Netflix has just released the first official Stranger Things spinoff, Tales From ’85. Set between seasons 2 and 3, Tales From ’85 is an epic adventure that somehow unleashes whole new monsters – even though the Upside Down is currently inaccessible. This, as Anna Baxter explains, it because of evolution. “Evolution is the process by which an organism adapts into an enhanced version of itself,” and it apparently leaps forward in near-extinction situations. Thus something survived when Eleven closed the gate, helped by ill-advised experiments.
Over the course of Tales From ’85, Eleven and her friends find themselves taking on one monster after another. Because they’re dealing with evolution, each creature is a little bit more dangerous than the last. Here’s our guide to all the new monsters of Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, ranked by threat level.
Introduced in Tales From ’85‘s opening scene, the “insects” look almost like small scorpions. They’re dangerous if you don’t see them coming, but are more interested in escape than anything else. As with all of these monsters, they’re vulnerable to fire.
Jerk O’Lanterns are monsters created from a pumpkin patch, and they certain look dangerous. That said, they depend on swarming and overwhelm targets by numbers. They’re pretty easy kills, making them a simple problem for the Hawkins kids to deal with.
Inspired by Jaws, the Snow Shark is a particularly dangerous hunter-predator. It takes full advantage of Hawkins’ winter snowfall, moving towards targets at speed and dragging them away, where they can be used to create new hosts. Fortunately, it can be goaded into revealing itself, and it’s vulnerable to Eleven’s telekinesis.
Next up we have the monster called Aboleth, inspired by monsters in Aliens and The Thing. It’s created when Dustin’s rival, Rosario, eats infected pumpkin pie and becomes a host to the Queen’s power. Aboleth is a step up from the Jerk O’Lanterns, able to weave vines over vast areas and attack from the shadows. This creature is basically a mini-boss, and it takes the Hawkins kids working together to stop it. Crucially, though, it’s possible to injure Aboleth with telekinesis as well as fire, and it cannot survive without a host.
The Hawkins kids free one bully from the Queen’s control, but oddly seem to forget about the other for a while. Jeff Nelson suffers a grim fate, transformed into a fairly traditional vine monster that seems like a cross between a Demodog and a Demogorgon. It’s a little more dangerous, though, because of extendable vines it uses to snag its prey. Jeff is freed when his monster is cut apart by a sewer gate, foreshadowing the Queen’s own fate.
First revealed in Stranger Things toys, the Vine Dogs are powerful creatures woven around a host – but no longer needing one in order to survive. This gives them the benefit of surprise when several attack the Hawkins kids at the lumber mill, and it’s the first time the heroes feel genuinely threatened. Even Eleven is almost killed in battle against the vine dogs, causing Mike to freak out and come close to spilling the beans to Hopper. Like most of the monsters in this list, the vine dogs are vulnerable to fire.
In second place, we have creatures referred to as Horde Prime’s Minions. Larger than Jeff Nelson’s horrific vine creatures, they lack a human host, and they’re clearly dangerous hunters. Interestingly, they appear to track using scent as well as sight and sound. The Minions are strong enough to resist Eleven’s telekinesis, but are thankfully vulnerable to fire.
The most powerful monster in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is, of course, the Queen (also known as Horde Prime, because Dustin likes She-Ra). The Queen is essentially Stranger Things‘ Mind Flayer replacement, creator of all the other creatures in this list. She initially feels like a Bodytaker Plant from Dungeons & Dragons, an invasion species that takes root in a forest and gradually transforms the ecosystem into its own image. It doesn’t take long for the Queen to evolve beyond this Bodytaker Plant inspiration, though.
The Queen is perhaps one of the most powerful monsters ever seen in Stranger Things. She’s actually able to open a new gate into the Upside Down. Fortunately, it is killed when Eleven closes the gate on it, slicing the monster in two. Evolution still seems to be taking place, though, with a blue flower immediately growing from the corpse.
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