Stranger Things is one of the most trending series and a Netflix hit. Stranger Things comes under the genre of an American horror story or science fiction television series—a Duffer brothers hit. We have sorted the best shows like Stranger Things, that will keep you watching.
The inspiration for Stranger Things comes from the science fiction films that were made in the 1980s. Down below are mentioned 20 shows like Stranger Things.
20. Halloween
- Director: John Carpenter
- Writer: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
- Cast: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J Soles, Nancy Kyes
- IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Michael Myers is a six-year-old who murders his sister using a kitchen knife; this incident occurs in Haddonfield, Illinois, on a Halloween night.
He is taken as a juvenile when he is 21, sent for trial, and runs away to his native town. After the escape, he commits many more murders.
19. Stand By Me
- Director: Rob Reiner
- Writer: Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon, Andrew Scheinman
- Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland
- IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Chris, Teddy, Duchamp, and Vern Tessio are the best friends of age 12, preparing to shift to a gymnasium. Vern once hears a conversation with his brother and a friend about how they saw a boy’s body but never mentioned it to the local police.
Vern and his friends are curious and want to be heroes searching for the body. Eventually, they find the body and do the right thing.
18. It
- Director: Andy Muschietti
- Writer: Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman
- Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgard
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Seven teenagers are finding it difficult to fit in; the common facts about them are that they are all the targets of school bullies.
In Derry, there is a Supernatural monster that comes out of the sewage at an interval of every 27 years as part of a decades-old curse, and the common target of the creature is children. The losers decide to stop the murderous cycle and find the missing children. This is a crime drama.
17. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Plant samples are collected by aliens who land in a forest in Los Angeles. The aliens had to leave in a hurry and leave behind one alien. The little alien that has been left behind lives in Elliot’s house, who is ten years old, along with his mother and siblings.
The beautiful friendship between these two is portrayed in this series.
16. Ghostbusters
- Director: Ivan Reitman
- Writer: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
- Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis
- IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Raymond “Ray,” who specialize in parapsychology, are accused of doing bizarre research. This incident made the dean of the university strip of their positions, which made these two start a paranormal investigation company.
Ghostbusters become the city’s only hope when a Sumerian God tries to enter our world through a dimensional portal.
15. Twilight Zone
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
The original series ran for five seasons, as it is a classic anthology series, and each episode shows its story.
Rod Serling is the executive producer of this anthology series.
14. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
- Director: John LandT.V., Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
A teenage girl named Sabrina Spellman was born out of the relationship between a wizard and a mortal, making her a hybrid. She was raised by her paternal aunts, Hilda and Zelda.
When she turns sixteen, she must choose between being baptized in a Satanic church of Night or living with mortals with few powers. This is a cult classic.
13. Riverdale
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
In the small town of Riverdale, it’s back to school after they have been slowly recovering from the tragic death of Jason Blossom. Archie Andrews wants to pursue a music career.
Betty Cooper is secretly in love with Archie and will have to face her overprotective mother.
12. The Society
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
West Ham, a small town, had an unbearable odor, which temporarily made the high school students evacuate the city. However, when they returned to the village in the evening, their parents, siblings, and other residents had disappeared.
The entire city suddenly looks surrounded by endless forests, which makes it evident that the young people are on their own and have to make their own rules to live together and survive.
11. Gravity Falls
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Pines twin Dipper and Mabel’s summer plans get disrupted when their parents send them to their great uncle Stan’s in Gravity Falls.
The twin peaks through a journal that contains all the mysteries contained in the town. The twins try to adjust to their strange surroundings. There are two seasons.
10. Yellowjackets
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
A female soccer team is on its way to a tournament.
While flying to Canada, the plane crashes, and the other team members must survive for nineteen months with the network failure. It portrays their attempts to survive and their lives in 2021.
9. Castle Rock
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
In a locked-up position, an individual is found in Shawshank prison’s basement. There are two seasons.
A budding psychopath Annie Wilkes and her daughter are shown, a feud between two rival clans becomes more, and the four hundredth anniversary celebration of the small town is being prepared for.
8. Misfits
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Five adults have been sentenced to death. One day a violent storm breaks out, and they are struck by lightning.
They realize that after that, they have superpowers. They know there is a threat among them, and they kill the threat, making it their first murder, and many more mysteries follow.
7. Black Mirror
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Different situations in that the modern or future world is imagined and recreated in a way in which new technological invention has destabilized society and human feelings.
Each episode is independent of the other, but the common fact among them is the topic of the progression of new technologies, the addiction, and the side effects they cause.
6. Russian Doll
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Nadia celebrates her 36th birthday when she finds a guy and invites him to her house, which turns into them having sex, and she immediately sends him away quickly and searches for her cat at a nearby store.
On the way, she finds the guy sitting in a park and happily runs towards him but gets hit by a car and dies, but when she opens her eyes, she finds herself back at the party and the whole scenario playing repeatedly.
5. Eerie, Indiana
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
The family of 15-year-old Marshall Teller is moving from New Jersey to Eerie; many strange things occur there. Objects disappear, and dogs can talk.
Though the number of episodes is few, there have been many fans for the series as it comes under Shows like stranger things.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Buffy is an active vampire slayer who moved to Sunnydale with her mother. The location is a hub where supernatural monsters like vampires, hyenas, Moloch, a psychopath puppet, a monstrous ogre, an Inca mummy, and the child-killing bogeyman are all found.
Buffy and two other friends get into a fight with a very old and powerful vampire. The vampire slayer is helped by an angel who identifies later as a vampire with a soul, just like similar to TV shows like Stranger Things.
3. I Am Not Okay with This
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
A young girl has to deal with her relationships with her high school classmates.
She also deals with her strange family and must discover her sexuality. She also finds the powers that she has deep within her—one of the strange and best shows like Stranger Things.
2. DarkÂ
- Director: John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, Steven Spielberg
- Writer: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Melissa Mathison
- Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, Kathleen Quinlan
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
- Platforms Available: Prime Video
Local police are in search of his son Mikkel. Thirty-three years earlier, the same had happened to his brother. Four families are part of the search with the local sheriff.
Jonas was also part of this affair after his father’s recent suicide. He tries to discover more about his father’s recent suicide—three seasons.
1. The Umbrella Academy
- Director: Steve Blackman
- Writer: Jeremy Slater
- Cast: Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, Robert Sheehan, Cameron Britton, Colm Feore, Ritu Arya
- IMDb Rating: 8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
The theme of The Umbrella Academy is a dysfunctional family trying to come back together for a common goal.
This happens in Stranger Things, and so does in The Umbrella Academy. They also have a fantastic soundtrack, just like the Stranger Things. This comes under shows like stranger things—three seasons in total.
Why These Shows?
The shows like stranger things are a must-watch, as they all seem to have fantastical adventures, mysterious organizations, newfound abilities, multi-dimensional plots, and, most importantly, a central mystery that makes the audience binge-watch.
Like Stranger Things stars, the all-star cast is young to make it more innovative, which makes the stranger things fans love the show along with the dark secrets, dark magic, isolated town, psychic girl, a fictional town, and horror aspect. This Sci-fi show keeps the Netflix series a spot to binge-watch.
