Stranger Things used mall nostalgia to create Starcourt Mall

Stranger Things 3, is safe to say, the strongest season of the series yet. I mean, I loved every minute of it; from start to finish it was absolutely thrilling and exciting, not to mention hilarious. There is a lot to love about the third season but I know many will agree with me when I say Starcourt Mall was the highlight of it all…well, maybe apart from the carnival.

Most of the third season was spent within the confines beneath Starcourt Mall, and if you are an ’80s/’90s kid, then you know just how perfect this location was for the time period. I myself am a ’90s kid and I recall many of my Friday nights being spent in the food court of my local mall waiting for friends to arrive so we could scope out the cuties while we giggled in the corner. Ah, those were the days.

Unfortunately, as the convenience of buying everything online has essentially become the norm for everyone, the old school malls are starting to fall apart and become deserted. If you haven’t been to your local mall, don’t even go for the shopping, just go to witness the downfall of what was once the coolest place to go. It’s quite sad actually.

Given the nature of this evolution, you can imagine how difficult it was to scout out a location to bring Starcourt Mall to life for Stranger Things 3.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Times the show’s production designer, Chris Trujillo, talked about what went into the whole creative process, and how he used mall nostalgia to help guide him. Mall nostalgia may not be an official term, but it is a very real feeling, trust me.

Naturally, creating something as big as a mall would be a ridiculously expensive task so Trujillo and his team decided that the next best thing would be to actually film inside of an existing mall. Of course, the mall they went with is nothing like what it used to be, but it was the perfect backdrop for Stranger Things 3.

The decision was made to use Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia, and as you all saw, it was pretty much perfect.

“You’d be shocked at the number of malls, particularly derelict malls, in the area,” Trujillo said. “It’s a massive mall that’s slowly been collapsing on itself for probably the 30 years it’s existed. […] It’s a very sad, kind of abandoned feeling.”

The mall from my childhood pretty much feels the same, and it’s heartbreaking. The craziest part of all of this was that the production team actually broke down and rebuilt 40 stores, and fully stocked them, whether or not they were ever show on-screen.

"Imagine a mall without stores and without decoration. We had to painstakingly re-create the facades, all of the signage, all of the storefront displays. In many cases, we had to reconfigure the storefront architecture because it was in disrepair or it had been piecemeal remodeled through the years."

Using mall nostalgia, and his own memories of growing up in Tampa, Florida, Trujillo was able to bring his best creativity forward, alongside his team. If you paid attention you saw some wonderful throwbacks to Radio Shack, Waldenbooks, Claire’s Accessories and even an arcade. Ahh, how I would spend my days inside of my mall’s arcade.

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A lot of research went into creating Starcourt Mall and figuring out what stores actually existed inside of them back in 1985, but I’d say they did a pretty darn good job of it.

After filming the season, Starcourt Mall was left intact but according to Twitter, things are starting to be dismantled as the mall reverts back to its sad, deteriorating existence. Apparently, they were going to do a fan experience but it didn’t end up happening, and now there are talks that the mall be torn down to make a…cricket stadium.

Malls may be a thing of the past, but thanks to Stranger Things 3, they came back into our lives momentarily and reminded us of days past. Trujillo puts it best by saying:

"A place where people physically interacted in real-time and real space and had these consumer adventures together. More and more millennials are without that experience, they’re alone, shopping online. […] Malls represented a communal good time. More and more that’s falling by the wayside. It’s fun to see that blind capitalist optimism in full swing where no one is feeling guilty about the good time they’re having."

Well said. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be at my local mall, dreaming of days gone by.

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