“Stranger Things” season 4 is a brutal step up for a show whose first season was basically “what if E.T. but a human girl?” It’s not just Chrissy that dies like this, either. We also see geek Fred (Logan Riley Bruner), basketball player Patrick (Myles Truitt), and Victor Creel’s wife bite the dust the same way. The season even opens on a bit of shocking violence, with Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) surveying the aftermath of a massacre of children at Hawkins Lab. That last part is especially difficult to take in, as the sight of the small, crumpled bodies without any fantastical context feels all too real.
Although some of the violence in “Stranger Things 4” may be tough to stomach, it’s a sign that the show is doing something too few stories are willing to do: grow up with its audience. Great teen adventure sagas like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Harry Potter” have done the same, growing darker and more complex as their main characters approached adulthood. Despite its blockbuster sheen, “Stranger Things” is emerging as a more creative and bold counterbalance to anesthetized major franchises that seem trapped in amber, unwilling to grow alongside their viewers.
Though some of the death scenes in “Stranger Things” season 4 seem designed to be relished in the same way horror fans would relish a great slasher movie kill, they also stand in for something meaningful. The Upside Down has always represented a sort of otherness: the people who end up in it are almost always outcasts, loners, or in some way marginalized. This year, with the reveal that Vecna preys on those who hold secrets and deep insecurities, the metaphor is clearer than ever. These kills are a crushing weight made visible, the pain of enduring abuse or grief or trauma turned outward. It’s a graphic sight to behold, but a surprisingly powerful one too.
