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If there was a 90s Stranger Things, what films would inspire it
- Thread starter Bleepey
- Start date
MagnaderAlpha
Member
Yeah. Being a kid in the 80s, stuff like Stranger Things and all those 80s movies was pretty nostalgic as a child, but because I was a teen in the 90s, all I could think of is teen-related stuff. Stuff like 90210, Party of Five, Felicity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, and the slew of teen horror movies (many of them using popular stars from those teen dramas) like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legends, and the mess load of stuff that (which would continue on throughout a lot of the 00s).
Fuck...yes...let's add Lawnmower Man
Make a TV show with Undead Killer Robot Dinosaurs that only exist online but you have to go into their VR hellscape because you want to download porno at 33kbps.
This is the coming of age story that I need.
MrCunningham
Member
Ah I think I misread the thread. OP means later seasons that push the timeframe into the 90s? Yeah I get it.
OK, lets say it is set in the early to mid 90s, most of he cast are college level student now... lets say the horror elements could be bowwored from the original Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Maybe with elemnents of Kevin Smiths Clerks, the movie Clueless and perhaps Friday? Sci-fi elements could be Spiecies, 90s cyber punk and the X-Files? Maybe throw in some Lone Gunman like characters. Maybe?
OK, lets say it is set in the early to mid 90s, most of he cast are college level student now... lets say the horror elements could be bowwored from the original Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Maybe with elemnents of Kevin Smiths Clerks, the movie Clueless and perhaps Friday? Sci-fi elements could be Spiecies, 90s cyber punk and the X-Files? Maybe throw in some Lone Gunman like characters. Maybe?
Elegant Weapon
Member
Heavyweights
Mighty Ducks series
The Sandlot
Rookie of the year
North
Radio Flyer
Angels in the outfield
Lots of sports movies
extra credit: The Good Son
Mighty Ducks series
The Sandlot
Rookie of the year
North
Radio Flyer
Angels in the outfield
Lots of sports movies
extra credit: The Good Son
I don't think that's what he meant as he specifically mentions 3 Ninja which is about grade schoolers.
I think I want this
similar to Stranger Things in that it's a coming of Age story which wears it's film influences on its sleeve. What films or other media would influence said show with regards to tone, plot or themes. The idea on paper seems an easy sell: 90s Stranger Things. But I am a bit unsure as to what shows or films I can point too. That said Home Alone seems to be a good influence.
old manatee
Banned
MrCunningham
Member
Alright, so same show, new cast of kids, 90s setting? Right. Thats even harder for me. Maybe one could be a Johnathan Taylor Thomas like kid, with one of those split in the middle parted haicuts? Maybe some girl named Matilda, or kids that look like they came out of GoodBurger? Or some 90s era Stephen Spielberg inspired kids?
bitbydeath
Member
Haven't seen it mentioned yet but I used to love this movie.
Elegant Weapon
Member
Junior was bad as fucking shit
we watched the fuck out of this movies as kids, they barely get mentioned today
we watched the fuck out of this movies as kids, they barely get mentioned today
BattleMonkey
Member
90's didn't have as distinct identity as the 80's, they really would have had to play hard on the tropes and style aspect for anyone to get a true 90's vibe. Think like Hackers and shit like that.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
T2, Jumanji, Jurassic Park
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Main characters would be teenagers, and it would be influenced by Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
MrCunningham
Member
Don't Breathe almost felt like a modern version of People Under The Stairs to me.
But this wouldn't be a bad choice for the groundwork. It could be a little bit Resident Evil (the 1996 game) and a little bit People Under The Stairs, with some X-Files thrown in. Imagine a group of kids in some weird ass mansion with a science lab underneath it, and they could be like kids versions of the STARS group. Not litterally, but in spirit... they are still just gradescool kids, but have thier own investigative group. They get into this mansion owned by a secretive group and there is a massive underground lab with these mutated people who went missing over the years. Maybe throw in some X-Files like goverment agents... Add some shadow government weirdness... thrown in portals that lead to alternate dimensions or somthing.
Also the new Wet Hot American Summer nails a lot of 90s schticks that are easy to forget even existed.
The tricky thing about the 90s is that they mostly don't exist. The early 90s are basically just the late 80s. The late 90s are basically just the early 2000s.
The 80s happened because of very specific technological changes in media. The only purely 90s things I can think of are music-related.
The tricky thing about the 90s is that they mostly don't exist. The early 90s are basically just the late 80s. The late 90s are basically just the early 2000s.
The 80s happened because of very specific technological changes in media. The only purely 90s things I can think of are music-related.
DreadfulOmen
Member
fuck yea we do.
MoonsaultSlayer
Member
This and Jurassic Park filled me with ideas haha. Thinking of the kids setting traps and using reflection perspective tricks like the raptors in the kitchen scene in JP.
Ninja Scooter
Member
this movie is great. One of my favorite all time thriller/horror flicks.
MagnaderAlpha
Member
Would probably "look" similar. I always thought Freaks and Geeks had a more modern-look to the cast than it did for its setting in 1980. That look reminds me of the movie Adventureland (Hmmm, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, despite set in 1987.... look like how they do nowadays, in the modern times). I don't know, just think Stranger Things does a better job in the "looks" department. If I didn't know Freaks and Geeks was set in 1980 and Adventureland was set in 1987, I would've thought they were set in the contemporary setting of when they were released (until told otherwise). Stranger Things, and even the new It, you look at those and know they aren't set NOW. Though that might be just me.
I always think the middle years are a good representation of what a specific decade "is". In the 80s, 80-83 still had some of that late-70s inspiration (even the last surviving slivers of disco worming their way into early 80s music), while the last two years, specifically 88 and 89 were a "preview" to the early 90s. I think 84-87 were the heart of that decade, and it is similar with the 90s. 90-93 were still seeing echoes of the 80s, 94-97 was a good slice of the heart of the 90s, while 98 and 99 was the "preview" for the 00s.
MrCunningham
Member
Yeah, I love this one too. One of my favorite lesser known Wes Craven movies. I liked the character "Fool". Everett McGill and Wendy Robbie were insane as "Daddy and Mommy".
Movie had a few flaws, but I liked it for its concepts and execution. Don't Breathe really did feel like it was trying to be a modern take on this movie.
Jason Frost
Member
Even if it started in the 80's, all the movies from Nightmare on Elm Street sound pretty 90's for me.
Violence Jack
Member
Scream
Home Alone
The Matrix or Hackers
Home Alone
The Matrix or Hackers
ParadigmGamer
Member
Twin Peaks?
knuckle puck instead of a wrist rocket
I think Fresh Off the Boat does a really good job of encapsulating the 90's. There was an entire episode about the group of kids being excited for Shaq-Fu to release.
MrCunningham
Member
I can see that in a way. But Wes Cravens New Nightmare (Nightmare on Elm Street 7) from 1994 really paved the way for the 90s era meta-horror movie. New Nightmare introduced the idea that Elm Street 1-6 were just movies and Freddy broke out into the "real world". This lead to Scream, which continued the whole "refrence the 60s-70s-80s horror movie" fad that carried on into the late 90's.
Just_myles
Member
Surf Ninjas
canoli2006
Member
I would say Freaks And Geeks meets The Faculty. Kids are grown, entering high school, struggling to fit in, school faculty bodies taken over by aliens ala invasion of the body snatchers.
MHWilliams
Member
A Stranger Things-style show in the 90s would feature an adult protagonist coming to terms with a very weird form of reality. Scifi-horror bent.
Call backs to The Matrix, Jacob's Ladder, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Fargo, Scream, Terminator 2.
EDIT: I see someone else had the same idea.
Call backs to The Matrix, Jacob's Ladder, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Fargo, Scream, Terminator 2.
EDIT: I see someone else had the same idea.
If you want to make it staring kids, it'd definitely need to be TV-inspired. The movies with kids as lead characters really dried up by the mid-90s.
Teens with a mix of dramedy & horror would be the movie-inspired version.
AuthenticM
Member
X-files
Netherscourge
Banned
Matrix, X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seinfeld
¡HarlequinPanic!
Member
Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead, probably.