Penultimate ‘Stranger Things’ episode has a masked tribute to one of slasher horror’s best villains

This article contains major spoilers for Stranger Things 4

When Stranger Things 4 left off, life in Hawkins wasn’t looking particularly peachy.

Vecna, the Mindflayer’s skinless general, who has a penchant for making horrifying mosaics out of dead teens, is eager to give the gift of the Upside Down to planet Earth. Obviously, the disgruntled former student of Martin Brenner won’t succeed, but he certainly won’t go down without causing a few more casualties along the way.

Hawkins’ best and brightest are shown gearing up for the fight of their lives in Vol.2’s first (and penultimate) episode, in the process ‘borrowing’ an RV from a perturbed couple in order to reach Victor Creel’s dusty old haunt. Our heroes aren’t exactly the most popular kids in town, though, so Eddie, the runaway best newcomer of season 4, asks Max to locate a disguise to shroud the impending addition of grand theft auto to his criminal record.

Apparently, the only suitable item at hand is a pale, eyeless facade that even casual horror fans will immediately recognize as the very same prosthetic belonging to Michael Myers. Eddie dons the mask made popular by the silent central character of John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise, hair spectacularly frayed. It’s a new do, and one we’ll hopefully see replicated in Halloween Ends when it lands in theaters later this year.

The entirety of Stranger Things 4 is now available to stream on Netflix, with one final season due to arrive in the not-too-distant future.

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