Stranger Things Season 4 Fixes 1 Major Slasher Movie Mistake

WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 4, volume 1.

Taking its slasher movie influences and improving on them, Stranger Things season 4, volume 1 fixes an issue that plagues several slasher movies – most notably, Halloween Kills. The season has been met with praise from viewers for its quick pace and its introduction of great new characters, such as Vecna, otherwise known as Henry Kreel/One. In addition to these successes, Stranger Things season 4 crucially improves on the slasher movie formula, channeling its 80s influences while simultaneously making them better.

After being banished to the Upside Down by Eleven, Vecna’s presence returns to Hawkins as he kills Chrissy Cunningham in Eddie Munson’s uncle’s trailer. Her death enrages her boyfriend, Jason Carver, who uses his charisma to form an angry mob of jocks to hunt down Eddie, who he blames for Chrissy’s death. Jason then watches his friend, Patrick McKinney, rise into the air and contort in a gruesome death, right in front of Eddie. Recognizing that Eddie did not directly kill Chrissy and Patrick but believing the religious propaganda that Dungeons and Dragons promotes satanism, Jason forms a bigger mob made up of Hawkins’ residents, to hunt down the Hellfire Club, who they mistake for a satanic cult.

The angry mob is a tired cliché, but Stranger Things season 4 makes it seem valid and earned. Halloween Kills tries to sell the viewer that the entire town of Haddonfield is willing to mindlessly attack the wrong person while hunting Michael Myers, despite Myers being locked away for forty years and only striking again the night before. By contrast, the hysteria around Hawkins being cursed paired with the many deaths linked to the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer, the Demodogs, and the Russians, including Barbara ‘Barb’ Holland, makes their shared fear more believable. With this context, the town’s decision to brand the Hellfire Club a cult and pin all their troubles on Eddie Munson makes sense.

Adding the Dungeons and Dragons subplot is also a great way to make the angry mob more believable. Dungeons and Dragons has been synonymous with Stranger Things since the Netflix show began, as Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, and Will Byers play it and even name the threats from the Upside Down after monsters in the game. When paired with the real outcry that D&D faces, allegedly for promoting satanism, witchcraft, and murder, the angry mob plot line becomes far more compelling.

Jason Carver is also a key factor in the Hawkins mob’s believability. His motivation in Stranger Things season 4 is realistic and his charisma as somewhat of a town hero makes it reasonable that people would believe him and disregard social outcasts like Eddie, Dustin, and Mike. By contrast, Halloween Kills‘ mob leader, Tommy Jarvis, comes off as an obsessed man who will stop at anything to murder Michael Myers. The character of Jason is handled much better than Tommy, reflecting how clunky the angry mob plot is in Halloween Kills and how well it is executed in Stranger Things.