What Stephen King Thought About 'Stranger Things 2'
Stranger Things owes a lot to the work of Stephen King, so it's only natural that King would have some thoughts on it. The Master of Horror took to his Twitter to share his thoughts on the brand new season, and it's not the first time the prolific horror writer made his thoughts on the show known. See what Stephen King thought about Stranger Things 2 below.Stranger Things is like a nostalgic cross-pollination of the works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, particularly in the way it focuses on a paranormal underbelly working its way through the suburbs, and in the way it puts children in peril. Ever the diplomat, King has made his thoughts known on Stranger Things 2, the newest season of the hit Netflix series. Here's what he had to say:
STRANGER THINGS 2: Ladies and gentlemen, that's how you do it: no bullshit, balls to the wall entertainment. Straight up.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) November 9, 2017
Mr. King is being very generous here, and were I one of the Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, I'd be over the freakin' moon right now. This isn't the first time King voiced an opinion of the show. Back when season 1 debuted, King praised the show as "pure fun":
STRANGER THINGS is pure fun. A+. Don't miss it. Winona Ryder shines.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 18, 2016
He also didn't shy away from confirming how similar the show is to some of his books:
Watching STRANGER THINGS is looking watching Steve King's Greatest Hits. I mean that in a good way.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 17, 2016
This really is all very nice of King, as he could've easily acted like a jerk about the whole thing and called the show out for ripping him off. Instead, he's a big fan. The King work Stranger Things owes the most to is Firestarter, which focuses on a telekinetic young girl on the run from the evil government agency that experimented on her. But the show also contains shades of Carrie, The Mist, The Body (the inspiration for the film Stand by Me), and of course, It, a tale of children going up against supernatural forces.
Adaptations of King's work in general are in the midst of a renaissance. The recent film adaptation of It was a surprise blockbuster, and there are a whole bunch of other King adaptations currently in the works. It's a nice reminder of how powerful and timeless his books are. It would be easy to shrug off the author's work as forgettable pulp, but Stephen King endures.
The Duffers have spoken in the past about how cool it is to be in a place now where King is aware of their work. In an interview with THR, the brothers talked about an email conversation they had with the horror novelist. Ross Duffer said:
"It still blows my mind because growing up he was such an inspiration – he's like a god to us, and so, it's been surreal just communicating with him at all (...) We spend a lot of time and make sure the grammar is right. We ran the first email by our writers just to make sure it was good, like, we were very, very particular about it."
Stranger Things 2 is now streaming on Netflix.