Currently binging the latest series of stranger things and loving it. For all those who have finished the series and are suffering from withdrawal symptoms. I have compiled a list of eleven great movies (did you see what I did there).

11. Ghostbusters

One of the best and funniest movies of the 80s starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Rick Moranis. A group of paranormal investigators starts a business hunting ghosts in New York. The film is a blend of laugh-out-loud comedy and Jump scares as the team battles a Sumerian God named Gozer. The practical effects were groundbreaking for the time, and the ghosts and monsters look great. The film was a huge hit and spawned an underrated sequel, a terrible reboot, and an entertaining fourth entry Ghostbusters: Afterlife which is very much like stranger things as the ghostbusters in that film are a bunch of kids.

10. Gremlins

Another great movie from the 80s was co-produced by Stephen Spielberg and directed by Joe Dante. Gremlins also combine comedy and horror with amazing practical effects and puppetry to bring titular gremlins to life.  When Billy’s Dad offers him a Chinese pet for Christmas, he has no idea what lies in store for him when he accidentally gets the cute little creature wet, spawning a brood of mogwai. Things go from bad to worse when he feeds them after midnight, which transforms them into psychotic gremlins who then set off on a murderous rampage across the small town inhabitants.

This is probably my favorite Christmas movie of all time. The scene in the cinema with the gremlins watching snow-white is worth the price of admission alone. The film got an excellent sequel in the 1990s, which transports the mayhem to New York and is heaps of fun, too.

9. The Goonies

Out of all the films on this list, the goonies is probably one of the biggest influences on the Duffer brothers when writing Their show. Faced with losing their home, a gang of friends who call themselves the Goonies set off on a dangerous treasure hunt after finding an ancient map of the pirate one-eyed – willie. This is an action-packed comedy, with the kids having to outwit a gang of bank robbers persuing through caverns infested with booby-traps. All the characters are great, it stars Sean Austin, who would later appear in Lord of the Rings and season two of stranger things. Thanos himself, Josh Brolin plays the big brother who reluctantly gets pulled along for the ride. The film is hilarious and thrilling at the same time.

8. E.T

What happens when you combine Spielberg’s E.T with Stephen King’s IT. Answer Stranger things. I’m sure that is how the showrunners pitched their idea. A small town boy is befriended by an alien from another world.  A fun sentimental film about childhood and friendship becomes an edge-of-your-seat thriller in the second half of the movie when the government secret agents try to capture ET and invade the small town, spurning the kids who befriended him to set off on a rescue mission. This is classic Steven Spielberg with a focus on extraordinary things happening to people from small-town America. It feels like a spiritual sequel to his previous film’s close encounters of the third kind but, like stranger things, ET is told from a child’s perspective. Try not to cry watching this. So many elements of this film influenced the first season of Stranger things. A group of kids hiding an outsider with special abilities from the adult world. One of the main themes in the movie that it shares with the show is the absent father motif and how children fill the void with surrogate relationships with friends.

7. Super 8

The similarities between super 8 and stranger things are insane. A group of kids battles a cosmic threat in a small town. Awkward geeks banding together into a tight-knit group check, It’s set in the 1980s, set in a small town facing a supernatural threat, It rips off Spielberg movies, it even has a kind-hearted town sheriff and government conspiracy elements. While Netflix’s flagship show has been a raging success. Super 8 has somewhat dissolved into obscurity. That is a shame because it’s a great movie, both a loving homage to the movies listed above and filmmaking itself. The cast is great, and I would argue that it’s easily J.J Abrahams’s best film. If you love Stranger things, then you have to see super 8. It’s a must.

6. Carrie

Ok, the first of several Stephen King adaptations on this list. Carrie is a story about a shy young woman with telekinetic powers. A cruel prank leads to a bloody climax as Carrie takes brutal revenge on the high school bullies who torment her. Eleven is very similar to Carrie in terms of her supernatural abilities and her social awkwardness in later seasons of the show. There are two versions of this story, the 1976 film directed by Brian Depalma and the 2013 remake starring Chloe Moritz. Both are great, but I love the original film. Bullying is a big theme in the show, and most of the kids in the show are awkward geeks who struggle to fit in at high school.

5. The Lost boys

A group of kids battle against a gang of vampires that stalk the residents of a run-down seaside resort. Essentially, the lost boys are the goonies with vampires. Kiefer Sutherland is excellent as the biker gang vampire who seduces Jason Patric to join the forces of evil. It’s a funny movie and also a subtle critique of the Reagan-esque era of America. The once prosperous seaside town is now a run-down drug and crime-infested wasteland.  The vampire’s addiction to blood is a thinly veiled allegory for heroin addiction that was sweeping the nation in the mid-to-late 80s. The vampires look great and the neon-soaked night scenes are great. It’s also very funny in places, and I love the twist at the end. One of the most 80s films of the 80s

4. The Blob

Residents of a small Midwest town battle evil slime from outer space. The premise might sound goofy, and it is, but I am telling you now that the blob is one of the best movies you have probably never seen. Like John Carpenters’ The Thing (which narrowly missed this list), The blob is a remake of a 1950s schlock fest starring Hollywood legend Steve McQueen. This is a gory R-rated remake with awesome practical effects and an excellent story. All the elements are here, small town teenagers fighting the alien menace, shady government conspiracy. Kevin Dillon is awesome as the rebel with a cause bad boy who saves the day. The screenplay was written by oscar-winning  Frank Darabont who features more than once in this list. It was directed by Chuck Russell who directed some really awesome films The Scorpion King, The Mask, and nightmare on elm street 3 : dream warriors (which was also written by Frank Darabont) . This is an excellent film and the gore and violence still have the capacity to shock audiences today.

3. A Nightmare on Elm Street

One of the best horror films ever made from the twisted mind of Wes Craven (Scream).

The premise for this film is simply genius. A grotesquely scarred demonic child-killer stalks the dreams of teenagers embarking on a horrendous killing spree. It stars a baby-faced Johnny Depp, Heather Langenkamp, and actor Robert Englund cementing his place as one of cinema’s all-time great villains. The dream sequences are inventive, and nightmarish dream logic is used against the victims as they try to escape the knife glove of Freddy Kruger. The film kick-started a franchise of countless sequels and reboots. I highly recommend the third film Dream warriors which is a classic in its own right and the 4th wall-breaking New nightmare where Wes Craven returned to the director’s chair and the story had the cast and film crew of the original film being stalked by a demonic serial killer.

2. The Mist

Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The green mile, The walking dead) has made a career by adapting a number of Stephen King novels into movies. This movie has the residents of a small town trapped in a supermarket when a strange mist containing Lovecraftian monsters surrounds them. Ok, this film does not have a group of kids fighting supernatural evil, but in every other way, the mist is very similar in premise to the series. A cosmic threat unleashed by a shady government experiment. Nightmarish monsters from another dimension. Great story and acting. (Fans of the walking dead will see more than a few familiar faces). This film has also faded into relative obscurity, which is why I am bringing it up because if you have not seen it, you will love it. Try to find the amazing black and white version if you can.

1. IT

Based on Stephen King’s door stopper of a novel. A group of kids battles an ancient cosmic entity who takes the form of a demonic clown and invades the minds of his victims, projecting disturbing hallucinations of their worst fears. Clowns are weird and scary, and Pennywise is the most frightening of them all, stalking and tormenting the children in this gruesome story. The movie and TV adaptations were split into two parts. The first part follows a group of young friends each haunted by pennywise and band together to confront him. The second part takes place many years later when the kids have grown up and Pennywise returns to take bloody revenge. In a way, the novel is really two novels packaged as one. The first part is the best for me, as it takes a similar premise from a nightmare on elm street and blends it with King’s excellent coming-of-age story, Stand by me. Stranger things season 4 is heavily influenced by this novel and its adaptations. Of all the films on the list, this is the best known, but it’s still a creepy and terrifying horror movie and a must-see for those who have been too scared to watch it.

So what did I miss? Shout out to The Shining, The Monster Squad and Doctor Sleep that all could have been on this list.