional connection to Eleven made him manipulative and dangerous. There’s no way a character that interesting and despised had his death take place OFF SCREEN. The Duffer Brothers have confirmed as much, hinting that if that were the end of Dr. Brenner in the series, they would be disappointed, too. So expect a return in some capacity.
7) Dustin Has a Pet Monster?!
In its first season, Stranger Things lovingly paid homage to many 1980s films with its various plot elements, from Poltergeist to E.T. This season, the homages continue, with a specific reference to Gremlins. Hinted at in the trailer when the group stands around the makeshift Ghostbusters ghost trap, actor Gaten Matarazzo has already confirmed that his character will have a “little creature I get to bond with,” according to Matarazzo in Entertainment Weekly. Adorable, mysterious creature; Mogwai, anyone?
6) Meeting More Residents Of The Upside Down
Though the Upside Down was a creepy alternate existence, the thing that made it truly scary was the Demogorgon. Crossing realities to grab victims and take them back to feed on, the Demogorgon was surprisingly lonely in its work. Where were all the other residents of the Upside Down? Was there really an entire alternate dimension occupied by only one creature (other than the humans it kidnapped)? From the look of the trailer, Eleven makes her way back from the Upside Down, but she doesn’t come back alone. So who is the new resident, and why didn’t we see it before now?
5) Meeting More Residents of the Rightside Up
It’s not just the Upside Down getting bigger this year. The town of Hawkins is welcoming some new faces as well. Aside from some iconic faces of the 1980s that are joining the cast, two young actors are joining as well. Dacre Montgomery is Billy, who sounds like a bully right out of a Stephen King story. Sadie Sink will play Max, a character shrouded in mystery regarding how she fits into the story. What do we know about her? According to Sink at the Stranger Things Comic-Con panel: “She moves from California.” Don’t everyone shout your fan theories at once.
4) More Revelations About The Mysterious Illness That Took Hopper’s Daughter
Initially played as character motivation for the hard-drinking Sheriff Hopper, the ultimate revelation of his daughter’s tragic death was a moving backstory that helped viewers fully understand Hopper’s trajectory. But was it more than that, too? The sudden onset of the disease and the strange behavior of his daughter during her illness point to something strange afoot. And, as Will, Barb, and Eleven know, the tragedy of a missing child is just the beginning of scratching the surface…
3) 1980s Nostalgia Galore
In a mere eight episodes, the first season of Stranger Things made both subtle and direct reference to dozens of beloved 1980s properties, from the John Carpenter-style synth score to Nancy booby-trapping the Demogorgon like her namesake in A Nightmare on Elm Street. And from the casting and trailer alone, it looks like the show is ready to outdo itself. The trailer shows us homemade Ghostbusters costumes, a video arcade with Dragon’s Lair, and it is accompanied by the wonderfully iconic Michael Jackson song “Thriller.” On top of that, the season 2 cast includes The Goonies’ Sean Astin and Aliens’ Paul Reiser. What’s more 80s than that?
2) Body Horror
The influence of the 1980s is all over Stranger Things, with the exception of one major name of the time: David Cronenberg. His body horror work, from Videodrome to The Fly to Dead Ringers, made him a household name in horror. Stranger Things had a few teases of body horror, with the view of Barb’s fate, the Scanners-style power of Eleven, and the final moments of Will coughing something up in the bathroom sink. It seems, however, like those two elements might be adding up something. If the creature crawling out of dead Barb’s mouth is the same one that Will coughed up, then season two might have a “gestation” element to it similar to Cronenberg’s Shivers, 1982’s Xtro, 1987’s The Hidden, and the life cycle of the alien in Aliens.
1) A BUNCH More Questions
Sure, this season will probably answer (or at least start to answer) many of the questions left open from the previous season. However, the series is immensely popular (though Netflix doesn’t give out numbers, it is likely one of their most-watched series), and the Duffer Brothers have said they’d like to do a three or four season run before its definitive end. With at least sixteen to eighteen more episodes after this season, there’s no way Matt and Ross Duffer haven’t started mapping out story arcs for later seasons and planting tantalizing mysteries to keep their rabid fans theorizing all across the internet.
Stranger Things Season 2 arrives on Netflix on Friday, October 27th.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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