Sunday, March 5, 2017

Movie review: Stranger Things

When Will Byers disappears while walking home from a friends house his mother, friends, and a cop begin searching for him and quickly realize something sinister is at work.

Winona Ryder (Joyce), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), David Harbour (Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Millie Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Noah Schnapp (Will).

Stranger Things begins with the disappearance of Will Byers while walking home after playing games with friends. Realizing Will is missing, his friends and family begin to search and quickly become aware of supernatural forces at work. The remainder of the series is a fun ride of twists and turns that blend the supernatural with science, and a healthy dose of terror. Though aimed at younger audiences, this one does a great job of holding the interest of all ages.

Acting was good with Ryder delivering well as a terrified mother. Harbour fit his role nicely and worked well with Ryder. Wolfhard was solid in a main role, and was supported nicely by Matarazzo, McLaughlin and others. Brown was perfectly creepy and unusual in her role, and added good depth to the film.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds are well done with a solid, authentic feel. They blended well with the extensive CGI seen in later episodes, which was also nicely done. Dialogue was decent though, likely due to the intended audience, a bit light. Sound and soundtrack were good.

While Stranger Things may be aimed at younger audiences, I found the supernatural storyline pretty good. Adding in some good BOO moments, a creature or two, and spending a good amount of time building suspense while action was taking place made this one adults should easily enjoy.

With some graphic violence, gore, mild sexuality, foul language, and teen drinking this should be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2016
Reviewed: 2.24.17
Star rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Supernatural Horror, Fantasy, Drama, TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy

copyright ©2017 Dave Riedel

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