About a minute or so into the trailer for the upcoming Netflix original series Stranger Things, I was hoping the show would be about the aftermath of Winona Ryder’s character snapping the Chief Wiggum-esque sheriff’s neck.
“My child is missing under mysterious circumstances! Please do something, officer of the law.”
“Ehhhh, he’s probably not even missing. Dangerous stuff has never happened in this town, so obviously it can’t ever happen.”
Then again, the show is set in the 80’s, and for all I know adult authority figures in isolated, Spielberg-ian small towns were that naive back then.
The trailer makes it clear, however, that the young boy in question, Will, is indeed missing, and that he might have seen “something that he shouldn’t have.” Not much detail is given in this trailer. Will’s disappearance is the driving force of the plot and mystery, but we also see appearances from the Men-in-Hazmat-Suits, a mysterious child who cryptically suggests that Will is “hiding,” secret testing taking place in a secret facility, and a van somersaulting for no visible reason. Safe to say, Stranger Things is a very appropriate title for this interesting new series.
Speaking of the title, that closing title card is my absolute favorite thing about this trailer. It feels a bit out of place, to be honest. It feels much more directly menacing and ominous than what we get from the rest of the trailer, but who cares, because holy hell, that’s one great title card. It looks like the title font you’d find on 70’s horror paperback. I know that’s an odd thing to gush over, but did you see that? Don’t you sort of wish this was a movie being directed by John Carpenter in his prime after seeing that title card?
Stranger Things comes to Netflix to consume more of your free time on July 15th.
