The Many Horror References Lurking in ‘Stranger Things 5’ Volume II [Spoilers]

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Stranger Things 5: Volume II.

After nearly a decade of Stranger Things lore, we thought we’d finally figured out the Upside Down.

Ross and Matt Duffer first introduced this liminal space as a horrific mirror image to our own reality in the first episode of season 1, when a young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is pulled through a portal by a petal-faced monster we would come to know as the Demogorgon. But the second installment of season 5 throws everything we knew about this terrifying realm into the wind, reframing Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) as the Upside Down’s architect and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) as the resident of a nightmare dimension. Season 5 Vol. 2 leans heavily into scientific theory as Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) muses about exotic matter and Mr. Clark (Randy Havens) finally joins the Party.

But despite these logical explanations, season 5, Vol. 2 includes plenty of horror and fantasy references woven throughout this sci-fi adventure.

Over the years, Stranger Things has attracted a surprising number of genre icons from Paul Reiser and Sean Astin to Cary Elwes and Robert Englund. But the series’ long-awaited season 5 features a pair of episodes helmed by a true genre legend. After retiring in 2013, Frank Darabont returned to the director’s chair for “The Turnbow Test,” an action-packed episode in Vol. 1 which sees the Party trap a Demogorgon in the home of a local real estate king. Vol. 2 opens with “Shock Jock,” Darabont’s second Stranger Things episode, which closes the throughline of this monstrous plot. Hoping to locate Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) devises a plan to manually reconnect Will with the hive mind by resurrecting one of the Demogorgons he killed while first harnessing Vecna’s powers. But while one team hunts monsters in Hawkins proper, Holly and Max (Sadie Sink) navigate an elaborate dream world, allowing Darabont to drop an exciting Easter egg.

Following a trail of memories, Holly revisits her most recent Halloween, which connects her to Vecna’s human persona, Henry Creel/One (Bower). As the duplicitous villain lurks outside the window, Holly huddles close to a friend while watching A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Directed by Chuck Russell, this fan-favorite entry in Wes Craven‘s landmark slasher series also follows a group of teens who must discover their own innate strengths to battle a monster who weaponizes dreams. In addition to inspiring later seasons, this beloved slasher also happens to be Darabont’s first screenwriting credit.

He would use the film’s success to secure the rights to Stephen King‘s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, which would become his directorial debut. Darabont would follow his genre-bending The Shawshank Redemption with two more highly-regarded King adaptations and the zombie juggernaut The Walking Dead. The sci-fi aspects of this episode also feel like a sentimental nod to Darabont’s original script for the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which was significantly altered throughout production. Only time will tell if the famed creator will return to retirement or extend his time in the director’s chair, but regardless of what the future holds, “Shock Jock“ provides a fitting farewell by honoring the spark of an impressive career.

Though Darabont emerged from the slasher heyday of the 1980s, his second Stranger Things episode references classic horror titles dating back to the genre’s foundational texts. Lucas’ electrified Demogorgon “creature” may not escape the Squawk’s makeshift laboratory, but the gang refers to his outlandish plan by name-checking Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Always the cinephile, Robin (Maya Hawke) cheekily corrects their pronunciation by quoting Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof Young Frankenstein.

Meanwhile, the military outfit holding the city in quarantine alludes to a more sinister villain. In the final moments of season 5, vol. 1, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) discovers her long-lost sister Kali/Eighth (Linnea Berthelsen) held captive in the base’s own lab. Vol. 2 reveals that the nefarious Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) has been systematically drawing her blood. She refers to the vicious military doctor as a vampire, nodding to Bram Stoker’s seminal Dracula in which a Transylvanian count sustains himself by drinking human blood.

Though disturbing enough, Kali’s continued story reveals Dr. Kay’s horrific plan. Momentarily free, Eight stumbles upon a restrained pregnant woman begging for help, then wanders through a series of rooms, each containing a similarly imprisoned mother-to-be. She realizes that the militant doctor has been transfusing these women with her unique blood, hoping to restart Dr. Brenner’s program and create a new batch of powerful children. But with Kali’s blood only causing illness, Dr. Kay is desperate to find Eleven and harvest a substance more closely aligned to Henry’s own DNA.

As Kali explores this maternity ward turned torture chamber, slasher fans may be reminded of a similarly unnerving scene from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection, which also happens to star Winona Ryder. 200 years after the death of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), a team of scientists led by Dr. Wren (J.E. Freeman) has used recovered blood samples to clone the heroic warrant officer. Known as Ripley 8, an eerie nod to Kail’s own numerical name, the horrified woman discovers an equally ominous laboratory filled with the monstrous corpses of seven failed clones, predecessors to her own successful resurrection.

We also learn that, like Dr. Kay, Dr. Wren is not actually concerned with the women themselves, but the creatures that grow inside them. The original Ripley died while impregnated with the embryo of a xenomorph queen, and the entire cloning experiment has been designed to extract this powerful creature and use it as a biological weapon. Kali’s similar discovery is not only a moment of disturbing pregnancy horror, but a reminder of the dehumanizing experiments stemming from Dr. Brenner’s time at Hawkins Lab.

Stranger Things kicked off its inaugural season with references to two of Stephen King’s most iconic novels. The Party and their trusty bikes nod to the Losers’ Club from the 1986 novel It, while Eleven is a spiritual successor to Charlie McGee, the pyrokinetic protagonist of King’s sci-fi classic Firestarter. But season 5 makes a fascinating visual reference to the Master of Horror’s magnum opus. The Dark Tower is a sprawling series that follows a noble gunslinger called Roland Deschain on an interdimensional quest to save the titular tower, the nexus of all universes.

The second of the series’ eight novels, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, catches up with the injured gunslinger on a desolate beach teeming with monstrous creatures. As he trudges down the seemingly endless shore, Roland encounters a series of three freestanding doors, each opening into a different era of New York City. Max and Holly encounter a similar passageway suspended midair in a field from Holly’s memories. Upon crossing the threshold, the girls seem to disappear without a trace, but they’ve actually been transported into another memory. The Dark Tower series also introduces the concept of ka-tet, a group of ostensibly disparate people whose fates intertwine on a hero’s journey. Roland draws his own ka-tet through these mysterious doors, mirroring not just Max and her alliance with Holly, but the larger Party’s noble quest to defeat Vecna and save the world.

While Max’s mind is trapped in “Camazotz,” her body is stuck in Hawkins Memorial Hospital. Believing her to be in a coma as a result of Vecna’s attack, Lucas has been playing Max’s favorite song, hoping to provide a mental bridge back to life. Having discovered her assistance in Holly’s escape, the vengeful monster threatens Max by sending a horde of vicious Demodogs rushing to her hospital bed. Fortunately, Will and Eleven are able to combine their powers and warn Lucas before the deadly creatures arrive. He carries his unconscious girlfriend to the hospital’s basement laundry room, where they cower behind a washing machine.

As the Demodogs approach, we’re reminded of a similar scene from Steven Spielberg’s iconic Jurassic Park. Trapped in a theme park overrun with dinosaurs, a terrified brother and sister use an industrial kitchen to hide from a pair of approaching raptors. Director Shawn Levy reflects the action in the laundry room’s corner mirror, solidifying this visual reference while revealing how close our heroes have come to certain death.

As season 5 nears its endgame, Darabont makes a visual reference to one of the U.S. Military’s most horrific tales. While searching Hawkins Lab for the source of a fleshy wall running through the Upside Down, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) notice a strange phenomenon as they approach the roof. Walls and doors have seemingly begun to melt, and the building appears to be slowly dissolving. What’s worse, a handful of soldiers were caught up in the destruction, and their corpses are now lodged in the hallway itself. These unsettling bodies feel eerily reminiscent of the Philadelphia Experiment, a rumored government program designed to render military vessels invisible. But rather than disappearing the USS Eldridge, an attempt to bend time and space is said to have momentarily transported the naval destroyer to Norfolk, Virginia, rendering the humans onboard permanently fused to the ship.

While searching the building’s lower floors, Dustin stumbles upon the key to this strange occurrence. The translucent mass Jonathan and Nancy discover just above the building’s roof — presumably the cause of those melting walls — is an element known as exotic matter. Created by Dr. Brenner, this dangerous sphere is stabilizing the Upside Down itself. Upon this discovery, Dusten explains that this dark and shadowy realm is not an alternate dimension at all, but a wormhole connecting Hawkins to the Abyss, a nightmare world home to the Mind Flayer, Demogorgons, and Vecna himself.

Many genre fans were first introduced to the concept of wormholes in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly‘s cult classic follows a troubled teen tormented by daytime hallucinations of a monstrous rabbit predicting the end of the world. As this ominous date approaches, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) must choose between protecting himself and saving the people he loves. Considering her discovery at the military base, Kali presents a similar choice to Eleven as they prepare for the party’s final showdown. Convinced others will follow in Dr. Brenner’s footsteps, she explains that the only way to prevent more of Vecna’s chaos is to not only kill their brother but also destroy any remnants of his existence, including the blood flowing through Eleven’s veins.

Kali insists that once the bridge between worlds has been severed, she and Eleven must stay in the Abyss to rid the world of Henry’s curse. Though Eleven hasn’t shared this theory with her boyfriend Mike (Finn Wolfhard), he seems to sense that something is wrong and reminds her of plans they’ve made for their future. Mike reminds his girlfriend that they have the power to write their own ending, nodding to one of horror’s most beloved final girls. Wes Craven’s Scream ends with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) reclaiming control of her narrative and refusing to be a pawn in someone else’s plan.

With just one episode remaining in Stranger Things’ unprecedented run, we’re left to wonder if Eleven will follow Kali down a path to self-sacrifice or dare to take control of her own story.

Stranger Things draws to a close when the series finale releases on December 31.

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