Spoiler alert: Stranger Things (Netflix) is one big spoiler. From beginning to end. Within a few minutes you’ll be thinking, “Do I recognise that?” And once you figure out that you’re watching a patchwork of scenes and soundtracks from Eighties movies, you’ll know the plot before it’s even been recycled.
The scares are fun, the acting strong, the plot simple. Boy goes missing in sleepy town, his friends go in search for him on their bicycles (straight out of Stand By Me). They encounter a telekinetic girl (The Fury) who has escaped from a nearby government lab – and before you can say Prince of Darkness, a John Carpenter film with almost the same plot, it turns out that she’s opened a gate between one dimension and another. The rest is homage spotting.
