9 Horror TV Show Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
2. Stranger Things Was Originally Set In The Real-Life Home Of CIA Experiments
Stranger Things has quickly become one of the most successful TV shows that Netflix have ever created, bringing together all of the Steven Spielberg goodness that comes from 80s iconography and giving it a lovely dose of Stephen King weirdness. And that inspiration between Steven and Stephen goes further than just atmosphere, of course, with the original Duffer brothers script being presented in a pitch book modelled off a first edition of Firestarter.
In this collection of concepts, Stranger Things was originally titled as Montauk - named after the location in Long Island - where it was supposed to be set. Montauk was rumoured to be the site of CIA experiments on psychological warfare and time travel back in the 80s, where children were kidnapped from Long Island and taken to be tested on. Montauk itself has been referenced in everything from Lost's mind-bending madness, to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's memory erasing, to Jaw's hometown setting for a rampant monster terrorising the local populace, so served as a rich source material for Stranger Things to grow from.
The Duffer brothers changed the location and subsequently the name as they could do more with a fictional town than they could a real-life location. As for the new name? It was born from King's novel Needful Things as much as it was the popular saying.