‘Stranger Things’: These Are the Horror Movie Monsters The Duffer Brothers Used For Inspiration – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Ross and Matt Duffer promised fans months ago thatStranger Things 4leans hard into horror. Once writers finished the script, they shared an image of a whiteboard filled with movie titles from their Video Store Fridays and told fans the formula for the upcoming season lay somewhere in that group of movies. Each week, the writers gathered to watch movies and kept a running list of which ones they watched. Its no surprise that plenty of the films listed landed squarely in the horror genre. Lets take a look at some of the monsters that inspiredStranger Things.

The Duffer Brothers have said thatJawsis probably their favorite movie, and the inspiration for the Demogorgon comes from the famous bloodthirsty shark. Like the shark inJaws, the creature terrorizing Hawkins inStranger ThingsSeason 1 is drawn to blood. When Barb cuts her hand at Steves party, the Demogorgon snatches her away. Later, when Jonathan and Nancy set their monster trap, they lure the creature by slicing their palms open.

In an interview withEntertainment Weeklyin 2017, Matt Duffer said, Our big reference for [the Demogorgon] season 1 was mostlyJaws. Its a shark and, the other dimension is the underwater.

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Poor Bob Newby. The guy only wanted to help Will with his supposed nightmares. In one scene inStranger ThingsSeason 2, Bob gives Will advice on how to get rid of his monster by telling him how he got rid of the clown that haunted his dreams as a child. Unfortunately, Bobs advice caused Will to get possessed by the Mind Flayer, but thats neither here nor there. That man died a hero.

The clown Bob describes sounds frighteningly similar to the nightmare-inducing clown from Stephen Kings novel,It.In a recent interview withIGN about Stranger Things 4, the Duffers mentioned Pennywise as one of the monsters that scared them growing up.

The Duffers recent breakdown of theStranger Things 4trailer mentioned both Pinhead from theHellraiserfranchise and Freddy Krueger from theNightmare on Elm Streetseries. The full-length trailer features a voiceover from the new big bad himself, Vecna, and audiences hear him say, Your suffering is almost at an end.

Matt Duffer calls this their Hellraiserline, but the upcoming season features a lot ofNightmare on Elm Streetinspiration. The Duffer Brothers revealed Robert Englund, who played the iconic Freddy Krueger in several movies, approached them for a role inStranger Things.

Matt told IGN, The fact that he came to us in a season thats so deeply inspired by the Nightmare series and by his performance especially in those movies, it felt like fate. It felt like, okay, this is meant to be.'

Fans only have a few more weeks to wait to see ifStranger Things 4lives up to the hype. Part 1 premieres on May 27, 2022.

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'Stranger Things': These Are the Horror Movie Monsters The Duffer Brothers Used For Inspiration - Showbiz Cheat Sheet