Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544997
F E AT U R E MATTER OF COURSE While the core of Stranger Things' horror plotline involves monsters coming from the terrifying alternate dimension known as the Upside Down, Tales From ' 85 couldn't reopen the gate to that realm after Eleven closed it at the end of Season 2. They had to come up with a different high- stakes paranormal threat to keep audiences hooked while ensuring that whatever happened was tied up enough so it wouldn't have affected later seasons. Inspiration struck, and Robles found the answer in a film from the same year that the new version of the show is set in. He remembered Re-Animator, a 1985 horror B-movie he'd loved as a kid, and he pitched the concept of the Hawkins lab experimenting on tissue left from the Upside Down that could possess plant life in the Tales From '85 world. The Duffer Brothers—Matt and Ross, the show's creators and Executive Producers—loved the idea. "It's like a Pandora's Box that's been opened," explains Graham. "If any little bit of this [tissue] is left behind, not destroyed, it allows for more storylines." But once the matter is destroyed, the storyline is resolved and it's okay that it wasn't addressed in the live-action show. The leftover matter also created a unique opportunity for the design team. The new monsters needed to cohere with the look of the live-action show but still feel distinct to the world of Tales From '85. Character Design Lead Andrew Chesworth says that walking this line came down to designing the creatures first, then adding the key signatures of the Upside Down monsters, like a flower petal face with a teeth-filled mouth hole or a skeletal, humanoid look, to connect them visually with the original show. " We didn't want to just make a Demogorgon that's a pumpkin," laughs Chesworth, referring to the look of the new show's monsters. this page: The paranormal storyline includes the Gourd Horde, which are mutant, pumpkin- like monsters, (top) and the subterranean Snow Shark (bottom right); Another new character, Nikki's mom, takes over as the school biology teacher (bottom left). 22 KEYFRAME