Investigating Stranger Things : Upside Down in the World of Mainstream Cult Entertainment

This edited collection explores the narrative, genre, nostalgia and fandoms of the phenomenally successful Netflix original series, Stranger Things. The book brings together scholars in the fields of media, humanities, communications and cultural studies to consider the various ways in which the Duffer Brothers’ show both challenges and confirms pre-conceived notions of cult media. Through its three sections on texts, contexts and receptions, the collection examines all aspects of the series’ presence in popular culture, engaging in debates surrounding cult horror, teen drama, fan practices, and contemporary anxieties in the era of Trump. Its chapters seek to address relatively neglected areas of scholarship in the realm of cult media, such as set design, fashion, and the immersive Secret Cinema Experience. These discussions also serve to demonstrate how cult texts are facilitated by the new age of television, where notions of medium specificity are fundamentally transformed and streaming platforms open up shows to extensive analysis in the now mainstream world of cult entertainment. Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors 1 Stranger Things in a Familiar Land: Mainstream Cult Entertainment in the Age of Netflix From Margins to Mainstream: Quality and Cult Television Stranger Things: The Netflix Effect Investigating Stranger Things Works Cited Part I Texts 2 ‘There’s More to Life Than Stupid Boys’: the (Re)Gendering of Cult Teen Drama in Stranger Things 3 The Gendering of Cult Teen Television ‘Am I Your Pet?’: Mileven, Elmax and the Limits of Heterosexual Coupling ‘Have You Ever Actually Won a Fight?’: Dustin, Steve, and the Challenge to Hypermasculinity ‘I’m Not Gonna Fall in Love’: The Complications of Queerness in Hawkins ‘I Found Someone Better for Me’: Stranger Things and the Reconfiguration of Adolescent Hegemony Works Cited 3 Tween Terror in the Upside Down: Children, Cult Horror and Stranger Things Opening the Gate: Children, Horror and Mainstream Cult ‘Something’s Coming’: The (Monstrous) Child in Stranger Things Body Horror and Family Melodrama: The Possessed Child in Stranger Things 2 Childish Adults and Tweenish Teens: The Neoliberal Horrors of Stranger Things 3 Playing in the Dressing up Box Works Cited 4 Flirting with the Final Girl: Stranger Things and the Inconsistent Representation of Female Empowerment The Final Girl Problem Final Girls in Stranger Things Final Girls Remixed The Liberation of the Final Girl Works Cited 5 ‘Something is Coming ...’: the Screenwriter as Dungeon Master of Stranger Things ‘The Campaign Took Two weeks to Plan!’: Stranger Things as Eight-Hour Movie ‘It’s Right Next to You and You Don’t Even See It’: Eight-Hour Movie as D&D Adventure ‘You’re Ruining Our Party!’: A Turn to Episodic Storytelling Works Cited Part II Contexts 6 ‘What Happens to Us in the Future?’: Stranger Things 3 Goes Back to the Future (1985) It Is Good to Be Back (in the 1980s) The 1980s 2.0: Recalling the Past (But Not as We Knew It) Rewriting the Past and Saving the Future A Steven Spielberg Childhood ‘The Future’s Gonna Change’ Works Cited 7 Stranger Networks: Ancillary Threats, Cult Nostalgia and Technological Invasions Within the Wires: Finding Meaning in Error Interconnected: Tracing Rhizomatic Flow Ancillary Control Stranger Networks Works Cited 8 A Nightmare on Maple Street: Family Dynamics and Suburban Horror in Stranger Things Horror in the Heartland: Hawkins, Indiana and American Suburbia Wes Craven’s Nightmares in Suburbia Stranger Things and the Horrors of Ronald Reagan The Houses That Freddy Built: Repressive Families and Monstrous Fathers Friends (and Families) Don’t Lie: Single Parents and Friendship Groups Conclusion: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street Works Cited 9 Returning Home: Set Design and Visual Storytelling in the Cult World of Stranger Things Somewhere Stranger: Building a Home in Cult Television Closing the Circle: Interpreting the Visual Concept ‘Something Is Going on Here’: The Small Town of Hawkins Production Design: The Byers Home and the Visual Concept Conclusion: Coming Full Circle Works Cited Part III Receptions 10 From 1980s Intertextualities to (Un)Faithful ‘Inter-Textualities’: Stranger Things and Audience-Created Relations Between Media Texts ‘Playing the DLC Before the Main Quest WTF’: ACR Focusing on Netflix, Other 1980s-Referencing Texts, and Gaming ‘The Least Stranger Things Episode of Stranger Things I Have Ever Seen’: Auto-Interpretations in ACR Conclusion Works Cited 11 Neverending Story: How Transmedia Narratives Generate Cults Transmedial Storytelling and Paratexts Classic Paratexts Cast Featurettes Adverts as Paratexts Fan Engagement and Creation Conclusion Works Cited 12 Sponsored Things: Audiences and the Commodification of the Past in Stranger Things Stranger Things, Cult Television and Nostalgia Stranger Things, Generation X and Retro-Marketing Millennials to Generation Z: Stranger Things’ Younger Audience The Wardrobes of Stranger Things: Between Past and Present Nostalgia Marketing: The Commodification of the Past Works Cited Correction to: Investigating Stranger Things Correction to: T. Mollet and L. Scott (eds.), Investigating Stranger Things, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66314-8 Index This book explores the narrative, genre, nostalgia and fandoms of the phenomenally successful Netflix original series Stranger Things. It considers the different ways in which the show both challenges and confirms our pre-conceived notions of cult media texts by examining the series' textual features, contextual criticism and forms of audience engagement. The chapters examine all aspects of the show's presence in popular culture, engaging with debates surrounding cult horror, teen drama and contemporary anxieties in the age of Trump. The book also touches upon relatively neglected areas of scholarship in the realm of cult media, such as set design, fashion and the textual complexities of the Secret Cinema experience. Discussions within the book also serve to demonstrate how cult texts are facilitated by the new age of television, where notions of medium specificity are fundamentally transformed and streaming platforms open shows to the extensive analysis expected from (now mainstream) cult fandoms. Tracey Mollet is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of Cartoons in Hard Times: The Animated Shorts of Disney and Warner Brothers in Depression and War (2017) and A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream (2020). She has published widely on American popular culture, including several articles and chapters on Stranger Things, intertextuality and nostalgia. Lindsey Scott is Lecturer in English at the University of Suffolk, UK, where she teaches adaptation studies and gothic horror in young adult fiction. Her work has appeared in edited collections and journals including Literature/Film Quarterly and Shakespeare Survey. She is currently writing on horror in children's literature and popular culture