Stranger Things: Nostalgia for Profit
By: Rylan B.
Vintage, recycle, retro, upcycle. If it’s old
we are gobbling it up!
At the moment we are caught in an era where reboots, spinoff’s, prequels, and remakes are produced more frequently than new stories.
Popular media is banking on the popularity of brands and products that brought adults fond memories when they were kids.
Now that kids growing up in the 80's and 90’s are adults, they have disposable incomes and good memories of products that brought them joy as children. Companies capitalize on how you resonate with products and the public just continues to eat it up. Especially if they are parents wanting to create similar memories with their kids now.
This same ideology is used for popular franchises. If a particular franchise was successful, it makes sense to put more money behind that same franchise than take a chance on a daring new project.
To that point though, if entertainment companies do take a chance on a daring new project, there’s a good chance that it will be set in the past.
But no one has understood the assignment more than Stranger Things.
Stranger Things has become the golden child of delivering on nostalgia. I think it can be said that Stranger Things laid the foundation for other nostalgic stories that came later. But how do they do it? How are the Stranger Things creators able to give us the tingles and tap into our childhood?
I’m here to tell you that those tingles are purposely occurring and that was their intention all along. Every detail is curated to achieve that similar look and feel from 80’s media. They even overlaid film grain from the 80’s to master that look from that time.
The plot for season 4 just screams A Nightmare On Elm Street. The big bad villain Vecna strikes down his victims by tapping into their subconscious and weaponizing their trauma.
The first victim of Vecna’s is Crissy, she’s a popular cheerleader dating the star basketball player. She meets up with Eddie, the Dungeon Master for the gang’s D&D group, to take her mind off of Vecna’s visions with drugs. When she meets her ultimate end, her death is very reminiscent of Freddy’s first victim, Tina in Elm Street.
The first episode featured an homage to John Badham’s classic Cold War–and–computers thriller WarGames, specifically its terrifying opening scene.
We also have the scenes of Nancy and Robin’s visit to Victor Creel, which is hauntingly familiar to Silence of the Lambs.
They’ve also sprinkled in little references here and there to remind you that evil is always lurking. The creators make sure to prioritize popular 80’s toys and how they play a role in foreshadowing or helping out the gang.
For example, when the gang visits the Family Video where Steve and Robin work, you can see a Freddy Kruger looming over Max in the background. This positioning could also foreshadow the troubles Max will soon face. Speaking of, Will has not one but two R.E.M. posters in his room that foreshadow the rapid eye movement of Vecna’s villains.
When Steve, Nancy, Robin and Eddie are stuck in the upside down, Dustin devises a LiteBrite technique to communicate with them. I didn’t grow up during this time but the toys and pop culture still ruled when I did come along. Like, I remember playing with someone’s old LiteBrite when I was younger so that moment for me was nostalgic.
To conclude, the Duffer brothers have formatted the perfect nostalgic layout, by using a combination of specific sounds, pop culture references, and products of that era. Although a percentage of the Stranger Things was not alive in the 80’s, the creators are able to create environments and relationships that feel very familiar to us.
So here's the question:
What’s something from your childhood you’ve seen get turned into a big-money trend? 👀