Raise your hand if youre still grossed out thinking about the Mind Flayers monster fromStranger Thingsseason 3?
The demogorgons were always meant to be the appetizer.
The Mind Flayers monster.
Netflix
We always saw the demogorgons as sharks the shark inJaws in season 1, Ross Duffer says.
But ultimately, it was a creature.
It was following blood.
What we really wanted to do to up the stakes is create something sentient.
Thats always even scarier to us than just a creature or a monster.
And the Mind Flayer really is inspired from Dungeons and Dragons as he is on the show.
The Mind Flayer possessing Billy was actually supposed to happen in season 2.
Lets talk about Jack Nicholson for a second.
That was a strategy I wanted to employ this season.
Montgomery also researched dissociative identity disorder to portray Billys possession.
In your head, he says.
The whole thing is the fight for Billy having the spot and having the voice.
I did a lot of work [researching] people who suffer or live with those conditions.
Thats why his creature was born.
We thought about the idea of him in thatHellraiserway of building a body.
The Mind Flayers creature was inspired by John CarpentersThe Thing.
Im sort of the Mind Flayers uncle.
Maybe some of those limbs you see are completely dysfunctional and its just dragging them behind him.
But the biggest inspiration for the Mind Flayers creature was actually puberty.
Thats why its made of so many awkward and gross body parts.
Puberty is disgusting and its awful, writer Kate Trefry says.
Lets lean into that as much as we possibly can.
Trefry always went back to caterpillars evolving into butterflies and how horrifying that process actually is.
But thats not what happens at all.
