Stranger Things season 4: Is Pennhurst Mental Hospital a real place?

There are more murders happening in Hawkins, Indiana in Stranger Things season 4, and the possible suspect list is pretty lengthy. Ahead of the new season, we learned there’d be new characters introduced per usual, this time including the new baddie from the Upside Down, Vecna, and a creepy guy named Victor Creel played by A Nightmare on Elm Street legend Robert Englund.

We also get to meet a high schooler named Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), who’s head of the Dungeons & Dragons club The Hellfire Club, and Jonathan’s new friend in California, Argyle (Eduardo Franco). Who can we trust and who should we be suspicious of?

Spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 part 1 ahead.

When the first murder is committed in Stranger Things season 4 part 1, everyone’s terrified. While working for the school newspaper, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and her classmate Fred (Logan Riley Bruner) go to investigate the scene and Nancy ends up speaking to Eddie’s uncle, Wayne Munson (Joel Stoffer).

High schooler Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) is murdered at Wayne and Eddie’s trailer in the first episode, and naturally Eddie is the cops’ prime suspect. However, Wayne is convinced he wouldn’t do something like that, and after seeing how messed up Chrissy’s body was, he suspects something much more sinister went down. He tells Nancy about Victor Creel, explaining that this man lost his mind back in the 1950s and killed his family. Allegedly, Victor cut out his family’s eyes, which is similar to Chrissy’s death. Wayne compares Victor to the iconic movie villain Michael Myers, which is incredibly chilling.

Since his wife and kids’ deaths, Victor has been locked up at the Pennhurst Mental Hospital, and later on in Stranger Things season 4 part 1, Nancy and Robin (Maya Hawke) go there to try and talk to him. Pennhurst has been mentioned before on the show, but we haven’t seen any of the characters visit it. The facility is located in another fictional Indiana location called Kerley County. Is it a real mental hospital?

Is Pennhurst from Stranger Things a real mental hospital?

If you’re anything like me, you immediately started wondering whether or not Pennhurst is a real-life place while watching. While there isn’t a Pennhurst Mental Hospital in Indiana where a person named Victor Creel was a patient, there was a Pennhurst State School and Hospital (previously called the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic) located in Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1908 and closed down in 1987.

We’re not sure if the Stranger Things writers intentionally used this name as a nod to the real-life Pennsylvania hospital, but it would make sense. Nowadays, Pennhurst is a haunted attraction where people can buy tickets to go visit. Attendees can book a supernatural tour or join a paranormal investigation team on-site.

The real-life Pennhurst in Pennsylvania is in infamous location for people in the area, with the idea being that it’s a cursed place. People even sometimes try to visit it after hours to find anything spooky lurking around. You can read more about its history on WeirdNJ here.

Stranger Things season 4 is definitely the scariest season yet, and as a horror lover, I’m into it! You can stream all episodes of volume 1 right now, with volume 2 hitting Netflix on July 1, 2022.