Netflix’sStranger Thingshas captivated audiences with its faithful homage to the ’80s ever since its first season, but perhaps its most impressive tribute to that era is Starcourt Mall, the vintage shopping center from Season 3. It is essentiallya giant time capsulefeaturing a slew of familiar blasts-from-the-pasts, from defunct brands like Sam Goody and Waldenbooks to Orange Julius and, of course, lots of neon signage. Yet, despite its warm appearance and vintage feel on the show, Starcourt Mall was once actually a real place with a rather dark history; one that allows it to fit in perfectly with everything else in Hawkins, Indiana.
Before it was transformed into Starcourt Mall forStranger Things, it was known as Gwinnett Place Mall, a local hub in Duluth, Georgia. It had already been abandoned before Netflix moved in to start filming, but just five months prior, a gruesome discovery was made in the mall’s food court. A young woman was found murdered in the vacant Subway restaurant, and according to local reports, her lifeless body had been left there for two weeks before someone had come across it.
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The victim was identified as 19-year-old Silling A. Man, a Georgia State University student who had previously been reported missing by a family member. Later on, her case would reveal that she was romantically involved with another Georgia local named Emmett Davis at the time of her murder. Davis had influenced Man to cut off all of her family and friends, change her appearance, and live with him in and out of hotels in the months leading up to her death. Davis then left the state following the murder, but authorities later found him and took him into custody under charges of aggravated assault and felony murder.
It’s a mere coincidence that Netflix chose the site of a brutal murder as the setting forStranger Things' epic Season 3 finale, but in a twisted way, it works out. Fans will recall that the Hawkins kids had a showdown against the Mind Flayer inStarcourt Mall, and it was one of the darkest scenes in the show so far, with the demonic possession and consequent death of Billy Hargrove. Needless to say, knowing the real-life dark history behind Starcourt Mall surely adds to the darkness of those scenes.
While it’s unclear whether Starcourt Mall will be a pivotal location in the next part of the story,Stranger Thingsstar Finn Wolfhard promises thatSeason 4 is going to be “really messed up"and perhaps the scariest one yet. Given that it will be the series' final season, fans are surely expecting nothing less than that.
Stranger ThingsSeason 4 is coming to Netflix on August 08, 2025.
