Stranger Things Season 4 Part 2: Fans love Eddie in the Michael Myers mask

‘Stranger Things‘ is familiar with its horror lore, in fact, deriving a lot of atmosphere building – the small-town mystery, a bunch of inquisitive kids, a lurking horror – from works of Stephen King, like ‘It’. Season 4 of the Netflix series has been no exception with Part 1 already making references to King’s ‘Carrie’ – where Eleven gets sloshed with milkshake in the skating rink or the clear tip of the hat to ‘Silence of the Lambs’ when Nancy and Robin go to question Victor Creel. 

However, there is an overt mention of the popular independent slasher movie ‘Halloween’, from the Munson family. Nancy tries to question everyone when the cheerleader is found dead in Eddie’s uncle’s trailer, but the people of Hawkins assume the Dungeons and Dragons player’s guilt. Eddie’s uncle, however, brings up Victor Creel’s story and compares the killings to that of Michael Myers. 

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‘Stranger Things’ is set in the 1980s and gets the details just right, so a reference to Myers makes sense since the original ‘Halloween’ film was released in 1978, and reached cult status soon after. In the movie, Myers is a serial killer who takes out babysitters or anyone who gets in his way. One almost supernatural aspect of the killer is that he never seems to die, and when Myers is caught, he manages to escape prison. Munson’s uncle tells Nancy, “They locked [Creel] away in Pennhurst Asylum … as far as I know, he’s still there. That is, unless he broke out. Like that, what’s his name, the white mask who killed the babysitters?”, in about as near a direct reference as possible. 

‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Part 2 has now doubled down on the slasher reference with Eddie putting on a Michael Myers mask, in order to steal a recreational vehicle (RV) as the group sets a plan in motion to take down Vecna. 

Making Eddie wear the mask serves a double purpose since he stands accused of the crimes which Vecna is actually committing – which have a sense of inevitability like Myers’ killings. 

Fans have loved Eddie’s look as well, with many taking to Twitter to share their excitement. 

The mask, which Max gives Eddie, made an earlier appearance on the show, in Season 2 when Sadie Sink’s character dressed up as the iconic serial killer for Halloween. 

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Eddie in the mask, and his guitar scene, have gone down as favourites with the fans. However, ‘Halloween’ isn’t the only slasher Season 4 refers to. The entire schtick of Vecna using and distorting memories and dreams is very akin to what Freddie Kreuger did in ‘Friday the 13th’, which came out in 1980 – around the same time the Hawkins-based series is set.