Editorials
A Look Back at the Horror Influences of “Stranger Things” (So Far)
The third season of the genre-bending “Stranger Things” is dropping on Netflix on July 4, 2019, leaving behind the Halloween 1984 setting of season two in favor of the summer sun of 1985. The Mind Flayer has been confined back in the Upside Down, but that doesn’t mean our favorite Hawkins residents won’t have new monsters, both of the Upside Down variety and human, to confront.
The Duffer Brothers wear their influences on their sleeves in this unique mashup of ‘80s nostalgia, sci-fi, coming of age, and horror. There’s no shortage of Easter eggs to spot, but the influences can be felt throughout both in style and story. For season three, the Duffer Brothers have promised the grossest season yet. The showrunners have teased that they’re drawing inspiration from the master of body horror, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and even a bit of George A. Romero this round.
Of course, it’ll hardly be the first time the series pays tribute to horror movies and horror masters, so in preparation of what’s shaping up to be the goriest season yet, we look back at the horror influences that have shaped Stranger Things so far.
Season 1
Firestarter and Carrie
It should surprise no one that Stephen King was a major influence on the Duffer Brothers growing up, and therefore played a huge role in this series. Eleven’s psychokinetic and telepathic abilities draw from Firestarter’s Charlie McGee and Carrie White.
Altered States
The isolation tank that Eleven was submerged in during flashback sequences were inspired by Altered States. The film served as a key reference point for production designer Chris Trujillo.
Under the Skin
When the sensory-deprivation tank works, enhancing Eleven’s abilities, she’s shown in an all-black space standing on water. The imagery is directly inspired by Under the Skin.
Poltergeist
Like Diane Freeling’s ability to communicate with her ghost-napped daughter Carol Anne by way of white noise of the TV and walls, Joyce is able to communicate to Will through a string of Christmas lights and radios.
Let the Right One In
There are parallels in the budding romance between Mike and Eleven and Oskar and Eli, in that both boys are bullied and befriend/fall for a powerful girl who’s more than they seem. There’s also the scene that features Mike playing with a Rubik’s cube while waiting on Eleven; the Rubik’s cube is a major symbol of friendship between Oskar and Eli.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A major formative film on the Duffer Brothers, they tried to recreate the feeling of dread from Wes Craven’s seminal film. The teens try to exploit the nature of the Demogorgon to defeat it, much the same way that Nancy Thompson does with Freddy Krueger. But most obvious is the scene that sees the Demogorgon pushing through the Byers’ walls to break through to their world. Just like Freddy Krueger did above a sleeping Nancy.
Silent Hill
When it came to creating and designing the eerie world of the Upside Down, one of the biggest inspirations came from the video game Silent Hill. The floating ash, the color correction and the deteriorated buildings were all influenced by the hellscape in the popular game.
Alien
The other major inspiration for the look of the Upside Down came from Alien, namely LV-426. Then there’s the egg that Hopper finds while in the Upside Down in the season one finale, and the tendril down Will’s throat when he and Joyce finally find him. Both directly from Alien.
Jaws
The movie that played the biggest influence of all is Jaws, the Duffer Brothers’ favorite film. It permeates throughout the entire series, which was nearly named Montauk, after Montauk, New York (to capture that Amity aesthetic). The look of Sheriff Hopper is directly inspired by Roy Scheider’s character. They even drive similar trucks. The scene where Hopper is typing a report is framed exactly the same way as a scene in Jaws. The way a drop of blood from a cut on Barb’s hand attracted the Demogorgon, directly resulting in her death, is the same as a shark; the way the monster feeds is very shark-like. Above all, though, the way the Demogorgon is keep mostly hidden throughout season 1 is directly borrowed from Jaws, in the same way the shark’s appearance was used sparingly to build suspense.
Season 2
H.P. Lovecraft
The expanded world of the Upside Down, and creatures like the Mind Flayer, both in terms of design and scale, seem to stem directly from the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Evil Dead
Sam Raimi’s film was a major favorite of the Duffer Brothers, and they’ve snuck visual references to it in season two. It’s impossible to imagine that Hopper’s secluded cabin, and its design, wasn’t influenced by The Evil Dead.
IT
Stephen King’s work was a major staple for the Duffer Brothers, so it’s no surprise that season 2 loops in even more references and inspiration from his expansive catalog. It plays a major role in shaping new character Billy Hargrove. Hargrove is a violent teen and older stepbrother to Max, and takes major personality cues from It bully Henry Bowers.
The Shining
There’s a little bit of Jack Torrance in Billy Hargrove, too. But The Shining also shows up in the way that Will Byers has a clairvoyant connection with the monster from the Upside Down, much like Danny Torrance.
The Exorcist
The Mind Flayer, aka Shadow Monster, appears to Will in visions at the beginning of Season 2, but eventually takes control of his body. Will’s consciousness is assimilated into the hive mind, and the Mind Flayer is able to use Will as a puppet. Actor Noah Schnapp studied The Exorcist and Regan’s physicality when preparing for these specific scenes. The medical gown he wears while possessed and during his exorcism scene also feels like a visual nod.
Gremlins
Joe Dante’s classic, about a boy and his pet monster, Gizmo, is paid homage to extensively in the relationship between Dustin and his baby Upside Down monster, Dart.
Jurassic Park
When our protagonists are trapped in the lab with a pack of creatures, Bob (Sean Astin) navigates his way through the dangerous, overrun halls to reset the breakers and free everyone. This sequence is an homage to Jurassic Park, where Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler has to make her way to a bunker to restore power while hungry velociraptors are loose and on the hunt.
Aliens
Aliens factored into season two in a number of ways; the most obvious being Paul Reiser’s casting. But there’s also the fact that there’s a lot more Demo-creatures this go ‘round to battle, while season one only had one as the big bad. Like the marines in Aliens, the government officials try to destroy the Upside Down with flamethrowers. Both feature a group of soldiers who find out much too late that they’ve underestimated their foe, and the words “stay frosty” are uttered in both as well.
Jaws
Like King’s continued presence in the series, so too is Jaws. Most notably, in the scene that features Hopper and Eleven descending into the depths of the lab to close the portal to the Upside Down. As they’re confronted with the power of the Mind Flayer and the enclosing pack of Demodogs, they find the iron cage they’re in has left them vulnerable. Just like Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper, who finds himself face to face with the shark while inside the shark cage beneath the water.
And of course, there’s no shortage of references in the Halloween set episode of season two, which has the core group of characters dressed as Ghostbusters. It introduces Max, who’s dressed as Michael Myers, and a whole slew of horror nods scattered among the trick or treaters.
“Stranger Things” returns to Netflix on the Fourth of July!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
You must be logged in to post a comment.