'Stranger Things' Netflix TV Show Supercut Reveals The Various Cinematic Influences & References

If you've been watching Netflix's Stranger Things then you'll know that it's a great series and also that it is heavy on references to sci-fi and horror from the seventies and eighties. The mysterious show from the Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross Duffer) is so laden with references that even the very font of the title is a nod to the Stephen King novels which it pulls from.

But it's not just pastiche, it's a riveting show in and of itself, gripping you from the outset with its premise of a missing boy, a strange beast, otherworldly portals, and conspiratorial scientific experiments.

However the Netflix series doesn't hide its influences, rather it wears them proudly on its sleeve. From the very opening you're taken back on a nostalgic trip to the 70s and 80s, the films of directors like Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and works by Stephen King.

Watching Stranger Things will have you pining for classic movies of those two decades. Movies like Carrie and Halloween, The Shining, Poltergeist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Goonies, Stand By Me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Alien.

All of these and more are given nods in the show, which is a bit like if you put all those in a blender and made a series out of the results. Although that doesn't really do the storytelling and performances their full credit.

In this four-minute video Ulysse Thevenon helps clarify those pangs of familiarity you might feel while watching the show. Using side-by-side comparison shots it goes through the many different references, all set to the John Carpenter-esque synth sounds of the Stranger Things soundtrack.