Parents Guide: Stranger Things (2016–2025)

Violence & Gore (88)

Moderate
A child is strangled by a teenager, but he is stopped before he can kill the child.
Demodogs get inside a lab elevator full of people and attack and feast on them (the actual attack is not shown but you see the aftermath with a moderate amount of blood and dead bodies when the elevator arrives at the next floor).
A man is beaten in his office. First, his head is pushed and slammed into the door, breaking his nose, and he is then repeatedly punched (we only hear this from outside the locked door) and then is thrown over his desk. After this, his finger is forced into a cigar slicer and the person beating him pushes down on it almost cutting his finger, but stops after his answers are given. He is then taken hostage, but not further hurt. His face is bloody all throughout the episode.
Lots of characters are killed throughout the series, occasionally quite brutally but most of it is moderate.
In a hospital, there is a chase scene which is somewhat gory. A man is stabbed with scissors - blood spurts out. One man's nose is broken, but the blood is black. At the end, their skins melts into chunks of blood.
In the early season 1 there is a monster with an appearance which is slimy and sticky but not gory.
In season 3 two men die with their bodies melting and all their guts and blood moving by them self to form a monster. This can make any squeamish people watching feel very disgusted and horrified. Most of the show is nowhere near this gory though.
Season 4 is the goriest season. It has graphic violence with kids being killed in the first episode (this might be disturbing for some people)
A character is shown with a bloody nose frequently throughout the series.
A man is stabbed in the neck with scissors. Not too graphic.
The monsters in Stranger Things are creepy and frightening, particularly in Season 4.
Monsters in season 3 are made out of guts and blood and can be seen as disturbing and graphic
In season 3 a character has a very graphic wound on their leg. Another character then cuts into the leg and movies his hand around under the skin. This is shown in detail and is quite graphic and pretty gory/bloody, but is mostly shown in brief glimpses with half of it focusing ont the characters reactions.
In season 3, a character is thrown into something and is turned into bloody pulp. Brief but easiy seen
Seasons 1 and 2 are milder in terms of brutality, and definitely less frequent in terms of violence. However, season 3 and 4 are much more violent. There are some gory and uncomfortable scenes as the series progresses.
Season 4 is definitely the most violent. It includes 4 different people lifted up into the air by a supernatural force, and their body parts move in all different directions with the sound of bones breaking and eyeballs suddenly disappearing. This is a bit more graphic than usual for the show, but is more weird and frightening than outright gory.
A monster attacks a group of men in a prison as they try and fail to fight back. Most of them are killed and while the deaths are quick, some are quite bloody.
Season 4 is the scariest season by far and maybe the most violent. Several children are murdered by floating into the air before all their limbs snap and their eyes bleed before dissapearing with blood coming out of their sockets. The combat and shooting this season is much more intense and realistic as well.
In season 4, hopper and some other Russian prisoners battle the demogorgon, it is quite brutal because the demogorgon bites their heads off and a fair amount of blood is shown.
People are electrocuted in slow motion, and a pile of blood and flesh is shown. Not too graphic though.
The lab massacre scene in season 4 is the most bloodiest scene in the show so far.
Eleven kills several people using her powers, you see blood coming out of their eyes. Not too graphic but quite disturbing.
In the season 4 finale, a teenager is shown being melted in half briefly. He screams in agony and the shot pans away
A group of jocks plot to murder one of the characters due to conspiracy that he killed one of the jock's girlfriend. They arm themselves with guns and assorted melee weapons to do so.
In Season 4, 4 teenagers have their bones snapped, limbs broken, mouth fractured and eyes bleeding before their eyes get forced back into their brain.
Blood and Gore throughout.
Sometimes there are parts where you may sense gore coming, but it's either a jumpscare or something comedic.
Characters are injured and blood is seen coming out of them. There is gore and blood in all seasons but it is more severe in season four.
In season 4, a traumatic flashback is shown in which it is implied that a baby is burned alive in its cradle. We don't see the baby, but we see the burning cradle and the baby screaming. Not graphic but very upsetting.
Season 4 is by far the most graphic out of the first 4.
Not too much violence in first 3 season But in 4th season it has so many gore
It gets gorier with each season.
In season 4, a man is discussed to have slashed his own eyes years previously. The act is never shown in flashback, but he is seen with scars in present day with minor pus and clearly deep cut scars. Not insanely graphic but it is disturbing and a little freaky.
The violence is usually moderate, but in some instances it can get to be severe
This show is pretty gory throughout the series but gets worse by the season.
It also has Strong blood and gore.
In season 3, a machine explodes in a lab and turns a few soldiers into steaming piles of bloody flesh.
A man is eaten alive by a demogorgon. VERY graphic and bloody. May be disturbing for some.
Children are seen dead with broken limbs and covered in blood. Could be disturbing for some.
In season 4, a teenage boy is seen choking a small child. Dead children are seen around with broken limbs and lots of blood. (VERY graphic)
In one scene a creature tears apart, smashes and devours several people. This has realistically sensible amount of gore but quite brutal.
Season 3 is the most graphic of them with people melting into viscerally gory messes and blood spatter.
In the 4th season very small children are killed by an older person. They are seen layed around a laboratory covered in blood and with broken limbs. (Very graphic)
In the third season a character gets a parasite in their leg. Another character cuts open the leg with a knife and reaches inside it. This is all shown on-screen andbis very graphic.

Spoilers

There are many disturbing and violent scenes involving an massive monster made of flesh. There are scenes involving copious amounts of blood splatter after people have been killed in an attack, but not the attack itself is not shown. Government agents menace the main characters and at one point kill an innocent man by shooting him in the head and faking his suicide. The shooting itself is not shown, but the aftermath is shown and is not that graphic. The story frequently puts children in peril from the alien monster and government agents. On several occasions, viewers are led to believe that children have been killed offscreen. In one instance, a main character turns out to be still alive. However, one young character dies after a monster attack. She is dragged away and shown later to have been used as a food source by the parasitic monster. The alien monster is shown eating a deer it has killed at one point.
Every time Eleven uses her powers in season 1, her nose bleeds. In season 2, she learns to control her powers better yet still has some nosebleeds. In one of the final scenes, Eleven pushes the monster back in the gate. Bloods oozes out of both her nostrils. None of the nosebleed scenes are graphic or gory.
Steve and Billy get into a fistfight in the season 2 finale. Steve has the upper hand at first but Billy soon gets it and repeatedly punches Steve in the face. Max then gets involved and sedates Billy. He removes the syringe and eventually falls to the ground. Ultimately, Steve and Billy end up being fine. Except with Steve recovering first.
In one scene, Eleven uses her powers to cause a group of government workers to bleed from their eyes and noses, eventually crushing their brains (heard but not seen). Not graphic.
There is an extremely violent and gory scene where a teenager stabs a hospital scissors in a guy's neck and on the other side they show his girlfriend banging a fire extinguisher in a guy's head both the guys fall down and their bodies melt in fire and blood and you can see goo and they and they both combine with each other, Kids and sensitive adults may find this disturbing, gory, slimy and frightening. Season 3 is a bit violent & gory at times but the rest are fine.
In season 3, people and rats melt or explode into graphic puddles, and a man is dismembered in a rotating blade (brief; blink-and-you-miss-it blood and gore shown)
In season 3, a large monster bites a young girl's leg. It is later realized that a small part of the monster stayed inside her leg, and someone attempts to slice it out with a hot knife. They slit her leg open and insert their hand into her leg, feeling around for the monster. This is fairly graphic and quite hard to watch.
Billy sacrifices himself to save Eleven and the kids. He is impaled multiple times by the monster. He is screaming throughout the scene and blood seeps through his tank top, blood also spurts out of his mouth. This scene is somwhat bloody and very emotional.
In season 3, a machine malfunctions and melts and burns a couple of men's bodies. This isn't very graphic.
In the final act of season 3 the monster is attacked with fireworks being thrown at it. Sparks from the fireworks are seen flying everywhere as the creature screeches in pain. This is only to distract the monster. Not graphic but starts very suddenly.
A decaying corpse is shown in very graphic detail. A child or animal (not clear) is seen being devoured by a monster. A dead deer with bloody wounds is seen for a few seconds.
In one of the final episodes of season 3, a character is shot in the chest. The scene doesn't show a lot of Gore but you can see him bleed out after a character gets 2 others and he passes away shortly after. The scene is very emotional.
In season 4 episode 1. A girl gets all her bones broken and snapped. Then her eyes get sucked back in to her skull. It is very shocking and disturbing.
A main character gets slaughtered by a new monster called VECNA. Her body twists and distorts and her eyes fall into the back of her head. Photos of her body are later shown in full detail at the character's autopsy.
In season 4, the main monster of the season, Vecna, kills 4 people.
In retaliation to Angela bullying her, El grabs a roller skate and full force pounds Angela in the face, smashing her head open and causing a lot of blood to spill down her face/nose. Some viewers will find this satisfying, while others would be turned off by the force of the strike and its graphic outcome.
At several points throughout Season 4, people are killed by a threatening monster. These people are suspended in mid-air, their bodies contort, their bones snap and their eyes are gouged out.
Vecna kills a cheerleader and a basketball player that are still in highschool by lifting them up in the air telepathically, snapping their limbs , jaw and finishing by popping out their eyeballs.
The deaths of Chrissy, Fred and Victor Creel's family can be disturbing and upsetting.It is implied that Victor Creel cut his own eyes out after his family was killed by Vecna.He is humming and crying which may be disturbing.Throughout season 4, characters are lifted into the air, contorted and their eyes popped.Lots of blood as well as 1 killing multiple children and a few minor characters getting shot.
A swimming pool fills with blood; very reminiscent of The Shining's elevator scene.
In season 3, the monster uses human bodies to create his earthly form. He does this by controlling their minds the. Causing them to melt into a bloody mess of gore and bones. The slime from all these people then comes together and forms a giant red bloody monster. Not quite as bad as it sounds here but still pretty gruesome and gory.
In season 3 hopper has multiple fights with a Russian man involving guns .
Several scenes throughout the series show a bloody massacre at the Hawkins Lab, especially in season 4. Most unsettling might be the ones which show the children... bloodied... lying lifeless. Viewers of any age should beware that these scenes are gruesome and therefore may be troublesome.
A cat is killed and eaten by a demodog. The actual kill isn't shown but the aftermath is. The cat's torso is half eaten with the demodog chewing down onto the flesh. Detail of the cat's insides are blocked by the demodog's head. Disturbing and may upset cat lovers.
Season 4 of stranger thing has to be one if not the most bloodiest season the lab seen is very bloody and there's a few graphic kills.
In season 4, how Vecna kills a person is he broke their arm and leg bones-also the fingers-he dislocates their jaw, and munch their eyes. It's very sadistic.
In the new season a disturbing scenes are shown of young kids graphicly killed offscreen and bodies shown. A warning is showed.
Hopper fights the Demogorgon in Russia with a sword. He starts by slicing off its arm (onscreen) and then decapitating it (onscreen). It then rolls onto the ground and towards the camera, you can also see the bones and veins (onscreen).
Vecna goes to kill Max Mayfield in Volume 2, but whilst doing so, he is flung across the room by El. Because of this, Max falls to the floor and it shows Lucas picking her up and into his arms. You can see her right leg and left arm broken and in a weird position and her eyes, white, with blood dripping from her eye sockets.
In the finale, a monster gets its arms and head sliced off in great detail, very graphic and gory
As the four gates open into one in the final episode, a character whose body is between them, gets split in half. No blood and not very graphic although you can see their bones, it's not very obvious.
A girl (Eleven), grabs a roller skate, and hits her bully (Angela), so hard that it gave her concussion, her gash can be seen and blood is seen dripping down from her forehead. Angela is known to bully Eleven so this will likely be seen as deserving.
Season 4 is arguably the most graphic season. In three instances, teenagers are shown being lifted into the air in a horror like fashion. Their bones begin to snap and crack in all sorts of directions in a grotesque way. The first instance happens in episode one and is shown in great detail. The final shot of the episode, her eyes cave in and we can hear squelching. No blood is shown until later episodes when the other two victims are shown. This becomes a common theme
In season 4, it is mentioned multiple times (and hinted at) that Eleven injured and brutally killed all of her fellow lab mates. A shot of a room full of bloodied corpses and blood patterns on the floor and wall are seen clearly. Eleven turns around and the viewer can see blood streaming from her eyes and nose. Very dark and potentially disturbing for squeamish viewers
Eddie's death isn't very graphic, but is very upsetting. Bat like creatures swoop down and bite and claw at him while he screams in agony. He is later shown bleeding from the mouth and chest while Dustin screams in terror.
Max's "death" in the season 4 finale is stressful, disturbing, and emotional. She is elevated off of the ground and her legs and arms are shown snapping. However, unlike the other victims, she is rescued before her neck is snapped. She wakes up and is breathing heavily while Lucas tries to keep her alive. She is shown bleeding from the eyes and she expresses that she can't feel anything before she dies. She is later revived and is shown recovering in the hospital.
In S4E9 A teen is disintegrated in half by an opening portal. Flesh and organs melt away as the teen is screaming and the camera tracks over the exposed rib cage.
In Season 2, a demodog is seen feasting a cat half
In S1E3 a teenage girl is brutally killed by a monster. A few episodes later, we see her ghastly corpse in The Upside Down, with slugs oozing out of her mouth. Her corpse is later shown again in S4 in a flashback.
DEMODOGS eat Bob Newby's body. Blood is shown. Body is shown.
In season 4 episode 9 there are multiple death scenes to main characters(Max & Eddie) with gory results.
Season 4 has to be the most graphic, brutal, bloody, and violent out of all the seasons so far with bones breaking and eyeballs being sucked out.
Season 4 includes many people dying ad their bones snap, blood spilling from their eyes.
In the final act of season 1, the monster is attacked with all manner of weapons. It is clubbed repeatedly with a bat with nails, caught in a bear trap, shot repeatedly with various weapons, and set on fire. It is eventually destroyed by the sacrificial act of a main character, which causes them both to vaporize in a cloud of black matter.