Innumerable collections of giddy fans, many of whom flaunting polychromatic bomber jackets and mullet-wigs, congregated on the sidewalk bordering the San Francisco Armory, waiting eagerly in the shadow of its hulking brick walls and iconic gothic cornices. As learned locals make a point to recount, the Armory has lived a remarkably storied life, shifting through many wildly distinct functions throughout its nearly 100 year existence in the Mission. What, then, brings hordes of buzzing friends and families - adorned in their best retro gear - to the Armory in 2022?
Occupying the space for the summer months this year is the Stranger Things Experience, a thrillingly inventive marriage of Disneyland dark ride-level immersion and escape room-style interactivity set in the nostalgia-soaked fictional world of the wildly popular Netflix original series. The show itself is a Spielbergian homage to the coming-of-age and sci-fi horror classics of the 1980s and won audiences over almost instantly with its disarming sincerity, dynamic characters, and tense mystery/horror thrills after the first season premiered in 2016. One finds in the show all the familiar imagery and plot threads: carefree kids biking through suburbia, a Lovecraftian horror escaping the depths of a government lab and stalking a quaint anytown, a telekinetic girl, etcetera.
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Given that the show is a show - exists within a purely visual medium - it would seem incredibly challenging to translate the above into a participatory in-person experience, or at least one as compelling as the television inspiration. You can’t make a real demogorgon, can you? You can’t make stuff float with your mind in real life, right?
We are happy to report that the dedicated team of VFX artists, actors, set designers, and everyone else involved have, in fact, done it. The Stranger Things Experience is a scary, endearing, hilarious, and joyous celebration of everything we already love about the show - all accomplished without the aid of a movie or television screen.
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Taking cues from other famed amusement park rides, the experience begins the moment you step in line inside the Armory, the interior of which has been totally reconstituted as the infamous Hawkins Lab, a central locale in the show’s world. Easter eggs lie in wait for the perceptive fan to notice practically everywhere you look, from mayoral campaign posters from season 3 to Benny’s Burgers ads from season 1. As you take in the sights in the queue, actors in lab coats holding clipboards stare you down ominously, taking notes and whispering to their colleagues.
This level of production quality will not just continue but increase with each step you and your squad take into the haunted corridors of the Hawkins Lab. Significant locales from the show, like the Lab’s rainbow room, are faithfully reconstructed with massively impressive attention to detail, making the experience a delight just to walk through. Of course, more is required of you than merely walking.Thanks to a series of clever writing contrivances and spectacular practical and visual effects, you and your crew can brandish your own suite of supernatural telekinetic powers and actively participate in the experience’s narrative.
Some particularly exhilirating moments come to mind in regards to the experience’s spectacle-factor, one involving demo-dogs (miniature demogorgons for the non-geeks of the world) set loose in the lab and the other involving a detour into the Upside Down and an epic battle against a horde of demogorgons (made utterly breathtaking with the aid of 3D glasses). Many of the major characters, friendly and villainous, make an appearance during these set-pieces, contributing even more to the experience’s immersive excitement.
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Fortunately, the experience does not conclude once you and the gang save the day and are transported back to sunny Hawkins, Indiana. Once the formal ST Experience ends, you are funneled into a sprawling merchandise area and food court designed to evoke the retro, neon-soaked vibe of shopping malls back in their 1980s heyday.
Grab a slice from Surfer Boy Pizza, a sundae from Scoops Ahoy, a cocktail from the Upside Down Bar, and your very own Hellfire Club t-shirt to honor Eddie Munson, the hero of season 4 himself.
Be sure to chat with the various actors milling about this area, including a journalist from the Hawkins Reporter inquiring about the whereabouts of a “pizza slice-headed dude” (AKA the demogorgon).
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Other standout spots from this area are an arcade with multiple old-school games in which you and a partner can face off, a Family Video store with a thorough VHS collection, and a recreation of Joyce Byers’ christmas light-adorned living room from season 1 in which you and the squad can take pictures.
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Thoroughly entertaining whether you’ve binged every season the night of its release or you’re still only an episode into season 2, the Stranger Things Experience is a gleeful and faithful tribute to the show’s wistful nostalgia, action-packed suspense, and unabashedly heartfelt spirit. Go with the whole family or some fellow geek friends, then go again.
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See also: Quintessential Binge-Worthy Shows Set In San Francisco That Truly Capture Its Charm
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