Skip to main content

What to Watch/Read/Play After "Stranger Things"


So you've finished binge-watching the first season of Netflix's Stranger Things, which felt like the love child of 80's Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, keeping your full attention throughout its current 8-episode run. Now you have to wait probably an entire year until the most-likely-to-be-happening second season appears. What do you do to pass the time?

I've compiled a short list here to help with that insatiable hunger of a movie to watch, a book to read, and a video game to play.

#1 Watch - Super 8


Easily one of my favorite movies, Super 8 follows the tale of a group of kids trying to put together a short film with an 8mm camera (hence the title). However, when they're in the middle of filming a scene by a railroad, a train passes by and wrecks right next to them, releasing a monster that silently threatens the town. The kids are trying to solve the mystery, as well as the sheriff, and the government has come in to intervene. Sound familiar? This movie has a similar tone and atmosphere as Stranger Things, also being a modern take on the 80's era.

#2 Read - "Firestarter" by Stephen King


I mentioned earlier that Stranger Things has a bit of a Stephen King element to it. Out of all the King books I read, Stranger Things really reminded me of Firestarter. Why? Firestarter follows the story of a girl and her father on the run from the government. They both have psychic abilities, the father being able to manipulate the mind and the daughter possessing pyrokinesis, the ability to start fires with her mind. This book is a gripping, heartbreaking, dark, and satisfying piece of literature and I cannot stress enough about how much I love it. If you haven't read Stephen King before, this is a great one to start out with.

#3 Play - Alan Wake


Once again, another favorite of mine. Told in a TV show format split into 6 episodes, Alan Wake follows crime thriller author Alan wake trying to cure his writer's block by going on vacation with his wife. However, a mysterious dark force has kidnapped her and Alan is thrusted into danger has the dark force possesses nearby citizens. As he progresses, Alan finds pages of a horror manuscript he has no memory of writing and it's becoming a reality. The tone of the game and the pacing of it all will satisfy fans of Stranger Things and show just how good of storytelling video games are capable of!

There are plenty more out there to enjoy and this list is just a starting point. Also, if you haven't seen the movies Stranger Things pays homage to, like The Goonies, E.T., and Poltergeist, you should definitely give those a shot!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Need for Speed" (2014) REVIEW

I know I'm not the only one who thought this movie was going to be a flop. I mean, not only is it a high-speed street racing movie, but it's also a videogame movie. Still, I gave it a shot, but mostly for the D-Box experience. Even with the earnings from winning illegal street races, Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is still unable to keep his auto repair shop from his father open. For a chance to get $500,000, Tobey takes an offer from his street racing rival and successful car dealer Dino Brewster (Domonic Cooper) to finish building the Ford Mustang that Caroll Shelby was working on when he died. After building the car and selling it without Dino's consent, Dino challenges Tobey and Tobey's friend, Pete, to a street race for the money. Nearing the end of the race, desperate for revenge, Dino pushes Pete over a bridge and drives away, leaving Tobey to be blamed for vehicular manslaughter. Two years later, fresh out of prison, Tobey seeks out to knock Dino off his p...
2 comments
Read more

"The Eyes of the Dragon" (1987) by Stephen King REVIEW

I was pretty excited to read this book, being it is Stephen King's only novel appropriate for a younger audience. In the kingdom of Delain, King Roland is poisoned. Framed for the crime of murdering his father, the king, Prince Peter is thrown into prison and his younger brother, Thomas, is crowned king. Although, little do the brothers know, Flagg, a magician and closest advisor of the now dead King Roland, is working behind the scenes to make sure King Thomas completes his plans in turning the kingdom towards chaos. However, even the greatest plans leaves room for failure, including Prince Peter's plan of escape and the dark secret Thomas had seen through the eyes of the dragon. Though the main plot of the story is quite basic, Stephen King take this tale to the next level. Characters, both main and side, each have their shining moments and are very well fleshed out in this story. Simple enough for a child to understand, the story moves at a slow but steady pace. Also...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blue Beetle Rebirth Vol. 1: The More Things Change (Rebirth #1, #1-#6)

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...
Post a Comment
Read more