Tales From ’85: Stranger Things Expands Into Animated territory with a new foe

Netflix’s animated entry, Tales From ’85, brings fresh faces and a terrifying threat to the Stranger Things universe. All 10 episodes are now streaming, and early reactions describe it as a nostalgia-soaked joy that’s approachable for new viewers or younger fans while still delighting longtime followers who miss the show’s eerie pull.

Set between Season 2 and Season 3, the series follows the Hawkins crew as they square off against a chilling monster lurking in the town’s snowy woods and damp sewers. At first, the creature is dubbed the “Snow Shark” for skimming beneath the powder before striking, but the team soon learns its true nature and gives it a name of its own. Spoilers follow for those who want to go in blind.

The Aboleth: a horror inspired by Alien and The Thing

Tales From ’85 opens with a hazmat-clad investigator pursuing a beast through the forest, only to torch it as it releases spores that sprout into a new entity. The spores can possess people and push the creature’s form into new shapes, leading to a string of terrifying reconfigurations. One moment the threat resembles a scorpion, the next a dinosaur, and in one standout sequence, even a pumpkin monster. The design and transformation echo the body-horror of The Thing.

In the classroom, Mrs. Baxter offers a science-minded aside about life cycles and extinction, drawing connections to Alien. She explains how spores can ensure a species’ survival, and that without a host, death follows. Applying those ideas to their foe, Dustin coins the creature’s name: Aboleth, bonding curiosity about its biology to a dusting of D&D-inspired lore.

Origin and weaknesses

A key reveal is that a green regenerative goo—taken from a dead Upside Down specimen—reanimates the Aboleth, giving it birth and a bizarre lifecycle. While the goo hints at potential scientific breakthroughs, the show’s heroes are wary of the risks of reviving or regenerating life in unpredictable ways.

To defeat the Aboleth, the kids deduce that the Queen must be killed (referred to as Horde Prime in their lore) and learn that the monster and its tendrils hate light. This insight leads them to craft a makeshift “Light Gun” to turn the tide against their luminous foe.

Climax and aftermath

The season’s climax moves underground, with the Hawkins crew venturing into the sewers to confront the Aboleth Queen. They manage to crush the creature as a portal to the Upside Down looms, cutting off its return and ending the immediate threat.

A shared love of monsters: Jaws-influenced awe

Tales From ’85 showrunner Eric Robles notes that the Duffer Brothers gave him loose direction about the monster, allowing him to invent within the constraints of the Upside Down universe. He recalls a balance between Hawkins Lab science and otherworldly biology, and he admits to drawing inspiration from Jaws—there’s a lurking danger beneath the snow that can strike when you least expect it.

The series is now on Netflix, bringing a compact, high-energy chapter to the Stranger Things saga. If you’re curious for more, you can check our take on the Stranger Things character ranking or explore the Tales From ’85 soundtrack for the music that underpins each eerie beat.