Stranger Things fans got their first look at the spooky Upside Down in new set photos revealed on Monday.
A mobile home park set in Griffin, Georgia, got a shocking makeover when it was enveloped by thick tendrils from the spooky alternate dimension featured in the popular Netflix science-fiction series.
Although reports from season four have suggested some of the action might shift to Russia, where David Harbour’s character Hopper was being held, the new photos confirm that the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, isn’t finished with the Upside Down.
First look: New photos from a the set of Netflix’s Stranger Things in Griffin, Georgia, show a trailer park engulfed in eerie vine-like tendrils to depict the scary alternate dimension of the Upside Down
Multiple trailer homes were shown, each with thick tendrils or vines snaking around them.
The twisting vines were extra squirm-inducing thanks to a translucent webbing decoration some of them.
A tendril-covered sign revealed that the fictional neighborhood was named Forest Hills Trailer Park.
A closeup of one vine showed that it was black and red and gave a clearer glimpse of its mottled plastic texture.
The set was impeccably dressed to fit the time period and featured dilapidated 80s-era cars, along with an abandoned couch and fallen trash cans.
Hard at work: Stranger Things is filming its fourth season in Georgia, which is attractive to filmmakers because of its generous tax breaks; still from Stranger Things season three
Spooky: Multiple trailer homes were shown, each with thick tendrils or vines snaking around them. The twisting vines were extra squirm-inducing thanks to a translucent webbing decoration some of them
Life-like: A tendril-covered sign revealed that the fictional neighborhood was named Forest Hills Trailer Park
Detailed: A closeup of one vine showed that it was black and red and gave a clearer glimpse of its mottled plastic texture
Like many film and television projects, Stranger Things is primarily shot in Georgia to take advantage of the state’s generous tax incentives.
With the proper lighting and special effects, the trailer park set will become the alternate dimension known as the Upside Down.
The strange world, a mirror image of our own reality controlled by sinister Lovecraftian monsters and enveloped in the frightening plant-like tendrils, was first introduced in season one of Stranger Things, when the psychokinetic test subject Eleven made contact with the dimension while part of a top-secret government experiment.
By opening the gate to the alternate dimension, she also allowed a humanoid beast with chilling plant-like jaws, the Demogorgon, to escape.
Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was abducted into the Upside Down after encountering the creature, setting his friends on a quest to rescue him.
Even though he was initially freed, the creatures of the Upside Down continued to advance on Hawkins in subsequent seasons, when the gigantic creature known as the Mind Flayer, which controls the creatures of the alternate dimension, was revealed.
Horrors: The Upside Down is a mirror image of our own reality controlled by sinister Lovecraftian monsters and enveloped in the frightening plant-like tendrils; still from Stranger Things season one
Whoops: It was first introduced in season one of Stranger Things, when the psychokinetic test subject Eleven made contact with the dimension while part of a top-secret government experiment; still from Stranger Things season three
Production on the hit Netflix series resumed in September of 2020, after it was put on hold only one month into filming amid the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although little is known about the focus of the new season, Robert Englund, best known for playing Freddie Krueger, will join the series as a murder imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital.
Sweeney Todd actor Jamie Campbell Bower will also be featured as an attendant at the hospital who pushes against its inhumane practices.
Although pandemic delays have caused havoc for several film and television productions, Executive Producer Shawn Levy told Collider that the delay had helped Stranger Things in an interview from November.
Back on: Production on the hit Netflix series resumed in September of 2020, after it was put on hold only one month into filming amid the start of the coronavirus pandemic; still from Stranger Things season three
New faces: Robert Englund, 73, best known for playing Freddy Krueger, will join season four of Stranger Things as a murderer imprisoned in a mental hospital; shown in 2015
Horror mainstay: Englund’s biggest role was as the serial killer who stalks children’s dreams in A Nightmare On Elm Street; publicity photo for A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
”The pandemic definitely massively delayed shooting and therefore the launch of our current season four… but it impacted very positively,’ he said.
‘It allowed the Duffer brothers, for the first time ever, to write the entire season before we shoot it and to have time to rewrite in a way that they rarely had before so the quality of these screenplays are exceptional, maybe better than ever.’
So far, a release date for season four hasn’t been announced, but its expected to arrive sometime in mid-2021.
Coming soon: EP Shawn Levy told Collider that the pandemic delay was a good thing. ‘It allowed the Duffer brothers … to write the entire season before we shoot it and to have time to rewrite in a way that they rarely had before…’ he explained; still from Stranger Things