Here's What the Mind Flayer From 'Stranger Things' Really Looked Like During Filming [SPOILERS]

This article includes spoilers for Season 3 of 'Stranger Things.'

The latest season of Stranger Things gave fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the series’ biggest villain to date: the Mind Flayer. And it wasn’t pretty.

The monster was a terrifying, repulsive, drooling, spider-like creature that could cause fear in anyone, let alone a gang of teenagers. Luckily, characters Jim Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) seemingly killed the Mind Flayer by closing the gate to the Upside Down, cutting off its life source in a heroic and tragic end.

You would think that it was probably pretty easy for the cast to act scared when looking at the monstrous Mind Flayer, right? Well, not exactly. Teen Vogue reports that the Hawkins gang are a lot better actors than we even realized.

Anytime the stars shot a scene with the Mind Flayer, they weren’t actually looking at a petrifying creature from the Upside Down, but rather a dude in a bright red spandex jumpsuit and a silver astronaut helmet.

Recently, Netflix posted a side-by-side shot to their Instagram of what the Mind Flayer looks like in the finished episode, and what it looked like while filming. The result is hilarious.

Could you imagine fighting against some goofy guy with a funny mustache and dorky helmet? The Stranger Things cast definitely deserves some awards for getting through those shots. And now we cannot look at the monster the same.