This latest season of 'Stranger Things' wears its influences on its sleeves.

It is no secret that Stranger Things is heavily influenced by eighties pop culture. Creators of the series, The Duffer Brothers, grew up watching films directed by the likes of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Doctor Strange 2), John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing), Steven Spielberg (E.T., Indiana Jones), and Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice). Not to mention their obsession with the iconic horror novelist Stephen King.

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The Duffer Brothers’ formative film education permeates every episode of Stranger Things, and Season 4 is no different. This season is considerably darker than the previous three, and that tone shift is reflected in the eighties movies they reference.

This article contains spoilers for Season 4 of Stranger Things.

Perhaps the most obvious eighties movie reference in Season 4 is Wes Craven's A Nightmare On Elm Street. Big Bad Vecna/Henry/One's (Jamie Campbell Bower) MO is strikingly similar to Freddy Krueger's. Both attack teens via their subconscious, with Freddy appearing in dreams and Vecna inducing a dreamlike state. They also both use trauma and insecurities against their victims.

Vecna's murder of Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) even resembles Freddy's murder of Tina. Both girls are raised into the air in front of helpless boys (who are both falsely accused of murder) and mutilated — Chrissy has her bones snapped, and eyes gouged, while Tina is slashed multiple times. But the references don't end there. Besides the cardboard cutout of Freddy in Family Video, The Duffer Brothers cast Robert Englund to play Victor Creel — yes, the Robert Englund who played Freddy Krueger himself!

In Clive Barker's Hellraiser, a mystical puzzle box opens a gate into an alternate dimension populated by the Cenobites — a race of sadomasochistic beings unable to differentiate between pleasure and pain. Their leader, Pinhead, was once human but became disillusioned with humanity after witnessing firsthand the horror of World War I.

Besides the obvious similarity between the hell-like dimension of the Cenobites and the Upside Down, the main reference to Hellraiser is via Vecna. Pinhead and Vecna have quite a bit in common — they were both once human, become horribly disfigured, and have terrifying, deep voices. The Duffer Brothers have previously mentioned that Vecna combines Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, and Pennywise, the evil clown from IT.

Starting with John Carpenter's first installment in 1978, twelve films make up the Halloween franchise, but it's a scene from the first film that gets the Stranger Things treatment. At the film's end, escaped killer Michael Myers is shot multiple times by his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis. Myers then falls backward out a second-story window, but when Dr. Loomis looks down to inspect the body, it seems to have vanished. Sound familiar?

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In the Stranger Things Season 4 finale, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) shoots Vecna repeatedly until he finally staggers back and falls out the attic window of the Creel House. When Nancy, Steve (Joe Keery), and Robin (Maya Hawke) exit the house, Vecna's body is nowhere to be seen. In Halloween II, Michael Myers survives and escapes, continuing his murderous ministrations. Could this mean that Vecna is still out there?

What's an homage to eighties cinema without Star Wars? When Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) plays Dungeons and Dragons with the Hellfire Club, the group huddles to vote on a risky move. Eddie (Joseph Quinn) informs Dustin that the odds of success are 20-1, to which Dustin replies, "Never tell me the odds!" This is a direct quote from Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, when C-3PO helpfully informs him that the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720-1.

Another sneaky Star Warsquote is uttered by Murray (Brett Gelman) when the crew is driving into the Russian prison. Murray says to Hopper (David Harbour), "I got a bad feeling about this" — words that have been uttered by many a Star Wars character over the franchise's history. The Duffer Brothers have even likened Season 4 to The Empire Strikes Back because the tone of both installments is a lot darker than their predecessors.

In John Badham's WarGames, a young Matthew Broderick, playing the role of David Lightman, uses his computer hacking skills to access his school's computer. Once in, he changes his grades like Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) hacks into Hawkins' school computer to change Dustin's grades.

There's a further WarGames reference in the scene where Mike (Finn Wolfhard) attempts to call "Nina," the computer system helping Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to regain her powers. When Mike dials in, he is met with the unmistakable sound of a dial-up modem, but the boys have trouble placing the sound. Will (Noah Schnapp) then realizes it's similar to the sound in WarGames where David accidentally dials into the military computer "Joshua."

While not an eighties film, Carrie can still be considered a fixture of eighties pop culture along with several other Stephen King stories. It's also hard not to compare Eleven's trouble with bullies to Carrie's plight. Much like Carrie, Eleven is bullied by her new classmates to the point where they dump a chocolate milkshake all over her at the roller rink. Carrie's bullies do something similar, leaving pig's blood all over her in front of everyone at prom.

Carrie is understandably upset and hits a breaking point when she uses her telekinetic powers to wreak havoc. Unfortunately for Eleven, her powers are dormant at this point, so she opts for a roller skate to the head instead. In addition to this, the bloody blue prom aesthetic in Max's (Sadie Sink) vision resembles Carrie's ill-fated prom night.

Stranger Things pays homage to Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the second installment in the franchise. The film starts with Indy, Willie, and Shorty fleeing Shanghai on a cargo plane. The pilots, who work for the enemy, parachute out of the plane while the gang is asleep, dumping out the fuel. Rather than attempting to fly the plane, Indy and his friends use a life raft to parachute out of the falling plane and land in the snowy mountains of the Himalayas, in the middle of nowhere.

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Much like Indy, Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray find themselves on Yuri's (Nikola Đuričko) cargo plane en route to Russia when Murray knocks Yuri out. Unlike Indy, Joyce and Murray attempt to land the plane, resulting in a non-fatal crash in the snowy Russian mountains in the middle of nowhere. Joyce and Murray's sense of adventure infused with humor is also reminiscent of an Indy adventure.

While not as dark as some of the other eighties movie references in Season 4 of Stranger Things, Pretty In Pink still holds a firm place thanks to Robin's crush Vickie (Amybeth McNulty). When Robin, Steve, and the gang shop for weapons to kill Vecna, Robin spots Vickie. To her disappointment, Vickie is there with her boyfriend. But it's Vickie's outfit that catches the audience's eye.

Vickie looks exactly like Molly Ringwald's character, Andie Walsh, from Pretty In Pink. From the hat and the short red locks to the oversized jacket and white shirt, it's clear that Andie most definitely influenced Vickie.

The Breakfast Club is about five teens from different social groups roped into Saturday detention together. The film uses social designations — "the criminal, the princess, the brain, the athlete, and the empty basket case" — that resembles Eddie's rant in the cafeteria when pointing out the school's caste system. There are the jocks, the freaks, the nerds, the popular kids, and the criminals.

Suzie's sister Eden (Audrey Holcomb), to who Argyle (Eduardo Franco) immediately takes a liking, is inspired by Ally Sheedy's character Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club. It could also be said that Eddie Munson bears striking similarities to Judd Nelson's Bender.

Ever the Spielberg fanboys, you know The Duffer Brothers couldn't resist throwing in another little Easter egg, this time in tribute to everyone's favorite eighties alien E.T. While how Mike found Eleven in Season 1 and his subsequent attempt to disguise her is pulled straight from E.T., the extra-terrestrial pops up again in Season 4.

This time it's in the form of tiny writing on the inside of the phone booth Dustin uses to call Steve. In the background of the shot, the words "E.T. phone home" can be seen, paying homage to the alien's most famous line.

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Daniella Di Carlo is a TV & Movie List Writer for Collider. She is a compulsive reader, a mythology buff, and a self-proclaimed professional fangirl.

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