#flickergate

2. Camcorder Footage

During a scene in SVBIGTH, the main character, Rachel, is gifted an old camcorder because it was going to be thrown away. She then gives it as a gift to her Fiancee's nephew because he wanted a camera. We then get quite a few scenes where they are framed as if being in the lens of the camcorder itself, both currently being filmed & played back as old footage:

And what is Stranger Things known for by now? Doing this in various seasons:

These are just a couple of the various examples from both shows. Also, a good portion of episode 4 of SVBIGTH alone is heavily stylized with this framing.

3. Camera work motif as a parallel/reference

As we know, a huge part of the Stranger Things story is that the Upside Down exists. And sometimes, to represent the switching from Hawkins to the Upside Down version, they will literally rotate the frame to make it go "upside down". This is used in SVBIGTH, but in the opposite formatting!!

This scene in the woods in Ep 3 of SVBIGTH starts the view of the trees upside down:

And then rotates until the frame lands right-side up:

They even have a scene (which confused me as to where it was starting off at first) that does this, focusing on basement stairs in their cabin.

In ST S2 Ep 9, we have this iconic shot that literally starts it all by doing this:

doing a full 360 rotation, going from Hawkins, rotating upside down, back to facing right-side up, but ending up in the Upside down instead.

4. Possession and the living dead

In episode 6 of SVBIGTH, Rachel and her fiancee have separate bachelor/ette parties. He goes off hunting, she has a girls night sleepover-styled party. During her party, Rachel uses a Ouji board as a ritual to contact one of her ancestors who is now dead that supposedly survived the curse her bloodline was plagued with to seek answers.

In Rachel's first ritual her supposed ancestor's spirit spells this out with decoration letters once she is called upon:

Hm, Zombie Boy, anyone?

Anyway, then, during Rachel's 2nd attempt, her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Portia, supposedly gets possessed by Rachel's ancestor, because she starts acting aggressively out of character and says weird things.

Then the lights flicker:

And she is herself once again.

Now who gets possessed in Stranger Things? Will obviously, by the Mindflayer or Henry(?), so I won't even bother inserting clips to show the parallel lol. He doesn't act himself, being consumed by the possession.

This leads to #5, the last example, as they are connected to #4 and the lights:

5. Flickering lights

The flickering of the lights that occur in this scene are something I want to point out because it feels like a parallel to ST as well. What we know as "flickergate", there is a ton of flickering light imagery in ST throughout the show entirely. Starting all the way back in Ep 1 of S1.

Which is an interesting choice to make in the show because we originally have no idea what causes it. We later find out it has to do with the Upside Down.

But what I find interesting is comparing how it is used in ST to how it's used in SVBIGTH, because when Portia is possessed and the ghost is about to leave her body is when the lights begin to flicker. And it absolutely reminds me of Stranger Things basically implies the same thing. Electrical surges occurring as one crosses from one plane or dimension to the other.