So, What Is a 'Mind Flayer,' Exactly? It’s Smarter Than a Demogorgon
The creators of Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer, have long said that they wanted to create their own pop-culture monsters.
The Mind Flayer, aka the Shadow Monster, is the Big Bad Wolf of Stranger Things 2, and it can psychically control people and other monsters.
The Demogorgon, also terrifying, was more like a wild animal accidentally let loose in Hawkins.
The Mind Flayer returns for Stranger Things 3, but it might not be alone.
So, a funny thing happens when Stranger Things comes on. The kids are roaming around, investigating ominous menaces. That's fine. Something creepy happens. It's still good. Then they get into the Upside Down, and everything goes dark and looks like the inside of my eyelids afterward. If you're a scaredy-cat like me, you might not get a good-enough look at those monsters to tell them apart. But, while they're all creepy, there are some distinct differences. (Note: Spoilers ahead for the first two seasons of Stranger Things, if you haven't seen them already.)
The Mind Flayer, aka the Shadow Monster, is part of a hive mind.
Lots of things about the Mind Flayer remain a mystery, and that's by design. "There’s an H.P. Lovecraft sort of approach, this inter-dimensional being that is sort of beyond human comprehension," series co-creator Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly. "We purposely don’t want to go too much into what it is or what it wants.”
That being said, at the end of Stranger Things 2, there are a few things we know about it. It has a spider-like appearance. Its name comes from Dungeons and Dragons. It doesn't like heat or light. Oh, and it can take possession of and control other people, even if they're not in the Upside Down. That's what happened to poor Will Byers throughout most of the season. And the "hive mind" extends to other creatures, too, like the "demodogs" it psychically controlled and used to attack our heroes throughout the season. (More on those in a minute.) So it's got a consciousness, intelligence, and also a huge mean streak.
The Mind Flayer is still alive at the end of Stranger Things 2.
Yes, Stranger Things 2 ended with our friends briefly victorious. They severed the connection between the Mind Flayer and our world, and shut the gate to the Upside-Down behind it. But it's definitely still out there at the start of Stranger Things 3, and still interested in what's going on in Hawkins. "They shut the door on this thing but it’s still out there and it wasn’t aware of Eleven and now it very much is,” co-creator Ross Duffer tells Entertainment Weekly. Remember how the Mind Flayer loomed over the Upside Down version of the school during the Snow Ball in the final episode of the season?
ScreenRant reports that producer Shawn Levy confirmed the Mind Flayer isn't done with Hawkins. "We ended season two with a clear signal that the Shadow Monster was not eliminated, and maybe he's even identified his foe," Levy says in the companion book Worlds Turned Upside Down. "And that darkness, and the battle that it will require, grows in season three."
The Demogorgon was more like an animal.
If the Mind Flayer is Cthulhu, the Demogorgon - the big bad monster from the first season of Stranger Things - is more like a famous movie shark. "Our big reference for [the demogorgon] season 1 was mostly Jaws,” Matt Duffer tells Entertainment Weekly. That means it was more like a wild animal: less thinking, more acting on instinct. "When the monster enters our dimension, it’s like a shark breaching the water. Very much like a shark, it drags its prey back into its home, where it feeds." Just like Jaws, the original Demogorgon does have weaknesses, and eventually gets killed by our heroes.
The Demogorgon also doesn't have a sleek, shark-like appearance - or an arachnid one like the Mind Flayer. Instead, it has that bulbous head that opens up like a flower to reveal a truly disgusting circle of teeth. And in Stranger Things 2, we see its life cycle: It starts off as a pollywog - like the one Dustin keeps as a pet, which he nicknamed Dart (short for D'Artagnan) - then becomes a "demodog," or a juvenile monster, before taking its mature, adult form. From seeing how it grows and turns into a creature, and how the Mind Flayer can control it, we can see that it's deadly, yes, but not as cunning.
Stranger Things 3 has a lot of monster-fighting going on.
We knew even before the season began that the Mind Flayer would return. But Levy notes the Mind Flayer isn't going to be the only foe to be faced. "We're dealing with forces of evil that are new," he says in ScreenRant. Whether that means more monsters are on the way, or if he's just talking about the shady-looking mayor of Hawkins - well, we won't spoil it here. You'll have to just watch the season.
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