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'Stranger Things' season 2 trailer, dissected shot by shot

Halloween takes on an even creepier meaning in Hawkins, Indiana, with new characters and new versions of evil. Here we turn a suspicious eye on the trailer.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Gael Cooper
1dragonslair
1 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Dragon's Lair

Hey, one of our old favorite 1980s video games! What could possibly go wrong at the friendly neighborhood video arcade? Wait, did we mention this is Hawkins, Indiana, home of "Stranger Things"?

2gang
2 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Hail, hail, the gang's all here

Friends Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) take a brief break to be challenged by a video game instead of real life. Their reprieve won't last long.

3skeleton
3 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Rattle dem bones

We'd forgotten this death scene from the game Dragon's Lair was quite so creepy.

4dust
4 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Dust in the wind

Suddenly, everyone but Will vanishes, the arcade goes dark and there's this weird, swirly dust outside...

5creepysky
5 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Red sky at night

Most assuredly this is not an ordinary Indiana autumn sky.

6spider
6 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Itsy-bitsy spider

And here we thought "Charlotte's Web" was only a sweet, sad children's book.

7emptydesk
7 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Empty desk

Eleven is still missing, but that desk won't be empty for long. 

8willjoyce
8 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Doctor's orders

Poor Joyce probably thinks she's doing a good thing, helping Will by taking him to a doctor, but...

9doctors
9 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Somebody's watching me

...little do Joyce and Will know they're being watched.

10moldypumpkins
10 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Smashing Pumpkins

Halloween icons dripping with mold, because the kid-favorite candy-filled holiday has a darker meaning in Hawkins.

12ifeltiteverywhere
11 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Breakdown

Will obviously hasn't begun to deal with his trauma from the Upside Down yet. In this devastating scene, he cries, "I felt it everywhere!"

13blood
12 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Sunday bloody Sunday

It's unclear who shed this blood, but it's left a stain on the floor and drips on this chair.

14reaganbush
13 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Win one for the Gipper

Wondering what year it is? It's 1984, as this Reagan/Bush campaign sign shows. Guessing this sign is in Indiana, and not Minnesota, the one state native son Walter Mondale carried.

15ghostbusters
14 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Who you gonna call?

These Ghostbusters costumes are better than any we remember seeing in 1984, but make allowances for Hollywood.

16map
15 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Mapping it out

Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is plotting some events on a map...

17chief
16 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Bad news

...and what the chief finds seems to horrify him. Guessing he didn't just come up with a new shortcut to the Ben Franklin.

18newgirl
17 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

New girl

Sadie Sink plays Max, the new girl in town. She arrives with a step-brother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery).

19trap
18 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

I ain't afraid of no ghost

The boys seem to have a Ghostbusters-style ghost trap, and it appears to have caught something -- likely from the Upside Down.

21gooeyweb
19 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Stick to it

You'll see this gooey, sticky ghostly material again.

23outside
20 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Doesn't look good

A terrifying glimpse of -- well, we're not sure, exactly.

27willdrawings
21 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

It's a draw

Will's frantic mind seems to be forcing him to draw the same image over and over obsessively.

31hurricane
22 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Path of destruction

Mysterious powers tear up a room in what appears to be Will's house.

35willwakeup
23 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Slumber party

Will seems to have gone into a standing trance, perhaps allowing his spirit to re-enter the Upside Down, while mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) tries frantically to rouse him.

36holeinground
24 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

What's down there?

An eerie, atmospheric shot of someone who appears to be Chief Hopper checking out a disturbing and twisty deep hole. Could it be a passage to the you-know-where?

37seanastin
25 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Urgent care

New to the cast this year is Sean Astin as Bob Newby, a new boyfriend for Joyce. "Newby" indeed -- but he's learning quickly that Hawkins can be a tough place to live. Or die, if that poor guy behind him is any indication. Here, Newby is in scrubs as if he's a doctor or nurse, but early reports are that he manages the local Radio Shack. Maybe he's just chasing down a customer who dared to leave without buying batteries.

38bat
26 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Up to bat

At first that bat looks a lot like Lucille, Negan's barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat from "The Walking Dead," but this one features nails. 

39runninghalls
27 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Hall pass

This looks like Will, and he doesn't seem to be able to run fast enough to escape the spooky, smokey vines that want to grab him.

39scaredwill
28 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Terror

We don't blame you, Will, we'd look that scared, too, in your situation. Unless...

41eleven
29 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Awwww, yeah!

Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is back, and Will now has some hope. 

(See shots of a creative Eleven-inspired runway competition entry here.) 

41elevenred
30 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Waiting on a friend

Not quite clear where Eleven is meant to be, but there seem to be dimensional walls or portals she must pass through to reach Will.

50elevenhand
31 of 31 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

Gotta hand it to her

Wouldn't you give your hand to a friend? Eleven seems on her way to breaking through, when, naturally, the trailer ends. Gotta wait till October 27 to binge on "Stranger Things" season 2

Read all our Comic-Con coverage here

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