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11 guide 14-20 Oct 2017

been kicking around an early
form of Stranger Things between
themselves, but at this stage still
saw it as a film, and not one they
were particularly enthusiastic
about. They took a writing job
on M Night Shyamalan’s series
Wayward Pines, having long
been fans of the director’s scary
movies – and started to learn
about how television worked.
The cogs began to whir, and
they started to think about
Stranger Things as a more
longform idea. “We were seeing
TV becoming increasingly
cinematic, with stuff like True
Detective ,” Ross says. “And Game
of Thrones opened up ‘genre TV’
and showed it doesn’t have to
be cheesy.” They couldn’t seem
to make Stranger Things work
as a film, so why not expand
it? “The idea was: could we
take what Spielberg did in the
80s, with these B-movie ideas
of flying saucers and killer

sharks, and elevate

it? We could see that

audiences were hungry for it,

because The Walking Dead was

exploding,” says Ross.

For Matt, it happened at

the perfect time. “I don’t think

anyone imagined, six years ago,

that a show with dragons in it

would be the biggest show in

the world. When I was reading

the Game of Thrones books in

college, I couldn’t get anyone else

to read them cos they looked so

nerdy. It had a puffy sword on the

cover, you know what I mean?”

With Stranger Things, the Duffers

have both tapped into nerd

culture going mainstream, and

given it a strong push forward.

Why are people so into it now? “I

don’t know,” laughs Matt, adding,

with a perfect nerd flourish:

“Because I think people realised

it was cool?” He points out that

Marvel movies are huge, even

for people who have never read

a comic book in their lives.

There are plenty of people

watching Game of Thrones who

have never played an online role-

playing game, and may not know

what one is. It is cause and effect,

but there’s an additional factor,

too: more money is being spent,

and what’s known as “genre TV”

is no longer plagued by wobbly

walls and dreadful special effects.

Like the Stranger Things kids,

it is not difficult to imagine the

Duffer brothers holed up in their

own basement playing Dungeons

and Dragons. “I always loved

fantasy, or the fantastical,”

concedes Matt. “ I loved the Lord

of the Rings books, The Hobbit.

And my parents, they still don’t

understand it because they hate

fantasy stuff. Neither of them

are into it. So I don’t know where

it comes from. We just loved

scaring ourselves.”

Whether Stranger Things

is a horror series is a matter of

debate. The first ever episode

is truly frightening, and there

are moments of creeping dread

throughout – #poorbarb – but the

scares tapered off during season

one; the brothers’ homage-

filled cut-and-paste approach

made it more of a combination

of family drama, high-school

romance, coming-of-age story

and conspiracy thriller than a

straight-up monster flick. Which

ultimately gives it heart, and

may be partly why its following

is so devoted and so invested.

Ross says that is another benefit

of moving to TV: there is less

pressure for “constant jump

scares” than there is in movies.

“Also, we’re not very good at it.

It’s a skill,” he says.

“It’s really hard to do,” agrees

Matt. “You can go: ‘Oh, that’s a

cheap scare’, but those cheap

scares are hard to achieve, so

we’re working on it. I think we

have a couple of better ones

this year. Our inability to be so

scary ended up paying off, but it

wasn’t intentional.”

Stranger

danger

A scene from

season two;

and (right) the

Duff ers

‘I always loved

fantasy. I loved Lord

of the Rings, The

Hobbit. We loved

scaring ourselves’

Stranger

Things

Special