If you left the theater after watching J.J. Abrams’s 2011 film, Super 8 and thought, “You know? I really could have used more egregious references to Steven Spielberg and ’80s horror/sci-fi films with supernatural elements,” then Stranger Things is just for you. Sure, the streaming service’s nostalgia porn Full House revival, Fuller House apparently raked in some serious viewing numbers during its first week, but awful family comedies aren’t your thing. You like abject horror, small towns, children fighting against mysterious government agents, and Winona Ryder. Hence Stranger Things, which just dropped its first trailer online.
Kids riding their bikes all over town? Check. Light orchestral music with an opening narration and assorted electronic sounds thrown into the mix? Definitely. Lots of bright lights contrasted with impenetrable darkness. This baby’s got everything! Hell, the closing title sequence even includes some good ol’ fashioned red neon lighting and synthesizers heavy enough to please fans of Skrillex’s bass drops.
All jokes aside, the two and a half-minute trailer presents a rather creepy story about a missing boy, a mysterious girl with strange powers, and some kind of government conspiracy involving weird experiments and monsters of a sort. And with Wayward Pines season one writers Matt and Ross Duffer running the show, Stranger Things surely looks the part of a great ’80s sci-fi mystery.
