Stranger Things season 3 featured an interesting connection to a notable B-horror movie from 1985. The Netflix series, created by the Duffer Brothers, is currently developing season 4. The cast and crew will look to match the success of the previous season which was was viewed by over 64 million households within the first month.
The Duffer Brothers are no stranger to popular movies of the '70s and '80s. Their sci-fi series is like a love letter to those eras of film and TV and they make it a point to honor some of the biggest titles in pop culture. Stranger Things is heavily inspired by author Stephen King as well as filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, George A. Romero, and John Carpenter. The show also takes time directly references notable titles like Alien, Back to the Future, The Evil Dead, Ghostbusters, The NeverEnding Story, Star Wars, and numerous others. The Duffers also dug a little deeper when it came to influences.
After closing the Gate and securing the Mind Flayer back inside the Upside Down in Stranger Things season 2, the monster introduced a new form in the most recent season. When another Gate opened, the Mind Flayer was able to telepathically control a piece of itself left in Hawkins. It then infected rats and possessed humans to build a proxy body out of slithering biomass. When the substance fused together, it formed a new creature that some referred to as the Spider Monster. The slimy blobs of biomass seemed to be a reference to The Stuff, a satirical sci-fi horror film that debuted the same year that season 3 was set.
The Stuff, directed by Larry Cohen, starred Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, and featured uncredited cameos by Patrick Dempsey and Mira Sorvino. It focused on an ice-cream-like substance that was discovered and marketed as to the general public. It was highly addictive and sold to consumers in ice cream containers but it was also extremely dangerous. "The Stuff," which it was called, was actually a living parasite that took over the brain after it was consumed. It then mutated the host into a zombie after destroying their bodies from the inside. Like typical B-horror movies, it had terrible effects and sub-par acting.
As the substance in The Stuff, the Mind Flayer also emerged as a sentient blob before infecting living things. It targeted rats before growing large enough to find human victims. Those people that were infected became the Flayed, the monster's zombie-like army that later melted into more blobs that fused with the growing monster to enhance the Mind Flayer's proxy body. Though the substance wasn't ingested like the B-horror movie, the blobs were just as dangerous to living beings who came in contact.
Some could argue that Stranger Things season 3 also had a connection to the cult classic 1958 horror film, The Blob. The film, starring Steve McQueen, featured a growing alien entity that took over an entire town by devouring anything in its path, including the citizens. It's likely that The Stuff and many horror films that came out after the '50s were inspired by The Blob. It still holds a legacy over 60 years later and proves that good movies can be made from small budgets.
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