Stranger Things Season 4: Volume 1 Review - 6 Ups & 4 Downs

4. The Darker, More Violent Tone

This is undeniably the show's darkest, bleakest season yet, as made evident from the very first kill carried out by the villainous Vecna in the first episode.

Vecna's preferred method of murder - brutally contorting a victim's limbs before gouging their eyes out - doesn't lose much of its gnarly impact over the course of the season, ensuring he more than lives up to the fearsome standard set by both the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer.

Thematically season four also digs into the darker side of '80s nostalgia, in particular examining the United States' "satanic panic" of the era, where bored citizens were convinced that Satanists were going to ruin their children's lives. Here, this manifests in the gang's D&D group being mistaken for a Satanist cult by the local do-gooders.

While some might lament the grimmer tenor this time around, it's at least a refreshing turn away from the nostalgic comfort food of the first two seasons in particular.