Nearly ten years after it first sent shivers down spines, "Stranger Things", Netflix's paranormal adventure, returned for its fifth and final season on November 26th. The quirky drama, set in Indiana in the 1980s, follows a group of intrepid youngsters who battle monsters from another dimension they call the Upside Down. (A nearby laboratory, disregarding health and safety, opened a portal between worlds.)
"Stranger Things" was one of the streamer's first big original hits and it is still going strong. In the first half of this year subscribers spent nearly half a billion hours watching the first four seasons.
The show has swayed global culture. It has helped bring retro garb, such as oversized denim jackets, back into fashion. It has contributed to the growing popularity of "Dungeons & Dragons", a fantasy role-playing game loved by the show's characters.
And it has influenced what people listen to. In 2022, after "Running Up That Hill" featured on the soundtrack for season four, streams of Kate Bush's song surged by more than 8,000%. The song topped the charts in Britain almost 40 years after it was released.
The grand finale will be a cultural event, and an extra-strange one at that: on New Year's Eve the last episode will be shown not just on Netflix, but in cinemas. Ted Sarandos, Netflix's co-chief executive, reaffirmed his view in April that watching movies on the big screen was "an outmoded idea, for most people".
Yet as it tries to turn its popular shows into enduring franchises, Netflix increasingly sees a use for old-school platforms, from cinema to in-person events. Hollywood's most high-tech company is using low-tech methods to make its shows travel farther still.
In the home, Netflix is reaching for old-school tactics to heighten the buzz around its shows. One of its signature innovations was the simultaneous release of entire series, to enable bingeing.
It now seems to take the view that, in some cases, the traditional practice of dripping out episodes increases excitement. The eight new episodes of "Stranger Things" will be dropped in three helpings — around Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve — to keep people in a state of fearful anticipation.
The streamer is giving its hit shows greater depth by commissioning spin-offs. Netflix may regret the end of "Stranger Things", which has been responsible for more than $1bn in subscription revenue over the past five years, according to Parrot Analytics, a data company. But it will keep fans going with an animated offshoot, due next year, called "Tales from '85", as well as a live-action spin-off still in its early stages.
Netflix is also creating more in-person experiences. For years it has experimented with temporary events, from "Bridgerton" balls to "Money Heist" escape rooms. On November 12th the streamer opened the first Netflix House, a kind of indoor theme park, in Philadelphia, where attractions include "Wednesday"-themed games and a restaurant serving Netflix-inspired dishes. A second branch, with a "Stranger Things" experience, will open on December 11th in Dallas. Las Vegas is next, in 2027, with other venues promised.
For all its experiments, Netflix remains convinced that streaming is the best way to create global hits. Historically, cinematic release has given movies a wave of publicity which they have ridden through video rental and then TV.
But on a recent earnings call, Mr Sarandos mused that the hit-making process can now work the other way round. In the case of "KPop Demon Hunters", he said, "It was the superfans who…repeat-watched the movie that drove the recommendation engine that got it in front of more superfans."
Viewing at home let audiences learn the songs, make up the dances and post them on social media — ultimately creating a film that people wanted to see at the cinema. "We believe that…'KPop Demon Hunters' actually worked because it was released on Netflix first," Mr Sarandos said.
When it comes to "Stranger Things", fans may want to witness the gang's final showdown with Vecna, a terrifying psychic being, in a room with other people. Communal watching heightens the thrills and chills; of all the genres, horror is the one people still go to the cinema to watch. In the streaming age, the business of hit-making has gone into the Upside Down.