28 Years Ago, This 92% Rotten Tomatoes Comedy Walked So Stranger Things Could Run
This girl is also telekinetic, but her destiny is much brighter than Eleven’s.
Summary:
- Matilda, released in 1996, is a heartfelt family comedy that also has some parallels to Stranger Things.
- Matilda tells about a girl with supernatural abilities whose parents don't care about her, but who has to rid her school of the evil headmistress.
- Matilda, directed by Danny DeVito, is available on Apple TV and Prime Video.
In 2013, two brothers Matt and Ross Duffer decided to create a show about children who live in the town of Montauk, USA, where strange things happen. In the 1980s, a boy goes missing, apparently kidnapped by a monster somehow connected to a secret military base.
The Duffer Brothers were not famous, they had little television experience, so no one was in a hurry to put up money for this project. The brothers put the script on a shelf and moved on with their careers.
In 2016, the first season of Stranger Things was released and immediately proved that the Duffers were geniuses and that Netflix had found a new gold mine. The project immediately made it to the top of the most watched shows on Netflix, taking second place, and what happened next is history.
Matilda Is Stranger Things’ Predecessor
The motifs shown in Stranger Things are not new, and have been used in other projects before this show, but the most unexpected parallel can be drawn with a touching family film.
Although it does not have scary elements and a depressing atmosphere, it can still be called a kind of predecessor of Stranger Things – and that is the 1996 comedy Matilda.
Fortunately, not all gifted kids in the movies are destined to be loners misunderstood by the world, like Cole in The Sixth Sense, or harbingers of the apocalypse, like Damien in The Omen. There are also those who live their best lives and face problems that are absolutely typical for all teenagers.
Matilda Is a Perfect Family Movie
Matilda, with her telekinesis, won the hearts of millions of viewers of all ages long before Eleven. Matilda is a gifted girl who had the misfortune to be born into the narrow-minded and greedy Wormwood family.
Her parents are not only unaware of their daughter's astonishing abilities, they are also completely uninterested in her life because they are too preoccupied with their own.
Meanwhile, Matilda must use all of her extraordinary wits and supernatural abilities to save the school from evil and eccentric headmistress Agatha Trunchbull and help kind teacher Miss Honey return home.
Matilda, directed by Danny DeVito, is a perfect family movie that can appeal to viewers of all ages, and an ideal option for those who are tired of dark stories and want a simple, good fairy tale.
Where to Watch Matilda?
Matilda is available on Apple TV and Prime Video.