In stranger things, Hawkins, Indiana has quite the recurring monster problem. Since Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) accidentally opened a gateway to the Upside Down, the Hawkins crew had to battle increasingly terrifying monsters each season. They’ve taken on everything from packs of Demodogs to herds of Demobats.
Now thatSeason 4 is over, audiences have encountered more monsters than ever. The Upside Down may be gearing up for an epic battle in its final season, so the Hawkins heroes must know precisely which monsters are the most terrifying and how to defeat them.
7) The Vines
Beneath Hawkins, connecting the city to its dark counterpart, are sentient and terrifying vines. They look like tentacles and are super strong, able to tie down anyone they lure into their trap. The vines are also connected to a hive mind, so if one is alerted, the others attack.
Sentient vines can move on their own and bind and entangle themselves on many things, including unsuspecting people they victimize. The tendrils, however, appear to be vulnerable to brute force and fire.
6) Demobats
Each season of stranger things seems to introduce yet another version of demo-monsters. In season 4, they are the Demobats, which are small flying Demogorgons. Steve Harington (Joe Keery) encounters them in the Upside Down after being dragged into the demonic dimension. They quickly assail and attack him, one wrapping around his neck until he bites his head off in a “very Ozzy move”, according to Eddie Munson (joseph quinn). Like Demodogs, they can be distracted and lured to a specific location using loud noises.
5) Demodogs
Season 2 introduces audiences to another species of Demogorgon, but they aren’t fully developed this time around. Dustin HendersonGaten Matarazzo) finds one and dubs it “Dart”. He sees him grow from a lizard-sized to a dog-sized monster.
Demodogs aren’t as strong as the full-robed Demogorgon, but they’re still vicious and hard to kill, especially when there are so many of them and the Mind Flayer controls them via the Hive Mind. Dart could temporarily ignore the Mind Flayer when he chose not to attack Dustin in the tunnels, recognizing him as a friend.
4) The Demogorgon
The original monster stranger things, the Demogorgon, was the first Upside Down horror seen in Hawkins in Season 1. The monster is a large humanoid creature with a gaping, terrifying mouth in place of a face. He also possesses supernatural abilities, such as telekinesis.
He is very difficult to kill, as he is fast and strong. Eleven holds the power to defeat the monster using her telekinetic powers, but she’s also part of the reason he landed in Hawkins in the first place. There are multiple Demogorgons, and they can be trained to become stronger and even deadlier, which is what viewers see the Russians doing in Season 4.
3) The Spider Monster
The Spider Monster is a disgusting, meaty, spider-like monster of pure horror. He was created to act as a physical body for the part of the Mind Flayer that had been trapped in Hawkins after the gate was closed.
He is sent after Eleven and her friends in Season 3 as a weapon of the Mind Flayer, formed from the remains of his victims and only able to be stopped if cut from the Hive Mind. Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) does this by temporarily breaking the Mind Flayer’s control over him and sacrificing himself to the Spider Monster to save the others.
2) The Mind Flayer
The big bad of seasons two and three is a sprawling shadow monster that physically attacks and can also possess and control its victims. In Season 2, the Mind Flayer’s increasing control over Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was the central plot point of the season. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Will’s family were eventually able to defeat him by using fond memories to remind Will who he is.
He returns in Season 3 in the form of the Spider Monster to take control of even more Hawkins residents and carry out his evil plans. The Mind Flayer controls the other monsters to carry out Vecna’s plan to wipe out all of humanity and the Upside Down taking over the real world.
1) Vecna
Vecna, aka Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower and Raphael Luce), is a human who turned into a monster when he was banished in reverse by Eleven. It is covered in coarse, raw-looking flesh and monstrous tentacles. Vecna is responsible for several mysterious murders during the fourth season. He finds victims he can easily mentally torment, feeding on their pain and trauma and murdering them in absolutely gruesome ways.
Henry was the first supernatural child subjected to the same experiments that Eleven underwent at Hawkins Lab. He begins his murderous streak as a young child, then kills the rest of the Hawkins Lab children years later. He returns as Vecna to murder four unsuspecting victims to carry out the plan to turn the world upside down, starting with Hawkins. Vecna is extremely difficult to defeat, with Eleven being the only one who might have the power to stop him.