10 Stephen King References And Homages In Stranger Things
3. The Opening Title Sequence
Feel like you've seen the font used in the opening title sequence to Stranger Things before?
You might have, and there's a very good reason: it's an homage to the typeface used in old Stephen King novels. And lets be clear: this is not a coincidence.
In fact, the show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, sent copies of old King novels to the folks behind the opening sequence, Imaginary Forces. They came up with the result you see on the show, using a modified version of Benguiat typeface. That's actually super impressive.
If you go back and scour old King covers, you'll notice a couple of distinguishing features: for one, it's the text, not images, that are the focus of the cover. Words come first. For another, the first and last letter of each line often drop down to the next, connecting everything together.
The show replicates this in stunning fashion, like an amalgamation of all of the best King covers. There's nothing but text in the intro, and the accompanying theme, and that works perfectly to set the mood of the show.