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Stranger Things Writers Reveal Some Movies Related to Season 4

Clues ahoy

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Amanda Bell

The cast and creatives ofStranger Thingsare wasting no time getting us excited about another trip to the Upside Down. Now that the Netflix sci-fi/fantasy series' fourth season is officially on the way, the show's writers have decided to start giving fans a few key clues about what films will inspire the story in the show's next run.

It Looks Like Stranger Things Season 4 Could Pay Homage to This '80s Cult Classic

The writers, through their official Twitter feed, have launched a new social media series called "Video Store Fridays," in which they'll list five different movies that in some way relate to Stranger Things 4 each week.

For the first round, their list of the movies that have had some sort of impact on the scripting for Season 4 include The Peanut Butter Solution,The Fisher King,Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, You've Got Mail, and Ordinary People.

Most of these pics arrived well outside of the time period we might expect Stranger Things 4 to take place in -- if tradition holds, that'd be somewhere around 1986 -- but we can still venture a few guesses as to how these films might have an impact on Stranger Things 4 for fun, right? Right. So, here goes.

The Peanut Butter Solutionis a 1985 French comedy-horror film in which a kid sees a gaggle of ghosts and experiences "The Fright," a condition that causes his hair to fall out. The remedy to his early onset baldness is -- you guessed it -- a peanut butter solution, but the kid mucks the recipe up, and things go hair-wire from there. Eventually, the boy is kidnapped so that his over-growing locks can make magic paintbrushes, and he has to trick his captor into catching his case of "The Fright" to escape. It's hard to see how the plot of this very random movie might influence Stranger Things 4, but its many zany statements on puberty could easily seep into Stranger Things' almost-all-teen narrative.

The Fisher King is a 1991 dramedy about a cocky radio host who inadvertently triggers a mass murder event and ventures to help the husband of one of the victims, a deluded man on a mission to find the Holy Grail. We've seen how dark buddy-comedy stories like this one have come into play with Stranger Things seasons past -- see also: Midnight Run and Stranger Things 3-- so we're predicting this title foreshadows another two-person adventure subplot ahead. (Stream it on Amazon, for purchase.)

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is the 1991 sequel to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Like the first film, the movie centers on the eponymous duo as they hang out with people from other time periods, but this time, they also take a trip to Hell and have to battle with Death over games like Twister and Clue. Chances are, it's the time travel element that'll most impact Stranger Things 4 here, but it is intriguing that the writers are more interested in Bogus Journey than Excellent Adventure. (Stream it on Amazon, for purchase.)

You've Got Mailis perhaps the most confounding part of this list because the 1998 rom-com has absolutely nothing to do with the supernatural. Perhaps it's the conglomerate-takes-over-the-mom-and-pop-shop element that factors into what's ahead for Hawkins -- Stranger Things 3 already previewed a sluggish economy for the town -- or maybe it's the electronic-only communications bit that'll come into play. We could totally see a still-alive Chief Hopper (David Harbour) reaching out to Joyce (Winona Ryder) through Morse Code, couldn't you? (Stream it on Amazon.)

Ordinary People is a highly decorated 1980 drama film about a family that gets ripped apart by the death of one son and the suicide attempt of the other. Given the intense story line involved here, we sure do hope this has nothing to do with the Byers boys in Stranger Things 4. Those kids need a break already, jeez. (Stream it on Amazon, for purchase.)

Stranger Things Seasons 1-3 are available on Netflix.