A thread for Stranger Things, the "Goonies meets X-Files" new Netflix series (with SPOILERS!)

(the first tangerine dream music i ever heard was the soundtrack to Thief. i bought the LP at Caldor after seeing the movie with my dad in 1981.)

still get overwhelming Stephen King - It, The Body/Stand By Me

agree with this, the Spielberg comparisons seem mostly off to me. The only real connection to them is the kids, but mood wasn't as lighthearted as a Spielberg flick would be -- it wasn't a thrilling adventure offset with comedy and tear-jerky moments. It was mostly an eerie show where something dark was always close behind anything fun/lighthearted.

The Spielbergianism was mostly in the staging and shots imo. There was one particular tracking shot in the kids' classroom that felt like a pretty deliberate homage to similar shots in ET.

I can see that, and there were a few misty lens-flare kind of shots that reminded me of his lighting circa Close Encounters, Raiders

you guys all liked Super 8, right?

god no

I liked super 8. Not as much as this show though.

i've been watching Freaks and Geeks with my kids and i think Millie might be my all time fave Barb. though i'll always be fond of Betty Finn from Heathers too.

i also forgot about the vaguely Nirvana-ish incidental music on F&G.

i liked Super 8 a lot.

was the main kid supposed to look like sam weir t/n

also i like how all of the attractive ppl are attractive in a Canadian public television /Degrassi Jr High kind of way where they still look like ppl you kinda know irl

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, August 15, 2016 3:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The setting was a bit earlier, but something about the kids in this kept reminding me very specifically of the kids on Fifteen (aka Hillside). There was definitely at least one Barb on that show.

I enjoyed Super 8, but it felt a lot more derivative and generic than Stranger Things (I can't remember a single performance, for example,).

The thing I don't get about this show is all the supernatural stuff. I mean, did you really get telekinetic girls running around breaking people's necks back in 1983?

yeah it was a thing

It happens when your mom takes government LSD.

We had a dark dimension portal in our basement but it was covered in Shirt Tales stickers.

Telekinetic Girls opened the last DNA show in '83

xp LOL I loved Shirt Tales

Shirt Tales and Get Along Gang were my favorite greeting card-based cartoons when I was 5.

took till at least '88 for telekinetics to get to the UK

Greeting card-based cartoons have really gone downhill lately. Two Oiled Beefcakes Who Are Barely Obscuring Their Genitals is kind of amusing but I'm uncomfortable letting my kids watch it.

The thing I don't get about this show is all the supernatural stuff. I mean, did you really get telekinetic girls running around breaking people's necks back in 1983?

Carrie 1974/1976
Escape to Witch Mountain 1975
The Fury 1978
Firestarter 1980/1984
Modern Problems 1981
Scanners 1981
Zapped 1982

Totally era appropriate!

Some Phantasm vibes in this one, too.

the difference is in 1982 they used telekinetic powers to lift girl's sweaters

Times were different then.

this has also brought to mind radical projectile vomiting stunts, and for that, I thank you

I think the telekinesis trend was a tamer version of the being-possessed-by-the-devil trend from the mid-70s.

Super 8 was on TV just after I finished this, I liked it but didn't feel as invested in the kids, honestly. I think TV series pacing was better for me to get to know them as characters rather than tropes.

Also I <3 <3 <3 the Kindertrauma website, so cool that you know the guy, scott.

I saw Super 8 in the theater, but I haven't watched it since. All I really remember is that it was Elle Fanning's first role of import and that the monster was a letdown.

http://caveofcult.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/JENN.jpg

Is that Tom Jones?

There is also Argento's Phenomena, where Jennifer Connolly controls bugs.

looks more like Bert Convy

That's Convy hair if ever I've seen it.

Don't forget the Australian psychic powers movie Dark Forces, also of that era

It was a golden age of thin wires pulling hair dryers through the air

i can't believe that E.T. and Poltergeist came out almost at the same time. what a double whammy. Poltergeist obliterated me in June of 1982.

i also can't believe i saw those movies AND blade runner in the same month.

yeah, same with Close Encounters and Star Wars only months apart. And SW was so big, there is a hidden reference to it in CE!

See also: Ghostbusters and Gremlins released the same day, American Werewolf, Howling, and Wolfen all released the same year.

('84 in general, though...like, you could delete all of the other years of that decade from existence and you'd still basically have a precise encapsulation of resonant '80s cinematic pop culture.)

I liked Super 8 a lot, but they kinda punted the ending, and I didnt like seeing so much of the monster. Loved the kids, wanted more of those scenes

i loved the scene at the train station.

June, 1982
June 4 Hanky Panky Comedy $9,823,934
Poltergeist Horror $10,700,000 $74,706,019
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Adventure $12,000,000 $78,912,963

June 11 ET: The Extra-Terrestrial Drama $10,500,000 $435,110,554
Grease 2 Musical $14,297,083

June 18 Author! Author! Comedy $13,111,101
Firefox Action $21,000,000 $45,785,720

June 25 Blade Runner Thriller/Suspense $28,000,000 $32,656,328
Megaforce Action $18,000,000 $5,675,599
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl Concert/Performance $327,958
The Thing Horror $13,782,838

E.T. played for like 400 years in my town.

Tron was the only other movie that came out that summer that i was really into. though i did enjoy young doctors in love.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/year/1982

I watched ET on netflix for the first time since '82 recently, and it was...ok. Might actually be the moment Spielberg jumped the shark for me (tho I have enjoyed a few others from him since then). I think part of the reason Stranger Things didn't amaze me overall was because it's not like I loved every thing it references in the first place.

looking at '82 list, Conan, NIMH, Rocky III, Dark Crystal were all big players in Ms Harpool's 3rd grade classroom

road warrior was the other biggie for me that year.

Fast Times was for the Older Kids

yeah i was only 13/14, my dad wasn't gonna take me to see porky's or fast times. he did take me to see richard pryor on the sunset strip though. and diva. and diner. and we saw eating raoul at the movies but i think it was a year or two later in nyc.

we had to drive to danbury to see a lot of movies. there were three different theaters there. the drive-in was in danbury too. only one place to see movies in my town. (we had to go to new milford to see blade runner. okay, i'll stop now. i have a good memory for this stuff.)

it's all right here in the official poll:

Movies My Dad Took Me To When I Was A Kid - The Poll!