If anyone doubts the importance of Netflix as a platform for audiovisual content, in addition to the fact that the consumption revolution in streaming belongs to him, maybe he should review his audience numbers, the nominations and awards he has achieved and his own series that have become a cultural phenomenon. like the fascinating Dark (2017-2020) or stranger thingscreated by the Duffer Brothers (since 2016), which will premiere its fourth batch of episodes in a few days.
The first thing we can confirm about the new adventures of Eleven by Millie Bobby Brown and company in the fictional town of Hawkins and beyond is that Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy Wheeler, was not lying when she told us in Madrid that what is coming it is “the darkest and scariest season”. In fact, the first bars of “The Hellfire Club” (4×01) derive from a detailed and disturbing composition to an indisputable bet for horror in stranger things. No half measures.
A horror that breaks out on different occasions, with an obvious aroma of the film Nightmare in Elm street (1984) or the novel Item (1986); and that serves so that the chapters end in climax. Thus, and thanks to the very attractive beginnings of each of them, there is no doubt that the Duffer Brothers intend to encourage that we do not move from our seats until the seven that make up the first volume of the season have finished. And, oh, they get it based on good.
The lucidity of those responsible for ‘Stranger Things’
The creepy mystery of stranger things it unravels little by little with the investigation of our young protagonists; in a purely eighties dynamic, seasoned with the use of the prejudiced controversies typical of that time and other social problems that even today have not been addressed with determination, whatever they say, to add substance and greater depth to the argument. And we can’t forget the rewarding action sequences.
The inventiveness of a filmmaker is verified, especially, in his visual plans. And of stranger things continues to make it clear that, apart from the enormous means that Netflix has, they are provided here the talented brains of the Duffer Brothersaccompanied again by Shawn Levy, director of there you stay (2014) or FreeGuy (2021), and Nimród Antal, who has been responsible, for example, for predators (2010) and various episodes of servant (since 2019).
Apart from some energetic sequence shots, they offer us other eye-catching rotating or aerial shots sporadically, transitions with associated elements and alternate montages quite eloquently and in an elaborate and exciting parallelism. And the cooperative soundtrack by the still little lavished Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein judiciously takes advantage of certain ingredients of the plot for its score, essential to sustain the alarming atmosphere from stranger things.
The heart in a fist
Of course, it’s nice to meet up again with Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, David Harbor’s Jim Hopper and other regular characters from stranger things. But it is worth commenting on the pleasure that the bad drool of Priah Ferguson’s Erica Sinclair gives us; and, above all, the incorporation of the charismatic Eddie Munsonembodied by Joseph Quinnwhom we have seen before as Koner in Game of Thrones (2011-2019) or the Grunauer of overlord (2018).
The proof that the Duffer Brothers and the actors have done a good job is how much the demons they conjure affect us with certain brand new villains along carrie (1974), so recognizable by lots of people who have suffered the same, transmitting a rage for which we really want satisfaction with the exorcism that they receive what they deserve. Because the cinematographic narrative also uses the low feelings in its experiences.
On the other hand, in this fourth season of stranger things we come across clear echoes of The silence of the lambs (1991) and his images; and unexpected twists that still turn what could have been simple and easy into a development much more interestingand other different ones that complicate the situation, already disturbing in itself, accentuate the drama and then propitiate tremendous sequences of pure anguish that put the tie gonads on us.
To not take your eyes off the screen
Humor flies low and in short distances; without there being any inconsistency with the personality of characters as particular as Gaten Matarazzo’s beloved Justin Henderson, Maya Hawke’s Robin Buckley or Brett Gelman’s Murray Bauman, who usually give it to us by the handful, and certain interactions by Steve Harrington by Joe Keery. But we do not miss that they do not skimp on it because the intrigue devised by the Duffer Brothers absorbent.
Especially thanks to the fact that they choose to diversify the foci of the story of stranger things, and scatter the already large group of Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, proposing multiple tessituras. And, with this decision, they endow it with more possibilities for suspense, the dangers of the supernatural or the very human adventure, the amazement at the unknown, its surprises, horrors and atrocities. And with these spectacular incentives, we can’t even imagine what they will have in store for us in July for the final fireworks.