Stranger Things season 4 is the most explosive installment of the series to date, and a reference in the season may have revealed how to defeat Vecna in season 5. Mysterious deaths in Hawkins have thrown the community into chaos. The deaths are laid at the feet of heavy-metal-loving D&D Dungeon Master Eddie Munson. But the rest of the main crew left in Hawkins believe that these gruesome deaths are not the fault of Eddie, but rather are connected to the Upside Down. It turns out that they are correct. They learn that Stranger Thing's ultimate villain, Vecna, is behind them all, stealing Hawkins residents' life energy from the Upside Down in order to grow more powerful and break into the real world once and for all.
Vecna’s methods parallel the approach of another well-known horror villain: Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The strategies the Dream Warriors use to overcome Freddy offer tantalizing hints for how the Hawkins kids can defeat Vecna in Stranger Things season 5. Freddy was stopped through a combination of real-world and dreamworld attacks, which is how the Hawkins kids ultimately wound Vecna at the end of Stranger Things season 4. Eddie plays Metallica’s “Master of Puppets" on guitar in order to draw the Demobats away from Steve, Nancy and Robin as they challenge Vecna directly in the Upside Down. Meanwhile, Max, backed by Erica and Lucas, offers herself as bait in order to distract and weaken Vecna in the real world.
Stranger Things 4 Had Big Nightmare On Elm Street Similarities
The Hawkins kids’ plan succeeds, but at great cost to Max, who ends the season in a coma. In A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Freddy also pulled a victim, Joey, into his dream world, but didn’t get to kill his victim before he was stopped. Joey ultimately proved valuable in defeating Freddy and the same could be true of Max. Max, theorized to be trapped in Vecna's mind, could learn some of his secrets and help her friends to attack and harm him in the Upside Down. Should Eleven and the others find a way to wake Max from her coma, she could be the best weapon Hawkins has.
Stranger Things' Nightmare On Elm Street References Show How Vecna Be Beat
This parallel shows a possible path for the Hawkins kids to kill Vecna. The Hawkins kids already know that they can harm him both in the real world and in the Upside Down. The Elm Street kids strengthened their abilities through group hypnosis; the Hawkins kids do so through music. By using music to anchor and intensify strong positive feelings in each other, they can more effectively resist Vecna.
In both franchises, the villains also have an anchor in the physical world that can be exploited. Freddy’s bones were purified in the real world, allowing the Elm Street kids to overcome him in the dream world. As Henry Creel became Vecna, his physical body was destroyed and changed, but there are still real-world connections to his person through the Creel house and through his father, Victor Creel. Leveraging what they know to neutralize or purify what’s left of Vecna’s physical connection to the real world could allow the Hawkins kids to fatally weaken him in the Upside Down.
Since the beginning of Stranger Things, the heart of the characters, and close bonds of love, trust, and friendship among the protagonists have been a throughline that has enabled them to prevail in the face of the various dangers they have faced. The love between Mike and Eleven, and the friendship between Max and the rest of the group, have given the Hawkins kids an edge in their Upside Down fight against Vecna. The manner in which they use those emotional ties to their advantage have been foreshadowed by the parallels between Stranger Things and Nightmare on Elm Street.