'Stranger Things' creators Duffer Brothers break down their latest 80s and pop-culture influences

Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of the Netflix hit Stranger Things have never been coy about their many sources of inspiration. Centered on a group of misfit adolescents in the 1980s, the horror-fantasy series had immediate cross-generational appeal, owing in no small part to its nostalgic evocations of 1970s and '80s pop culture.

Certain cultural benchmarks have been consistent -- Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter -- but each new season has also introduced a new set of references. Some are explicit, but others are more oblique, shaping the themes and technical aspects of the show. In an interview, the Duffers described some of the hidden influences behind the first four episodes of the show's final season, which premiered last month.

Dystopian Camera Work

Many Dangers, One Shot

In Episode 4, the young heroes try to rescue a group of children being effectively imprisoned at a military camp. The plan goes awry, the Demogorgons attack, and some of the kids must flee for their lives, led by Mike (Finn Wolfhard).

As a model, the Duffers looked to a famous long documentary-style tracking shot from Alfonso Cuarón's 2006 postapocalyptic thriller "Children of Men."

"There's a moment where Finn is peeking around the corner and they see the chaos around the other side," Ross Duffer said. "And there's a moment in 'Children of Men' where Clive Owen is peering around this rubble and watching, and then as soon as the explosion goes and clears, he makes a move. I mean, it's identical to what we did."

The "Stranger Things" sequence wasn't actually a single shot -- it had to be spliced together digitally. "We had to stitch together shots because we were working with children at night, and you don't get that long to work with them," Matt Duffer explained. "And there were so many stunts involved."

Horror POV

DemoVision

This season, Will (Noah Schnapp) is plagued by new visions in which he sees through the eyes of the Demogorgons -- monsters who bound like gazelles and rip people's heads off.

The Duffers drew inspiration from two main sources for the look and feel of the Demogorgon's perspective. The first was Sam Raimi's cult horror-comedy "Evil Dead II" (1987), specifically when the camera takes on the perspective of an evil force rushing through the woods.

"It really jolts the audience any time in 'Evil Dead' when you cut to the force," Ross said. "We wanted that same sense of rush and jolting feeling."

The second was the blurring of edges in the Spielberg movie "Minority Report" (2002), used to signal a character is having a vision of an impending crime.

"A lot of times, when you look back and people are doing filters, or color filters, to differentiate it from the main narrative, it can get cheesy pretty quickly," Ross said. "That movie, when you look back, it's so groundbreaking on so many levels, and that was such an easy and good touchstone for us as we were developing this look."

French New Wave Visuals

Inside an Alternate World

Evil mastermind Henry Creel, known in his more monstrous form as Vecna, has been imprisoning children's minds (including those of Max, played by Sadie Sink, and Holly, played by Nell Fisher) in an alternate world created inside his own memories.

It had to be evident visually that the scenes inside Henry's mind were not set in the real world. "Initially we were going for more of a Technicolor vibe, a 'Wizard of Oz'-y or 'Singin' in the Rain' kind of look," Matt said. "It just felt over-stylized."

For the color palette, they turned to the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy. The colors of the woods were inspired by his 1970 musical "Donkey Skin," starring Catherine Deneuve.

"The green of the trees has a very specific hue," Matt said. "It's not vibrant, but it has a lushness to it that we really liked."

The inspiration for the memory-prison concept came from what is probably the season's most obscure reference: a 1985 made-for-TV Canadian movie called "The Peanut Butter Solution." (The VHS tape was available at the Duffers' local library when they were kids, and they watched it repeatedly.)

In "Peanut Butter," the alternate worlds exist inside hyper-realistic paintings created by a maniacal artist who kidnaps children. The paintings, which the captive children can enter, always feature his dog.

"It's one of those very, very disturbing kids films that almost feels like a dream -- like, 'Was that a real film or not?'" Matt said, laughing. "There's almost, like, support groups online for all the various kids who are now adults who grew up seeing this film and were traumatized."

'80s Movie Ingenuity

Bad Guy Booby Traps

After the gang figures out the target of a Demogorgon's next home invasion, they devise a series of booby traps to stop it.

"I don't know why booby traps were so in back in the '80s," Matt said, citing "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) among others. "That was something we really wanted to pull from."

Ross added: "There's just something so satisfying about a homemade trap that, of course, in these films, always works perfectly," Ross said. "I mean, Nancy in 'Nightmare on Elm Street' -- she put that together real quick."

For good measure, Nancy from "Nightmare" (Heather Langenkamp) also sets her tormentor, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), on fire. Nancy from "Stranger Things" (Natalia Dyer) does likewise to a Demogorgon.

The "Stranger Things" kids also attack the Demogorgon with grenade-shaped water balloons filled with acetone. The Duffers had seen something similar in "The Lost Boys" (1987).

"They have the bathtub of holy water, and they have squirt guns," Matt said. "We really wanted to use Super Soakers, but Super Soakers were not around [in the 1980s], unfortunately." So they chose the grenades, a staple of '80s childhood.

"You can't really buy those anymore," Ross added -- they had to add the grenade design digitally during postproduction. "Maybe no one sees them as appropriate anymore."

Video Game Acrobatics

Eleven's Ninja-Like Abilities

In Episode 4, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) infiltrates a military base, aided by newly developed superhuman physical gifts. In determining the look of her movements, the Duffers drew from ninja video games, including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019).

"There's countless images of Sekiro traversing rooftops and leaping from rooftop to rooftop," Matt said. "And because El had this new leaping ability, we thought we have to do a sequence like that." Video games have been a big influence all along.

"We're always asked about the movie references," Ross said. "But Matt and I love video games, and so we've looked to video games almost as often as movies."