Location from Stranger Things by The Duffer Brothers
A lake on the outskirts of Hawkins where a watergate to the Upside Down opened in 1986, turning a teenage make-out spot into a portal to hell.
Lovers Lake has always been Hawkins' spot for teenage rebellion — drinking, making out, the usual small-town rituals. But when Vecna began killing from the Upside Down in 1986, a watergate opened at the lake's bottom, creating a direct passage between dimensions. Steve Harrington dove in and was pulled through, nearly drowning in the Upside Down's version of the lake before fighting off Demo-bats with his bare hands. Nancy, Robin, and Eddie followed him through. The lake represents the show's recurring pattern: every innocent, ordinary place in Hawkins can become a doorway to nightmare without warning. What was once the safest kind of teenage transgression — sneaking out to a lake at night — became a descent into another world entirely.
A still, dark lake surrounded by dense woods, popular with Hawkins teenagers for exactly the reasons the name implies. The water is black at night, reflecting nothing. In 1986 a gate opened at the bottom of the lake — a pulsing, red-edged wound in reality visible beneath the surface, tendrils of Upside Down vine reaching upward through the water. The surrounding woods are quiet in the wrong way, as if the wildlife knows to stay away.
Also known as: Lovers Lake, the lake, Lover's Lake