4) David Cronenberg
Stranger Things brings to mind several David Cronenberg movies from the 1980s. 1981’s Scanners, first of all, gets a nod as Eleven’s powers extend to blowing up the minds of her adversaries (no outright head explosions here, though – Stranger Things is at heart (dark) family entertainment, after all). There’s also 1983’s mind-bending satire Videodrome, which unquestionably is what inspired the warping walls inside Joyce’s home.
More generally, 1986’s The Fly and assorted other Cronenberg body-horror classics would appear to have had an influence on the show (the appearance of the demagorgon’s victims after they’ve been cocooned, the fake body that Chief Hopper cuts into to find only wool). 1983’s The Dead Zone may also have had an impact: that’s another Stephen King tale of someone with a psychic ‘gift’ thrust upon them.