In celebration of Stranger Things’ return to our small screens later in the year, the clever, sci-fi obsessed Princes Charles Cinema in London is putting on a two-month-long retrospective of the awesome films that the series’ creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, fell in love with while making the now iconic Netflix series.
Think you’re a die hard fan? Then seek out the following 20th century sci-fis and coming-of-age stories that wound up inspiriting this generation’s most adored throwback series.
Stand By Me
This is the quintessential coming-of-age masterpiece; a film that’s inspired several generations of audiences to look back fondly upon the friendships that defined their childhood. It tells the story of four lads walking the rural railway tracks to find the body of a local boy that’s gone missing – just like the Stranger Things gang do when looking for young Will Byer after he mysteriously disappears too. Far away from home for the first time, the companionship between the Stand By Me lads blossoms, and they learn a whole lot about the value of their friendship, as well as what it’s like to be a boy on the brink of manhood. The Duffer Brothers have a serious love for this film, and they even named one of the first season’s episodes after the Stephen King novella the film was based on: The Body.
Firestarter
Stephen King was clearly a strong influence on the Duffer brothers as they’ve also cited Firestarter, another film based on one of King’s stories, as a favourite of theirs. Unlike Stand By Me, this film didn’t have such a rapturous reception when it was first released, but has established a cult following ever since. Here, a ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ Drew Barrymore plays the spawn of two telepathic parents, who have blessed her with the ability to ignite fires with her mind and predict the future. Barrymore’s unsettling character Charlie, with her innocent appearance and lethal talent, is the double personality-wise of Eleven, who also finds herself being hunted down to have her powers disrupted and misused.
Akira
This 80s cyberpunk anime tells the story of a telekinetic teen being used as a governmental guinea pig – sound familiar? Akira is perhaps the most obscure film referenced by the Stranger Things team, considering it’s set in a “dystopian” 2019 (shit, should we be worried?), while most of their favourites were, of course, set in the eighties. But that doesn’t make it any less of a pivotal piece of sci-fi cinema: it may be 29 years old, but this breathless film, full of violence and action, has undoubtedly stood the test of time and still manages to provide sparks of inspiration for loads of directors today.
The Goonies
While the journey taken in Stand By Me exists to help the lads discover themselves, Steven Spielberg’s The Goonies is all about intrepid explorers on a fantastical journey; much more in keeping with Stranger Things’ mystical subject matter. In terms of their spirit, both films evoke that childlike sense of wonder in the viewer, and there’s no denying that the kids at the core of both films could be seen as dead ringers for each other. Who could forget the truffle-shuffling king of The Goonies, Chunk? Well, don’t you think he’s quite like Dustin? There’s definitely some shared DNA there!
A Nightmare on Elm Street
There’s something about the meeting of suburbia and the supernatural that alway leaves us feeling a little uneasy; maybe it’s because those classic blueprints of small-town America could have been any home town – even yours. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger is the terrifying creature that’s haunting and killing people in their sleep, in the same manner that the Demogorgon does in the Stranger Things’ kid’s hometown of Hawkins, Indiana. The Duffer brothers were definitely huge fans of the Elm Street movies, so much so that the climax of the first series, in which Jonathan and Nancy coax an evil shape shifting monster into a trap to kill it, correlates perfectly with the way the plucky teens of Elm Street lured Kreuger to his death.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
While a lot of Stranger Things’ nods to throwback sci-fi are present in the kids’ storylines, there are a couple that relate to the series’ older characters. Winona Ryder’s epic performance as Joyce, as she’s driven insane by the voice of her son surrounding her home even though she’s missing, is a not-so-subtle nod to Richard Dreyfuss’ similarly manic delivery as Roy in the Spielberg classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Both Joyce and Roy are considered crazy for the extreme lengths they go to to prove that there’s “life out there”, but both – obviously – end up proving everybody else wrong.
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
There’s no film that merges youthful naivety with weird alien encounters quite like this one does. Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, it’s no surprise that the whimsical brilliance of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. has had an effect on just about anybody, filmmaker or not, that’s seen it. Inspired by a childhood imaginary friend he created when his parents were divorcing, Spielberg says that E.T. is his ” a spiritual autobiography”; for a generation of lonely kids seeking escapism. Perhaps Spielberg’s sentiment was shared with the Duffer duo when they were younger too?
Scanners
Probably the most messed up film to inspire the Duffer brothers, David Cronenberg’s Scanners is an irrefutable cult sci-fi classic. It takes us into a universe in which a handful of people (known as Scanners, of course) have the ability to read minds, and kill people with one thought. Although the deaths caused by the eponymous entities of Cronenberg’s film are much more gruesome (who could forget that monumental exploding head scene?), Scanners does bear plenty of similarities to Stranger Things. Both the Scanners and Eleven have terrifying, militant scientists trying to track them down, and they both have the ability to cause serious damage with the power of their minds.
Poltergeist
Famed for its eery young lead and terrifying handling of ‘the unknown’ – Poltergeist may have set out to straight-up scare, but it has plenty in common with the lighter mystique that Stranger Things is shrouded in. Released in the summer of 1982 (just a week before E.T. hit cinemas), it tells the story of a family plagued by a strange spirit haunting their house through the body of their daughter; one who makes itself known by speaking from the walls of their house. It’s a trait that the Duffer Brothers loop into their own supernatural story: missing boy Will speaks to his mother Joyce in the same way: from a intangible, alien dimension.
Season two of Stranger Things premieres on Netflix on October 27th. You can buy tickets to Prince Charles Cinema’s Stranger Things season, which kicks off on September 1st, by visiting their official website.