Using Past Times

There are reasons why the surprise hit “Stranger Things” became so popular. Nostalgia for the ‘good old times’ of the 1980s certainly is one of those reasons. Another, however, is that the 1970s and 1980s are a very good time to set a horror story featuring teens or children in. This time balances out the access to certain technology (such as older teens’ access to cars) with the non-existence of other technology (such as smartphones or GPS systems). “Stranger Things” does hit the nostalgia nerve pretty hard and in all the right places, but it also profits from the setting when it comes to the story. Sometimes, a story is better told in another time than the present and “Stranger Things” is one of those cases.

Technology does play a role, for one thing. There is a careful balance between what you can do in what amount of time and it changes with the eras. In horror movies, it is much easier to work with a setting in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s.
There is mobility (cars became more affordable for younger people), so your group of teenagers or young adults who are going to get into the slasher’s territory can travel alone and independently, instead of taking a bus, train, or plane.
At the same time, there is no easy contact with the rest of the world. Cell phones didn’t become a thing for the masses until well into the 1990s. Modern smartphones are even newer than that. Calling for help when you’re far from a town or village was much harder in the past, getting lost was much more likely (no GPS-based navigation tools). The good old ‘car broke down, so we have to stay in this weird old house far from everywhere for the night’ spiel worked up to the late 1990s, but not later.

Another way to limit your character’s options — and limits create conflict, which is good for the story — is to have them live in a time in which society limits them severely.
Women have been limited in their participation in society for a long time and still are, PoC still are severely limited in a lot of ways, too. The poor always have less influence than the rich, but it was more obvious in the past. If your main character has a suitable background, going back in time can definitely limit their options and make things more challenging for them.
In any setting where a certain group of people is cut off from social influence, where PoC and women can’t vote or be voted for, for instance, where people are under other people’s control, a character from the controlled group can be very interesting to use. Be careful, though, about how you portray the limitations they face and avoid bigotry for bigotry’s sake.

Another reason to set your story in a specific time that is not the present can be that you want to incorporate real-life characters or events.
For instance, I’m currently playing with the idea of writing a story which centres around finding and catching Spring-Heeled Jack. As Spring-Heeled Jack was around in the middle of the nineteenth century in England, this is where I will have to set my story, too.
Whenever you want to stay true to the story (I will be taking liberties myself, as I’ll have supernatural hunters), you need to spend a lot of time researching the events and characters you wish to use, though, so you can stay true to everything. The more you move from reality into the fantastic, the less you need to stay close to the facts — yet, knowing some basics about life at that time definitely can’t hurt. It will help the audience to immerse themselves in the setting, if nothing else.

What other reasons could you have to move your story from the present into some past eras (or the future, but that is a different topic, as you will have to create your own setting then)?
Sometimes, you try to plot a story and things don’t come together. You can’t get your characters as isolated as you want them, it would be too easy for the main character to gain obscure information, the world is just too small these days. When you run into those problems, another era might offer you some help.
As mentioned, the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s are much more suitable when you need to isolate your characters in some way, as with a horror story. Travel wasn’t too hard then, but flying wasn’t as common as it is these days and so people would drive for long stretches in their cars. A car breaks down, there’s a weird house, so cue the “Scooby Doo” theme music and start the horror movie.
Before the internet, gathering information was a lot harder, as you had to gain access to books or magazines with the information you were looking for. Anything set before the late 1990s will suffice there as well — before that, the internet was already in existence, but not widely accessible, so finding an access point would have been about as challenging as finding a book on an obscure topic.
When it comes to a decent travel story, looking back will also be helpful. These days, most places on earth are easy enough to reach, given that there’s a lot of plane travel around. What has taken people days or even months in the past takes hours up to a day or two today. A story like “Around the World in 80 Days” would no longer be that interesting today — it wouldn’t take 80 days to get around the world once.

There are many reasons for changing the time in which your story is set. Sometimes, it is necessary for the plot, for settling the characters in a situation which challenges them, or for the actual topic of the story. In other cases, it might simply provide a nice backdrop for the reader. Keep in mind to do research for an era you want to set your story in, though, so at least the basics are correct, even if you take some liberties with the details. While there’s no time like the present, setting a story in a past era can definitely make it better.