The Conjuring Meets Stranger Things In Netflix's 8-Part Fantasy Series

Published Jul 27, 2026, 1:31 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Netflix’s new show manages to mix the demon hunting of The Conjuring franchise with the mirror world of Stranger Things, but the series leans further into horror than sci-fi with its trippy genre mix. Six months after the end of Stranger Things, Netflix is still searching for the franchise that will replace the streaming service’s biggest hit to date. While Netflix’s One Piece is bigger than ever, that colorful manga adaptation’s mix of fantasy, adventure, horror, sci-fi, and comedy doesn’t scratch quite the same itch as the small town mystery of Stranger Things. Meanwhile, although the Duffer Brothers, the creators of Stranger Things, have released two new projects on the streaming service, neither has recaptured the original show’s hype. March’s psychological thriller Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen was critically acclaimed, but it was also a dark, brutal, and self-contained psychodrama that had little in common with the blockbuster storytelling of Stranger Things. May’s lighter sci-fi horror adventure The Boroughs was a much closer dupe for Stranger Things, but Netflix canceled the series shortly after its season 1 debut. Thus, it is now down to new shows like The East Palace to recapture the unexpected viral success that made Stranger Things a hit way back in 2016. Starring Nam Joo-hyuk as the ghost slayer Gu-cheon, The East Palace is a South Korean mystery horror that takes the demon-hunting premise of The Conjuring movies and fuses it with one of the most immersive and nightmarish aspects of Stranger Things lore. Set in the titular haunted palace, The East Palace sees Gu-cheon team up with Saeng Gang, a court lady who can hear ghosts, to rid the titular setting of its undead inhabitants. Netflix’s The East Palace Mixes The Conjuring’s Demon Hunting With The Mirror World of Stranger Things Image courtesy of Everett Collection Of course, as Gu-cheon and Saeng Gang search the palace throughout the tight eight-episode story of The East Palace, both the show’s protagonists soon learn that their task is more complex than it seemed. The eponymous setting houses as many dark secrets as it does literal monsters and demons, and each episode’s trip into the demonic mirror world brings with it new revelations about the lore of the East Palace. This is the main story element that The East Palace shares with Stranger Things, as Gu-cheon can travel into a mirror world that is very much like the Upside Down to fight spirits. The demon hunter’s job is reminiscent of the Warrens from The Conjuring franchise, but the scale of this elaborate supernatural mirror dimension is more reminiscent of Vecna’s lair in Stranger Things than anything from that hit horror series. The East Palace Season 2 Can Avoid The Biggest Stranger Things Story Problem At a time when many of 2026’s biggest horror movies, like the low-budget sleeper hit Obsession and the critically derided slasher sequel Scream 7, offer viewers more intimate, grounded, small-scale horror, The East Palace borrows the scale and scope of its ghost world from Stranger Things. While some critics argued that Stranger Things got a little too big for its own good in its final season, becoming a straightforward epic blockbuster, there can be no doubt that the approach works well here. Since the story of The East Palace is explicitly rooted in supernatural fantasy from the start, it is less jarring and outlandish when the show introduces its mirror dimension full of ghosts and demons. In contrast, Stranger Things started out life as a relatively small-scale, grounded mystery, so the revelation of the Upside-Down’s status as an interdimensional wormhole/bridge between realities felt a little sillier. Thus, by foregrounding the show’s most outlandish plot details, this Netflix hit immediately clued viewers into its fantasy trappings. As a result, The East Palace’s mix of The Conjuring and Stranger Things got away with revealing a trippier, stranger setting than either of these earlier hits. Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00 Network Netflix Directors Choi Jung-kyu Writers Kwon So-ra, Seo Jae-won Cast Creator(s) Kwon So-ra, Seo Jae-won