Hawkins, Indiana is still strange after all these years.

Netflix just released the fourth season of its hit original series Stranger Things. This season starts with a flashback to 1979, where Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) is experimenting on children with supernatural powers, killing the entire group except for Eleven.

Back to the show’s present, it is six months after the main cast defeated the Mind Flayer and the gang are adjusting to their new normal lives. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) now lives with Joyce (Winona Ryder), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Will (Noah Schnapp) in California and is struggling with some bullies in her school, so she writes to Mike (Finn Wolfhard), in an attempt to get through her newfound hardships. 

Meanwhile Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike, and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) host their Dungeons and Dragons sessions under a new name, the Hellfire Club. Now the club is lead by Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), a theatric troublemaker who doesn’t like interruptions to his club time. One such interruption is caused by Lucas’ basketball team having a game on the night they were to meet, so his sister, Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) fills in for him. 

While the gang attempts to live normal lives, mysteries and monsters begin developing in the background. A new monster, named Vecna, begins tormenting people, using their fears to attack their minds. The terror causes them to see things, but to others around then it appears as if nothing is there. 

The gang meets a new character, Victor Creel (Robert Englund), when they visit a mental hospital. Creel was Vecna’s first victim, and is suitably creepy in both manner and appearance.

The show also deals with the fate of Hopper (David Harbour), and this season Max (Sadie Sink), Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) all return, as does conspiracy nut Murry Bauman (Brett Gelman.)

The Duffer Brothers’ (and others) direction is good, and the horror aspects are chilling, with only more room to improve. With each episode in the almost theatrical range of an hour to hour-and-half long, viewers can expect plenty of opportunities for creative writing and great acting and direction.

There will be nine episodes in this season, with the first seven released this week. Two more will release on July 1st, with much greater run times than the episodes in the first part of the season. This will also not be the final season of the show; a fifth and final season is in the works. With so much time left to use, the rest of Stranger Things is sure to be an interesting experience.