If the new season of Stranger Things scares the bejesus out of you, you can thank Freddy Krueger. At the series’ premiere party in Brooklyn on Saturday, executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer said the new batch of episodes is inspired by the first and third installments of A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

“It’s darker in terms of the themes we explore — the kids are moving into high school, and for us, high school was a dark time,” Matt quips. “And that’s represented this season by the monster Vecna. We are trying to evoke all the monsters that scared us the most as kids.”

So just how creepy is the new villain? “I think people are going to love to hate this guy,” Matt says.

Along with some chills, expect answers to some long-standing burning questions, says Ross. “We go a lot into the backstory of Eleven and get to see what happened in Hawkins Lab,” he says. “That storyline I’m really excited for people to see because there are a lot of questions that fans had, and we’re starting to answer them.” 

The duo also reveals that with almost 800(!) pages of scripts, this season is the biggest yet in terms of scope and scale. “We have our characters not all in Hawkins for the first time. We have a huge Russia storyline, a huge California storyline and a big Hawkins storyline, says Matt.

‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Trailer

Stranger Things Volume 4 premieres Friday, May 27, but you don’t have to wait till then to get your Hawkins fix. Starting May 20, our “Seven Stranger Days” series takes you behind the scenes and inside the lives of your Hawkins favorites with insight from the cast, crew and even the Duffer brothers. So check Tudum daily to secure your spot in the Hellfire Club — this is one ticking clock you won’t want to run from.