History NightmareFuel / StrangerThings

* Eleven searching for Heather on the astral plane. It starts out okay, with El finding a red door, venturing through it, and finding a mysterious bathtub full of ice water, but no Heather. Then Heather bursts out of the tub, ''sees'' El, and begs for help. She's then dragged by ''something'' back into the tub, which promptly dissolves into smoke. El then sees Heather dragged straight down into the depths of the water of the astral plain. To repeat, the water that had always been mostly window dressing that El had walked on top of actually has depth, something El clearly didn't know. Even as she sees Heather dragged down, she tries to go after her by sticking her head under the water, but cannot hope to reach her in time. El is therefore forced to watch as Heather is mentally drowned as she is flayed in the real world, with both women screaming the whole time.

* Hopper, Dmitri and some other prisoners are sentenced to be executed by the demogorgon. As the Russians prepare themselves for a fight, Hopper puts the chills in them by describing the kind of terror they're up against.

* As Eleven relives her memories of her past through the Nina Project, we get to see just how abusive a father figure Brenner was not just to her, but to all the children under his care. His most defining moment is when he punishes Two for lying to him about what he did to Eleven by subjecting him to [[ColdBloodedTorture Cold-Blooded]] ElectricTorture. While one could argue that Two deserves some kind of punishment for [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown what he did to Eleven]], the poor kid's screaming and crying as he begs Brenner to stop, all as his father figure [[TranquilFury icily glares at him in disgust]] makes it horrifying to watch.

*** And then [[UpToEleven the worse factor gets cranked up to eleven]] when, after a duel with Eleven after she rejects his offer to rule together, which 001 ''nearly wins'' until Eleven, after exhausting all the power drawn from her painful, traumatic memories, taps into her happiest memory, and Henry Creel is banished by Eleven into the Upside Down... [[WhamShot where it is revealed that he was twisted and turned]] into '''Fucking Vecna.'''

** El/Jane Hunts down the Ives's house, Terry's sister Becky tells El to take off (thinks she's selling something, or a Witness or something). She walks away from the door only for the latch to unlock itself and the door swing open, with a 12 year old girl staring at her. "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I want. To see. Mama.]]"

** Later on we see him abducting an entire family and offering them to some gory monstrosity, which turns out to be a physical body for the Mind Flayer. His [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything rapey-sounding dialogue]] before they're flayed doesn't help.

** The Mind Flayer's EvilGloating, coupled with the various shots of Billy's "recruits" walking into the Steelmill to add to its own body, is absolutely chilling.

** First, he analyzes your psyche, gathers intel on your fears and recreates said fears to lure you in, the appearance of a grandfather clock serving as the tell. Then, Vecna himself appears, as you are taken to the Upside Down, where you are lashed to a piller to prevent escape. Finally, he wraps his claw around your face to smother you, as the native vines wrap around your body, ending with said vines entering your throat to finally finish you.

* While it's undoubtedly cathartic seeing as Angela treated El horribly, it's still horrifying to watch as El takes a rollerskate and smashes her face with it, breaking her nose and leaving the girl screaming and crying.

** Just the fact that ''Eleven'' did this: Eleven is one to get angry, but she's only ever used her powers and even then never once to someone you'd consider an "innocent". And yet here comes the moment where she slams a skate on the face of an AlphaBitch who really had it coming, making her friends and her terrified. BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.
* The mob mentality that arises when everyone in Hawkins decides to scapegoat Eddie for the string of deaths. It's at this point you realise these wholesome small-town types are just itching to murder an innocent teen based on the fact he's a non-conformist. And as anyone who knows about the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sophie_Lancaster murder of Sophie Lancaster]] can attest, incidents like this are all too real.
* Eleven's conversation with Owens at the diner is very foreboding and haunting. He admits that the monsters that dwell in the Upside Down keep coming back stronger and smarter and that Hawkins is in grave danger. Well, not just Hawkins, [[SaveTheWorldClimax but the entire world is in peril, moreso than it ever has before]]. And that Eleven is their '''only hope''' at stopping it once and for all. While she is no stranger to defeating this evil in the past, Owens admits that all her friends and loved ones are not enough to put an end to this evil. That ''she'' will do most the fighting. That's a lot to ask a teenage girl of.

* We finally see the Soviet Demogorgon in action and it is ''vicious''. The other Demogorgon was at least slow, and methodical, and we could only really see it when it popped in and out of existence to hunt. This one, stuck in our world for so long, is fast, brutal, and absolutely ruthless. Six Russians, plus Hopper, go in armed with weapons. They get wiped out in ''less than a minute'', special mention going to closing its "petals" around one of the poor bastards' heads and basically ''blending it off''.
* TheReveal that the Upside Down is frozen in time ''on the day Eleven opened the gate and Will went missing''. Until now, it was assumed by both the characters and viewers that the Upside Down looking like modern day Hawkins was just a supernatural quirk, but that's apparently not the case. This only makes the Upside Down more mysterious, and as a result, more disturbing.

* Dustin and Eddie distract the Demobats while Nancy, Steve and Robin sneak up on Vecna. The duo manage to get to the portal, but Eddie quickly realizes the Demobats will break through their flimsy barricade and come through into their world, so he opts to lead them away, dooming himself in the process.
** It overlaps with {{Tearjerker}} if you give it some thought. Eddie's prospects were looking quite dim and the town was all too eager to scapegoat him just for being a non-conformist. [[SadisticChoice Knowing that his options were an angry mob of humans or an angry mob of monsters]], Eddie may have figured that '''there's no happy end for him.'''

* The simple fact that in essence, ''[[TheBadGuyWins VECNA STILL WON]]''. Despite the Party's efforts into stopping him, he kills Max, leading to the super Gate opening and nearly ''destroying the entire town of Hawkins'', killing a total of twenty-two people as a result. Best shown by the final scene of the season, in which Will warns Mike that despite destroying his physical self, Vecna is still alive. After Hopper and Joyce reunite with the others, they walk to a meadow to find that the Upside Down is merging with Hawkins. This shows that the characters will face more horror than ever before as the threats are literally in their world. In the previous seasons they were safer as the monsters were in another dimension. This is the endgame, the setup for the final season of ''Stranger Things'': the Devil himself, leading the armies of hell in an all out assault on our world... '''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end]]'''... '''[[GrandFinale has begun.]]'''

** Before this, Will briefly regains consciousness in the Demogorgon's nest before Joyce and Hopper arrived to save him. The other corpses all fused to the walls speak to him, welcoming him 'home' as if he was a long lost family member. They tell him that he belongs in the Upside Down now, that it's his fate and purpose in life to join them and stay there ''until the end of time''.

** Just the fact that ''Eleven'' did this: Eleven is one to get angry, but she's only ever used her powers and even then never once to someone you'd consider an "innocent". And yet here comes the comment where she slams a skate on the face of an AlphaBitch who really had it coming, making her friends and her terrified. BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.

Do you remember the horror of some movies of TheSeventies and TheEighties? ''Stranger Things'' manages to remind us a lot of these moments to new levels.

** And let's make this clear; if she's not braindead, if Max does survive, she'll be permanently blind (having your eyeballs burned out will do that) and, since Vecna breaks ''every'' bone, that includes the spinal cord, likely a quadriplegic. Proof that even if you survive Vecna, he stays with you.

* Jason’s death. He unfortunately was lying helpless right where the big gate started to split open in the Creel house, disintegrating his midsection and you can faintly hear his agonizing scream amid the gate’s sizzling crackles. Despite Jason's actions, he didn't even come close to warranting a fate that terrible.

* Henry/001/Vecna's entire origin is disturbing as hell. There are so many signs that this was '''not''' a mentally stable child [[MisanthropeSupreme who progressively became more and more detached from humanity]]. Him having psychic powers only made him a cruler, more destructive person. Let's see how many red flags we can list...

** Or well...At least he’s nice until Eleven removes his RestrainingBolt..and he goes on a psychic murderous rampage throughout the lab, slaughtering both guards and children alike by twisting and snapping their bodies...and then we find out he’s ''Subject 001'' ie: the first one in the program that Eleven comes from.

*** And then [[UpToEleven the worse factor gets cranked up to eleven]] when, after a duel with Eleven after she rejects his offer to rule together, which 001 ''nearly wins'' until Eleven, after exhausting all the power drawn from her painful, traumatic memories, taps into her happiest memory, and Henry Creel is banished by Eleven into the Upside Down...[[WhamShot where it is revealed that he was twisted and turned]] into '''Fucking Vecna.'''

** Without a doubt the worst part of his backstory was the [[KinslayingIsASpecialKindOfEvil Creel murders]] (ie. '''his own mother and sister'''). He mericlessly kills his mom when he found out she wanted to take Henry to more extreme levels of treatment. And he did this in front of the rest of his family too. [[SiblingMurder Henry didn't hesitate]] [[KidsAreCruel with his sister Alice either...]]