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On paper, the plot of the series “Stranger Things,” a runaway summer hit from Netflix, reads like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. And an early scene takes place in a suburban Indiana basement in 1983, with four adolescent boys debating the best way to defeat a mythical Demogorgon. When a version of that creature enters their world, the show unfolds into an interdimensional tribute to classic ’80s fantasy, sci-fi and horror, with nods to “Alien”; “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial”; “A Nightmare on Elm Street”; and Stephen King’s 1986 novel, “It.” Since its release in July, the series has attracted a wave of internet attention, with detailed examinations of its cinematic and cultural references — including a deep dive into the characters’ corduroy wardrobes.

[Did you watch “Stranger Things”? Let’s talk about it.]

The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, are twins who grew up in the suburbs of Durham, N.C. Their 2015 film debut, “Hidden,” was a thriller starring Alexander Skarsgard with a twist similar to those of one of their heroes, M. Night Shyamalan. The script attracted Mr. Shyamalan’s attention, and the brothers were hired to consult and write for the first season of the Fox series “Wayward Pines,” for which Mr. Shyamalan was an executive producer. In a recent phone interview, the Duffers, 32, explained the genesis and influences of “Stranger Things.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

What was your pitch for this show?

MATT There were a lot of things going against it. We just weren’t established. And we were very intent on showrunning it and directing. And we were told you cannot put kids in the lead roles of a show that’s not intended for a kid audience.

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Ross Duffer, left, and his twin brother, Matt, the creators of “Stranger Things.” Credit James Minchin/Netflix
We wrote one script for it, the pilot, which is very close to the first episode as it exists now. And then we made a 20-page pitch book, where we took an old Stephen King book cover, and we had a lot of imagery from a lot of the movies that we’re referencing.

The first week, I think, we had 15 pitches, and it was all passes. There was a moment where we’re like, “Oh, I think people aren’t getting it.” And then the next week, offers started to come in, and luckily Netflix understood it right away.

ROSS There was a lot of that question of, “Why can’t it just be this sheriff going around investigating paranormal activities in a ‘Twin Peaks’ town?” We just weren’t interested in that. What we didn’t realize is that Netflix — they never said this, but just looking at it — they’re sort of moving into Phase 2, in which Phase 1 is, they’ve got the David Finchers and the Jenji Kohans, very successful people with proven track records. And they had so much success with that, with things like “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black,” that they’re able to roll the dice on some younger voices.

And you knew you wanted this to be a TV series — this was not a film idea?

MATT I think we initially talked about it as a film, but we thought it would be better as a series. The cool thing about TV is you have a lot more time. [But] you’re not stuck now with 22 episodes. It’s almost impossible to tell a cinematic story when you have that many episodes.

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ROSS This is almost really the first time that I can think of in history that people are able to come up with a story, and they’re able to go, how long should this be? Should this be six hours? Should this be seven hours? Should this be 11 hours? And Netflix is very good at not dictating how many episodes it should be.

MATT If you’re doing a movie, the minute you put a monster in it, it becomes a horror movie. And if it’s a horror movie nowadays, it’s basically a haunted house ride. You’re trying to get jump scares every six, seven minutes. You just don’t have the time to spend with characters. We love monsters, but if it was a movie, it would be all about the monster. But a place like Netflix, they actually care a lot more about the characters. So we’re able to tell these very character-driven stories and also appease our childlike sensibilities by putting a flesh-eating monster in it.

If you’re given a second season, would you pick up immediately where it left off, or would you let time pass?

ROSS I think we have to let time pass. Just because the kids — even by the end of the season, their voices were dropping, and we just saw them at the premiere, and they look different. We can’t pick up at Christmastime, where we left off. We’ve been talking a lot about “Harry Potter” just in terms of how they dealt with these kids growing older.

Photo

Tim Curry in the mini-series “It.” Credit Green/Epstein Productions and Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company
How long did it take to cast the kids?

MATT We looked at 1,000 kids. Most kids, you can turn off their auditions after five seconds, because there’s nothing authentic about it. The minute we saw Gaten [Matarazzo], who plays Dustin, we basically cast him off the first tape that he sent in. When you see someone like Gaten, and he pops the way he does, you’re just like, “This kid, we’re putting him in the show, 100 percent.”

At their ages, they might not know the reference points for the nostalgia in the show — did you give them homework assignments?

ROSS We had them all watch “Stand by Me,” and we told them what movies to watch. Finn [Wolfhard], who plays Mike, he’s a movie buff, so he’s seen everything multiple times. But these are kids who are just authentic to begin with. You’re working on a TV schedule — it’s not like we can do 10 takes and try to beat a performance out of them. They just did it, take after take after take, for six months.

The ’80s pop culture references in the show have themes in which the idyllic American small town life is destroyed. And there’s the underlying Communist threat in the show, which was an element in certain movies of that time — what is it about this particular era?

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Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Credit New Line Cinema
MATT It felt back that then that there was this facade of “Oh, everything is perfect, everything is wonderful.” And a lot of these stories that we love, they’re sort of ripping at that facade. Even Stephen King’s stories, they always talk about that. There’s always the supernatural evil, but the real evil in his stories is always human in nature.

ROSS There’s this idea of this Cold War, this looming threat, and everyone’s going about their business with their families and living their lives. When we were kids, the reason we responded to this stuff so much is because we could relate to these characters, these families, the kids.

How is it working together? Do you finish each other’s sentences?

MATT You have to go through a big process with the Directors Guild in order to get co-direction credit. They sit you in front of this microphone in front of like 40 legendary directors, and they start grilling you. We were very nervous, but we just kept talking and finishing each other’s sentences, and one of the directors said, “I don’t understand how you guys are going to be able do this, because I can’t even understand what you’re saying.” But we started making movies together way back in the third grade with our other friend, who lived next to us in Durham. We’re pretty much dysfunctional apart.

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Were the films you were making in third grade about similar topics?

MATT Our first movie was a feature adaptation of [the trading card game] Magic: The Gathering. We were making comedies for a while. As we got more into high school, we started to get into genre, and then we started to make darker, horror stuff.

Photo

Matt Duffer, left, and his twin brother, Ross, creators of “Stranger Things,” with Winona Ryder on the set. Credit Netflix
ROSS It was seventh grade or something like that when we started falling in love with stuff like Sam Raimi and Wes Craven and John Carpenter. Also, our filmmaking skills were getting a little more polished, so we thought we could actually make something that was not funny. That’s when we started making these little short films about people getting possessed by demons.

When you were kids, what scared you?

MATT We have a particular problem with clowns. I’m still not quite over it. We saw the “It” mini-series, which is — I don’t want to knock it — it’s not very good. I had read the book, I think we were in fourth grade or third grade, so, too young.

ROSS We’re 10 or something, and we’re watching “Evil Dead,” which you don’t really see the humor in when you’re 10 years old. It was just terrifying. And same with “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” which is such a brilliant movie and such a brilliant concept.

MATT Freddy Krueger scared us. “Hellraiser” really messed us up.

ROSS But what we were trying to do with “Stranger Things” is, it’s again, very ordinary, like “Nightmare on Elm Street” is very ordinary: teens, people that you understand and can relate to, and then this evil that you can’t even fully explain. And that’s what’s great about Freddy Krueger, and that’s also what’s great about Clive Barker’s stuff — there’s an inherent logic to that, but also it’s just weird. When you put that unexplainable evil with this very ordinary American life, to us, that was the scariest, because suddenly I’m going to bed, and I’m thinking, “Is Freddy going to push through the ceiling and grab me?”

MATT Now that I’m thinking about it, both “It” and “Hellraiser” are also about interdimensional beings. Maybe we’re just terrified of interdimensional beings, particularly if they can turn themselves into clowns.

What scares you now?

MATT Big parties and interviews like this are scarier to me now than clowns.

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