Plot: It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time – and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, resenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.
Review: After three years off the air, the long-awaited fourth season of Stranger Things is finally here. After a COVID-19 induced production hiatus, the expanded season wrapped production in 2021 and is premiering in two parts beginning with seven episodes this Friday. The penultimate season, Stranger Things 4 begins just half a year after the third and features the main cast all looking significantly older. Now in high school and separated by thousands of miles, the teens are more divided than ever as their most challenging enemy surfaces in Hawkins. This new season of Stranger Things is substantially more mature than the first three and has transformed from an homage to Amblin adventures into a full-blown horror story that is definitely not for the squeamish. Above all, this is absolutely the most expansive and epic that Stranger Things has ever been and the best season since the first.
Stranger Things 4 is comprised of four main plot threads that are interconnected over the season. The first is set in Hawkins where new villain Vecna begins a reign of murder unlike any the small Indiana town has faced before. The second is set in California where the Byers family relocated after the incident at Starcourt Mall. During Spring Break, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) visits Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Will (Noah Schnapp). The third focuses on Hopper (David Harbour) who is alive and in a Russian prison. The final thread focuses on Eleven’s lost powers and features flashbacks to her time under the care of Dr. Martin Bremmer (Matthew Modine). All four of these storylines are given a great deal of focus during each episode. How is it possible to cram that much plot into each chapter? This season of Stranger Things is the longest yet with each episode clocking in at an almost feature-length 75 minutes.
Since Hawkins is the place where this story started, it is also the anchor of this season’s narrative. With some new characters, notably Hawkins High basketball captain Jason Carver (Mason Dye) and Hellfire Club leader Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). There is also an expanded focus on Max (Sadie Sink) as well as new rifts between the gang of friends as they are all growing up and a little bit apart. When the threat of Vecna reveals itself, the crew fall right back into their routine of trying to stop the Upside Down from consuming their town which leads them to the discovery of the Creel House, the mysterious building seen in the very first teaser for this season. That also leads to how horror icon Robert Englund makes his appearance in the show. I won’t reveal any additional details about how he factors into the story, but it is a very important part.
Vecna, teased in the trailers, is a horrifying blend of Freddy Krueger and Thanos. Unlike the Demogorgon or other monsters from the Upside Down in previous seasons, Vecna speaks and plots and seems to have a determined mission. As his actions unfold over these chapters, his presence becomes much more imposing than any threat these characters have faced before. He is brutal and formidable and changes the stakes for this series from an adventure to a survival horror story. There are also higher stakes in the human villains in Hawkins which connects to the fear and paranoia in the 1980s surrounding perceived connections between Dungeons and Dragons with the occult.
The California set scenes are a nice change of scenery for this series which has always been mired in dark colors. The bright sun offers a nice change and serves as the location for some of the biggest sequences this series has done so far. It also affords a logical reason to divide the characters to further the different plots this season, notably Eleven’s struggles with losing her powers at the end of the third season. The trailers tease the return of Paul Reiser as Sam Owens who knows of a rising threat that will require Eleven’s unique gifts. Across the globe, the weakest part of this season has to be Hopper’s story set in Russia. While it does connect to the main plot, it feels the least important of everything going on. I love David Harbour in this series but unless something significant happens in the second volume, Hopper’s arc is the most unnecessary.
Having seen the seven episodes that comprise the first volume of Stranger Things 4, I can say that this show is scarier than it has ever been. A Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser, two 80s horror classics, seem to be a major inspiration for the look and feel this season. The first three seasons felt like PG-13 movies and this new season pushes the envelope of the gore and violence that would earn similar projects an R. Even with the increased bloodshed, Stranger Things 4 still has a great sense of humor, primarily from Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo as Steve and Dustin. Maya Hawke continues to shine in an increased role over last season. The directing duties on these six episodes were evenly split between The Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, and Nimrod Antal, all of whom up the stakes for what this show delivers visually.
Stranger Things 4 does not rely on cheap jump scares to deliver chills. This is the most complex season yet with each episode building the mythology of the Upside Down more than ever before. With the main cast bigger than it has ever been, this season manages to give each character balanced screen time and each plot enough room to develop. With an ending that is going to leave audiences with their jaws on the floor leading into the second and final volume in just over a month, Stranger Things 4 has set this series up for one hell of a final season. As much as I have enjoyed each run of episodes, this fourth season is the strongest since the first and delivers the scariest and most action-packed run to date. Stranger Things 4 once again is about to claim the title of The Show of the Summer and I cannot wait to see how it will end.
Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 premieres on May 27th on Netflix. Volume 2 debuts on July 1, 2022.
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