Why the ’80s are like, totally back on screen

The author of a new book about science fiction film from the 1950s through the beginning of the 1980s says that the ’80s are such a popular setting and inspiration for modern movies and TV shows because of the power of nostalgia.

If you grew up in the 1980s, you might be reveling in the recent onslaught of movies and TV shows that are set in and celebrate that era, with offerings such as the big-screen remake of Stephen King’s IT and the Netflix series Stranger Things—which will release a second season on October 27.

“Nostalgia tends to involve longing for a past time that never really existed…”

At 37, Bradley Schauer, an assistant professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre, Film and Television and author of Escape Velocity: American Science Fiction Film, 1950-1982 (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), is a member of the recently coined “xennial” generation, a so-called “microgeneration” between Generation X and millennials. He says that, like many others in his age range, he’s susceptible to ’80s nostalgia, with his favorite films of the time including The Goonies, Back to the Future, and the lesser-known science fiction fantasy flick Explorers, starring a young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.

Here Schauer discusses why nostalgia works in the entertainment industry, its audience, and how filmmakers can use it correctly.

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