`Stranger Things' live show in S.F.
Given the option to be physically sucked into a TV show, you might choose something warm and fuzzy like “Friends” or “Ted Lasso,” rather than Netflix's “Stranger Things,” with its child experiments, gruesome monsters and (spoiler alert for the current Season 4) people being levitated and twisted around like broken dolls.
Nevertheless, that option now exists, thanks to “Stranger Things: The Experience,” an in-person journey through the popular series' creepy universe at an old military facility in San Francisco.
Developed by Netflix and the show's creators, the one-hour campaign starts visitors off at the Hawkins National Laboratory, a portal to the baffling “Upside Down” dimension. There they must navigate their way through the installation and collaborate with their fellow adventurers to save the town, while getting prerecorded help from actual protagonists like Eleven.
It's part escape room and part special-effects display — those who are easily shocked should know the disgustingly botanical Demogorgons are stalking the facility. And because this is essentially a show about '80s kids, the experience exits through a gift shop stocked with pizza and ice cream, arcade games and mixtape music from that long-lost era.
Details: Through Aug. 28; Skylight at the Armory, “Stranger Things: The Experience” takes visitors to the horrifying Hawkins National Laboratory, complete with Demogorgons.
333 14th St., San Francisco; hours are 4-9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; $44 for adults, $30 for youths; strangerthings-experience.com/sanfrancisco.