‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Vol. 1: a harrowing nightmare that has lost its innocence

If anyone doubts the importance of Netflix as an audiovisual content platform, in addition to the fact that the revolution in streaming consumption belongs to it, perhaps they should review its audience numbers, the nominations and awards it has achieved, and its series that have become into a cultural phenomenon. Like the fascinating Dark (2017-2020) or Stranger Things, created 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”. The first bars of “The Hellfire Club” (4×01) derive from a detailed and disturbing composition to an unquestionable commitment to horror in Stranger Things. No half measures.

A horror that breaks out on different occasions, with an obvious scent of the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or the novel It (1986); and that serves so that the chapters end in climax. Thus, and thanks to the attractive beginnings of each of them, there is no doubt that the Duffer Brothers intend to encourage us not to 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 is gradually unraveling with the investigation of our young protagonists; in a pure 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 not forget the rewarding action sequences.

The inventiveness of a filmmaker is verified, especially, in his visual plans. And that of Stranger Things continues to make it clear that, apart from the huge media that Netflix has, here they are provided by the talented brains of the Duffer Brothers, accompanied again by Shawn Levy, director of There you stay (2014) or Free Guy (2021), and Nimród Antal, who has been in charge of, for example, Predators (2010) and several 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 elaborate and exciting parallelism. And the cooperative soundtrack by the still little lavished Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein judiciously exploits certain ingredients of the plot for its score, essential to sustain the alarming atmosphere of Stranger Things.