Brief look into Stranger Thing's interiors and stylistics.

1. STRANGER
THINGS –
STYLISTICS
A N I N V E S T I G AT I O N
B Y K I R S T Y

2. STRANGER THINGS
A Netflix original drama series set in 1983 in a small town
in Indiana.
The sci-fi drama explores a series of strange and terrifying
events, beginning with Joyce’s 12 year-old son going
missing.
It only came to me recently while watching the second
series recently released that this series is actually very
good in terms of style.

3. DUFFER BROTHERS
An article onThe Guardian quotes the Duffer
Brothers showing their wish to live up to the
director Steven Spielberg’s reputation in the
80s.
Spielberg directed the hit 80s film E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial, which we can immediately see
features that have inspired the Duffer Brothers
with their series StrangerThings.

4. E.T. AND STRANGER THINGS
Here are two stills; E.T. on the left, and StrangerThings on the right.The similarities here are
obvious through the costume, the perspective, the setting, and even a very similar scenario going
on at this point in both scenes. Even though they’re filmed over 30 years apart, it would be hard
to know they weren’t even from the same film with the two juxtaposed.

5. STEVE
In terms of characters, Steve has the aesthetics of someone I’d like to create through casting for
my music video.The costume is spot on for an 80s drama, which is something I MUST get right.
Steve is a typical 80s ‘jock’ – a player of the football team, and not afraid to get what he wants. He
gets his girl at the end of the first series despite humiliating her at one point and calling her a slut.

6. INTERIOR DECOR This wide-shot shows Joyce looking
small and insignificant in the spread
out rooms and extensive amounts of
fairy lights.
This is a clever staging which actually
forces the audience to see a state of
insanity in Joyce. But what I’m more
interested in is the actually interior
of the house, excluding the fairy
lights.
Wood panelled walls and floor,
cardboard boxes in the rooms giving
a strange careless, unorganised effect.

7. INTERIOR DECOR
In this scene we see backless
bookshelves (very stylish at the
time), and blankets over the
sofas.There’s lots of floral patterns
in the house, which all clash slightly.
The room is dark, making all the
colours in the room blend together
into a bland mundane room.

8. INTERIOR DECOR
There’s clever staging in this shot
as well, with a wide shot
accentuating the man sat alone at
the dinner table.There’s plates of
food on the table, which create a
comical and mysterious setting
here with the man eating alone.
There’s the floral wallpaper here
again, and another dimly lit room
which creates a claustrophobic
effect despite the isolation of the
man.

9. INTERIOR DECOR
This is a shot from the film Sing
Street, set in 1985.This shot
differs with lighting when
compared to Stranger Things as
we can see the white balance is
more ‘white’ on the wall, showing
a brighter lit room.
The wallpaper here is block
colours, but we see a busy (and
ugly) carpet and the wooden
furniture that seems to have been
a trend in the 80s.