Stranger Things season 2. Photo / Supplied
CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Just like its first season, Stranger Things 2 is riddled with references to pop culture of the Eighties, adding a level of kitsch nostalgia to an already addictive sci-fi mystery.
With the second season having now arrived on Netflix, here's everything we've found so far that calls back to a very specific era in culture.
How many have you spotted?
James Cameron's sequel to 1979's Alien seems to be the biggest influence on Stranger Things 2 - taking the ingredients that worked so well in the first season, and making them bigger, gorier and emotionally richer the second time around.
From the smaller Demogorgon spawn (known as "Demodogs") that frequently attack the cast, to the visual similarities between the tunnel explorations and the Aliens characters venturing through fields of extra terrestrial egg sacs, nods to this film lurk all over the second season.
It's also referenced in the show's casting, with actor Paul Reiser playing Hawkins National Laboratory doctor Sam Owens, whose suspicious kindliness and ulterior motives seem remarkably similar to the character of Carter J Burke in Aliens... a character also played by Reiser.
There are obvious parallels between Dustin taking home the vaguely adorable but clearly murderous creature he names D'Artagnan and the cuddly critters in Gremlins.
It's era-appropriate too, with Gremlins hitting cinemas in the summer of 1984 - the same year Stranger Things 2 takes place.
Glimpsed on Dustin's shelf after he takes home his "pollywog" is an E.T. action figure, a relic from the summer blockbuster that came out two years prior to the events of Stranger Things 2.
And if you look even closer, stuck to the wall behind E.T. is a "Certificate of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency", which was given away for free to members of the Ghostbusters fan club in 1984.
In the first episode of Stranger Things 2, the young cast hit an arcade where they play Dragon's Lair, an infamous arcade game that became a sensation upon its debut in 1984.
The game, designed by former Disney animator Don Bluth, was priced more expensively than traditional arcade games, and was recognised as a relentlessly challenging and unusually frustrating chore.
Eventually arcade bosses discovered that players had no compulsion to return to the game once they had completed it, while they had grown frustrated with the number of machines that would crash and require fixing. As a result, Dragon's Lair was eventually phased out of the arcade market.
Conjuring both laughs and yawns out of the Byers family and Joyce's new love interest Bob was this 1983 comedy, which hit VHS in the autumn of 1984.
Starring Michael Keaton in one of his earliest roles, it's a very dated look at gender in the workplace, with a man taking care of the family (gasp!) while his wife becomes a career-driven big shot in the city.
The central Stranger Things quartet could hardly get away with not dressing like the Ghostbusters for Halloween, especially when it was the biggest hit of summer 1984.
When Eleven flicks through channels using her mind during episode two, and a shot captures her from behind while she stares into the TV static, it's difficult not to see visual parallels with an Eighties horror classic.
As seen in the movie and on its iconic poster, Poltergeist's most famous scene involves poor little Carol Anne seeing spirits in the television.
When Eleven journeys into the mind of a man with particular knowledge about her past, she sees him watching Punky Brewster, an Eighties sitcom about a young orphan taken in by a kindly older man. What striking parallels!
The Stranger Things crew also chose a particularly appropriate episode to reference too, with Punky waking from a nightmare and recalling a terrifying dream in which she was experimented on by a doctor.
Despite the addition of actor Sean Astin, otherwise known as Mikey in The Goonies, to the Stranger Things ensemble, the show largely avoided referencing the Eighties cult classic... for the most part.
When venturing into tunnels under the ground during the season finale, Steve is seen wearing a particularly distinctive red bandana around his mouth -- which looks uncannily like the one sported by Josh Brolin's stubborn big brother Brand in the movie.
Will's possession by the Shadow Monster is incredibly reminiscent of young Regan's possession by the devil in the terrifying Seventies horror movie The Exorcist, right down to the creepy veins that crawl all over his face.
By the time Will is strapped to his bed and mum Joyce feels compelled to do anything to rid him of his quite literal demons, it feels less like an allusion and more like a direct pastiche.
When Eleven finally fights back against the monsters of the Upside Down using her telekinetic powers, it appears to be a direct lift from Firestarter, the Stephen King novel about a pyrotechnic little girl.
The poster for its 1984 film adaptation, starring a young Drew Barrymore, was also used as the basis for a Stranger Things promotional poster released earlier this summer.
This might be a long shot, but the finales to both Stranger Things 2 and the 1997 classic Romy and Michele's High School Reunion feature high school dances in which characters overcome rejection by swaying to Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper.
Tragically, the heartwarming dance between Dustin and Nancy is nowhere near as endearingly weird as the interpretative nonsense Romy, Michelle and Sandy Frink partake in at their high school reunion. Then again, what is?
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