What is the Aboleth in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85? New monster explained

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The world of Stranger Things continues in a new animated series, Tales From ’85. It introduces fresh faces and a frightening new danger.

The complete first season of the new series is now available on Netflix. Our review called it a fun and nostalgic experience that both new viewers and longtime fans will enjoy, especially those who have been eagerly awaiting more from the Stranger Things universe.

This story takes place after Season 2 but before Season 3, and follows our favorite characters as they fight a frightening creature in the snowy forests and grimy sewers of Hawkins.

At first, the creature is nicknamed a ‘Snow Shark’ because it swims under the snow before attacking. However, as the story unfolds, the characters discover what it actually is and even give it a proper name. WARNING: Spoilers follow…

The Stranger Things ‘Aboleth’ is inspired by monsters in Alien and The Thing

The new Stranger Things story, Tales From ’85, opens with a person in a protective suit pursuing a creature in the woods and ultimately setting it on fire. However, before the creature is completely destroyed, it releases spores that quickly grow into a different kind of monster.

Later in the episode, the creature pulls a pair of bullies under the snow and eats them. When they reappear, they seem possessed and begin experiencing disturbing visions.

The heroes of Hawkins repeatedly battle this dangerous enemy, but each time they win, the creature simply regenerates, changing its form using spores.

The show features various monster transformations – a scorpion in one episode, a dinosaur in another, and a particularly memorable pumpkin monster sequence in ‘Tales From ’85’. These all clearly echo the shape-shifting alien creature from the movie The Thing.

When the students ask their new teacher, Mrs. Baxter, about how nature works, she uses the movie Alien to explain life cycles and how the threat of extinction drives evolution. She points out that spores help a species survive, but if a suitable host isn’t found, death is unavoidable.

Using those established guidelines, and taking inspiration from his ‘Monster Manual,’ Dustin named their new opponent the Aboleth.

As the story unfolds, we discover the Aboleth originated when a strange green substance was used to revive a creature from the Upside Down.

This substance might also offer exciting possibilities for healing and restoring spoiled fruits and vegetables, but based on what we’ve seen, the risks currently seem greater than any potential advantages.

Okay, so we figured out that to actually beat this monster, we had to take down the Queen – they call her Horde Prime. And get this, the monster and all those creepy vines it sends out? Super sensitive to light! So, naturally, we built this awesome ‘Light Gun’ to exploit that weakness and finally take it down.

The story concludes with the group venturing into the sewers under Hawkins, where they overcome the Aboleth Queen. They then destroy the creature, preventing it from returning to the Upside Down by slamming it shut within the portal.

Jaws was also an influence on the Tales From ’85 monster

According to Eric Robles, the showrunner of Tales From ’85, the creators of Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer, provided some initial guidance about the new monster, but then gave him the freedom to develop it himself.

Initially, we planned to introduce creatures like Demogorgons and Demodogs,” he explained to Netflix. “But the Duffer Brothers challenged us to develop our own scientific explanations for these creatures and to define what would make any new monsters we created unique.

That discovery really opened things up for us, and we realized we could create some seriously cool monsters. Everything we’ve made is still linked to the Upside Down, so all our creatures have that Upside Down DNA in them. It’s basically Hawkins Lab science mixed with whatever’s going on in the Upside Down, and that combination is what gives us the creatures you see in our world.

As a kid, I loved watching ‘Jaws,’ and our show uses a similar idea – something dangerous is hidden beneath the surface, in this case, under all the snow. You’re always on edge, not knowing where it will appear. We’ve also had fun creating some really original monsters for the series.

You can now watch Tales From ’85 on Netflix. If you’re interested, check out our ranking of Stranger Things characters here, or find the complete list of songs from the Tales From ’85 soundtrack here.

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2026-04-23 17:50