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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: Spooky Recommendations

15 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

15 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Relationships, History, Books & Authors

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • ✓Cult Horror Film — Trick 'r Treat (2007): Directed by Michael Dougherty, this anthology horror film weaves multiple storylines simultaneously rather than using a traditional framing device. It balances genuine scares with comedy — a rare combination — and stars Anna Paquin. Considered a cult classic despite minimal theatrical exposure.
  • ✓Dutch Folk Horror — Moloch: This subtitled Dutch horror film centers on a family targeted by the demon Moloch, functioning as serious cinematic horror rather than entertainment-first genre fare. For viewers sensitive to subtitles due to dyslexia or ADHD, no English dub is currently available.
  • ✓Author Keith Rawson — Full Catalog Recommendation: Rawson's horror novels — Devil by Name, Fever House, Coffin Moon, and newest release Crone — blend family drama with visceral horror. Stephen King has publicly championed his work. All titles have been optioned for screen adaptation. Rawson is active on Instagram.
  • ✓Horror Short Stories Over Novels: Sustaining dread across a full novel requires either precise pacing or relentless escalation — most authors fail the ending. Stephen King's short story collections Skeleton Crew and Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts are recommended as superior entry points over King's full-length novels.

What It Covers

Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know pilot a Halloween-themed recommendation episode, covering three horror films and four horror books, while debating whether monthly recommendation episodes should replace regular short-format content.

Key Questions Answered

  • •Cult Horror Film — Trick 'r Treat (2007): Directed by Michael Dougherty, this anthology horror film weaves multiple storylines simultaneously rather than using a traditional framing device. It balances genuine scares with comedy — a rare combination — and stars Anna Paquin. Considered a cult classic despite minimal theatrical exposure.
  • •Dutch Folk Horror — Moloch: This subtitled Dutch horror film centers on a family targeted by the demon Moloch, functioning as serious cinematic horror rather than entertainment-first genre fare. For viewers sensitive to subtitles due to dyslexia or ADHD, no English dub is currently available.
  • •Author Keith Rawson — Full Catalog Recommendation: Rawson's horror novels — Devil by Name, Fever House, Coffin Moon, and newest release Crone — blend family drama with visceral horror. Stephen King has publicly championed his work. All titles have been optioned for screen adaptation. Rawson is active on Instagram.
  • •Horror Short Stories Over Novels: Sustaining dread across a full novel requires either precise pacing or relentless escalation — most authors fail the ending. Stephen King's short story collections Skeleton Crew and Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts are recommended as superior entry points over King's full-length novels.

Notable Moment

Chuck revealed he has never read a single Stephen King novel despite hosting a podcast that regularly covers horror topics, prompting Josh to steer him toward short story collections rather than novels due to King's notoriously weak endings.

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Episode Transcript

00:00:04 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Josh, Chuck, Jerry sitting in for Dave. This is short stuff, Chuck. And this is a slightly different kind of short stuff, I would say, for Halloween. 00:00:16 Speaker 2: That's right. 00:00:17 Speaker 3: Halloween and maybe beyond, everyone, because we had an idea a while ago about perhaps adding a episode here and there where we do recommendations, because people are always saying, Like, hey, when you guys recommend books and movies and recipes and stuff, we really like that kind of thing. And this is maybe a chance to formalize it. So we're going to ask you to let us know what you think about this. If maybe once a month in place of the regular Shorty, we recommend things that we're watching and reading and eating and drinking or whatever. It could be like a new sleeping regimen. 00:00:56 Speaker 2: Maybe not that. 00:00:56 Speaker 3: Sure. 00:00:57 Speaker 1: It could be. 00:00:59 Speaker 3: Uh, so maybe we'll just, uh, like one of us will take their recommendation and then after the break, the other one we'll do theirs. 00:01:05 Speaker 2: How does that sound? 00:01:07 Speaker 1: Uh, sure. 00:01:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:01:08 Speaker 1: We're like, we should say everybody, we're literally figuring this out as we go along in stuff you should know fashion. 00:01:15 Speaker 2: Why don't you, why don't you take it away? Let's hear what you're recommending. 00:01:17 Speaker 1: Oh, geez. Well, um, you know, I love me some good horror movies, so I thought maybe I would just recommend a few good horror movies for Halloween. All right. 00:01:26 Speaker 2: Let's, let's chat. Okay. 00:01:28 Speaker 1: Have you ever seen Trick or Treat? Trick-R-Treat? 00:01:33 Speaker 2: I don't think so. Is it the movie from the 80s? 00:01:37 Speaker 1: No, it's from the aughts, I think, the mid-aughts. 00:01:42 Speaker 2: All right, I'm seeing it's from 2007. 00:01:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, bizarrely stars Anna Paquin, the Oscar winner, the youngest Oscar winner of all time. 00:01:50 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:01:50 Speaker 1: And it's just this little sleeper movie that flew below everybody's radar and But it's actually one of the most interesting Halloween anthologies ever. It's really woven together. There's some like legitimately scary stuff to it. There's a lot of creepy stuff. There's a lot of funny stuff, which to me is like if you're able to pull off comedy with horror, that's a that's a real trick to do. And I think they did that because it wasn't all comedy. It was like, you know, kind of here or there. There was some funny stuff. 00:02:23 Speaker 2: Now, I'm seeing that it's an anthology film. 00:02:26 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:02:27 Speaker 3: So it's several stories all by the same person. It's not one of those sort of co-directed things? 00:02:32 Speaker 1: …

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