Watched all four seasons of Stranger Things (2016 - 2022). I have a DVD of the first season, which my sister Sylvia sent me from Sydney many years ago. Despite references in dialogue to Stephen King, the first season came across to me as a Dean Koontz movie. I had to watch this season all over again plus the three succeeding seasons because Angelique urged me to do so. 

The four seasons are really variations and interpolations of the same, two themes--the monsters without and the monsters within, but are hampered by too much adolescent and teenage flirtation, including those by adults. 

What is amazing about this movie, however, are the performances delivered by the child actors. I know how difficult it is to direct minors and elicit emotional truthfulness from them, especially with long passages of dialogue and with scenes against green screens, not to mention having to make them fully understand the concept of continuity. Production design and special effects come second, though too much darkness is employed in the mise-en-scene. There is also, thankfully, a minimal amount of "horror movie" screaming and hysteria.

In all, the series seems to be a Halloween party salad with ingredients comprised of situations and scenes patterned after those in The Fury, X-Men, It, Signs, Alien, Aliens, Gremlins, Goonies, Night Chills, Firestarter, Constantine, The Blob, Enter the Dragon, Carrie, The Hardy Boys TV series, the Harry Potter series--even Superman, making it overwhelmingly derivative, but maybe that was the point and that is what makes it original. It has, moreover, a twenty-first century, horror-story difference: In this series, characters step out of the box.  Revenge and killing the enemy are as completely justified as in a Chinese kung fu movie, and there is no unnecessary moralizing. 

The movie is slick, well-made, and looks like a billion dollars. It works on a carefully written script with no stupid loopholes. The subplots are substantial, and well-orchestrated characterization resulted in fine ensemble acting. Every member of the cast is showcased and allowed nuances and reflective moments--you can tell that the performers not only did their homework but that they also loved their roles. I especially appreciated the performance of Judy-Garland-look-alike Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven. It reminded me so much of Jodie Foster's natural, underplayed acting, and was a fascinating counterpoint to Winona Ryder's academy acting and David Harbour's Indiana-Jones performance. It was also great seeing Sean Astin again; he is always a lovable character actor. The direction is well-thought-out and well-executed: visual imagery is extracted in even the smallest scenes without tiredness and without cliches. It is a nice, cozy screening especially for pre-bedtime, and the suspense is handled very well. Seasons 3 and 4, in particular, have brilliant editing--it is the editing that tells the story. 

It was fascinating to watch the young cast age, over four seasons, into gangling adults, as in the Harry Potter series. Unlike in the Harry Potter series, however, the characters don't just grow up. They mature.

The only twentieth-century remnant I found in this series is the insistence on creating characters with family dysfunctions and traumatic pasts in order to make them interesting or to justify their weird actions. I felt that all that should have gone out with Alfred Hitchcock. In a world already full of the strangest things, I consider this technique passe. I feel that it is actually more challenging to make normal, "uninteresting" characters interesting to audiences. Season 4 also relapses into a lot of screaming a la Nightmare on Elm Street. I was expecting Freddie Krueger to show up any moment. And he did, minus the hat and the Edward Scissorhands hardware. Or was that Doc Ock from Spiderman?

And, for heaven's sake, will there ever be a movie set in school WITHOUT bullies?

I nonetheless look forward to the next season's screening beginning July 1 to provide closure to this entertainment experience.