By Owen Quinn author Photo and clip copyright Netflix
Stranger Things up until that point, for me, was enjoyable but not unmissable. I liked the nostalgia and all the memories it brought back of my childhood. I liked the characters and the demigorgon monster. The concept of the Upside Down was wonderful but I wasn’t in love with it at all.
All that was about to change with the arrival of season three. It was also when I bought my first Stranger Things T shirt. Russians are trying to open a doorway to the Upside Down, Elle and Mike are in love and Hopper is enforcing his three inches rule.
Life is good with everyone flocking to the new mall , Stacourt and Will and Mike are watching Day of the Dead in the cinema. Will is having horrific visions but says nothing. Suddenly, there is a power surge. Some mysterious force begins to materialise. From nowhere hundreds of rats emerge, all heading in the same direction, the power source. It is of course, the Mind Flayer and it is beneath the ironworks where it can fuse a body together.
The camera stays low at the level of the rats as they begin to explode, turning literally inside out. It’s gross and unsettling. I am no fan of rats but their deaths here are the first indication that Stranger Things was heading into pure horror territory. The Mind Flayer was now able to take a semi solid form via the corpses of the rats. But it is not just the wild rats that are affected. Rats in cages in labs are also exploding. It is graphic and you wince at the bodies literally turn to gloop.
But the worst is yet to come when the rat in the cage explodes. The fleshy lump begins to move, slipping through the cage bars and heading to the Ironworks. There, all the dead rats merge, giving the Mind Flayer form in our world.
Rats are not popular by any means but this massacre is horrific especially when we realise what their remains are to be used for. Vecna’s plans are unfolding right before us but we don’t know it yet. Hawkins is sinking to the dark side already.
In Dungeons and Dragons, there is a fiendish creature called the Rat King, rumoured to be appearing the fifth and final season. Is this scene really a harbinger for an even greater monster than Vecna?
Can you imagine this scene if these were humans being summoned and exploding as seen in The Boys? This may be on one of the most pivotal scenes of the series. And it remains revolting and disgusting and a sure sign that whatever is in the Upside Down will do anything to destroy our world.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 