Short Stuff: Spooky Recommendations

This week Josh and Chuck are trying something a little different, some recomemdations for the spooky season. For Josh, it's some movies, for Chuck, it's some books. Check it out and let us know what you think! See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Speaker 01

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• 1:06Josh Clark?

  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.

• 1:18Speaker 02

  That's right. 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 like, 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, we recommend things that we're watching and reading and eating and drinking or whatever. It could be like a new sleeping regimen. Maybe not that.

• 1:58Josh Clark?

  Sure, it could be.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  So maybe we'll just like, one of us will take their recommendation and then after the break, the other one will do theirs. How does that sound?

• 2:08Josh Clark?

  Uh, sure. Yeah, we're like, we should say, everybody, we're literally figuring this out as we go along. Yeah. In stuff you should know fashion.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  Why don't you, why don't you take it away? Let's hear what you're recommending.

• 2:19Josh Clark?

  Oh geez, well, you know, I love me some good horror movies. So I thought maybe I would just recommend a few good horror movies for Halloween.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  All right, let's, let's chat.

• 2:29Josh Clark?

  Okay. Have you ever seen Trick or Treat? Trick, R, treat?

• 2:35Speaker 02

  I don't think so. Is it the one, the movie from the eighties?

• 2:39Josh Clark?

  No, it's from the, the aughts, I think, the mid aughts.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  Okay. All right, I'm seeing it's from 2007.

• 2:46Josh Clark?

  Yep, bizarrely stars Anna Paquin, the Oscar winner, the youngest Oscar winner of all time.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  And it's just this little sleeper movie that flew below everybody's radar. But it's actually one of the most interesting Halloween anthologies ever. It's really well woven together. There's, 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, there, there was some funny stuff.

• 3:25Speaker 02

  Now I'm seeing it's an anthology film.

• 3:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  So it's, it's several stories all by the same person. It's not one of those sort of co-directed things?

• 3:34Josh Clark?

  No, no, no, it's all the same, same person. And I don't remember who directed it. Oh, I think it was a writer director kind of thing.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, Michael Doherty.

• 3:43Josh Clark?

  Okay, so he, he, he did it all. But in the way that it's an anthology is, you know, like with a, with a normal anthology, there's like somebody telling somebody a story. And then in between them, you come back to that, that present, you know, reality.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, like the Crypt Keeper or something?

• 4:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah, exactly. With this, everything is all woven together. And it says like earlier that night or something like that. So it kind of jumps around a little bit, but it's not like, it's really well done as far as horror anthologies go.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  Awesome. Well, it says here in my little lookup device that it has gained cult status, even though it was not very much seen.

• 4:26Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I totally buy that. I, yeah, I don't want to make it sound like it's a high art or cinema. It's not supposed to be. So it's just a fun little, it's very bloody, so don't, don't make any mistake about that. Basically, if I ever recommend a movie, it's either disturbing or bloody or both.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  You got another scary movie?

• 4:48Josh Clark?

  Oh, sure. I got a million of them. Let's see which one. I will say, I'll tell you one that I've seen a couple of times now. There's, there's a movie called Moloch? Moloch? Moloch?

• 5:05Speaker 02

  How do you spell it?

• 5:06Josh Clark?

  M O L O C H. It's the name of a demon. And I think like a real deal demon. It's not made up.

• 5:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:14Josh Clark?

  Although I don't think this is based on a true story.

• 5:17Speaker 02

  This looks scary.

• 5:18Josh Clark?

  It is scary. It's a, it's not supposed to be funny. And it is kind of an attempt at cinema. I think it's Dutch.

• 5:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:26Josh Clark?

  Dutch folk horror. And it's about this, I don't want to give too much away, but it's about this, this family that's basically being targeted by Moloch, the demon. And there's all sorts of really interesting reasons why. And then there's like subtitles and everything. Do subtitles bother most people? I know they don't bother you, but do you know anyone who are like, I can't watch movies because of subtitles?

• 5:52Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know. I mean, back when we were doing movie crush, I do remember hearing from people that some people like it didn't bother them. Some people loved foreign cinema and some people like had like really, like solid reasons for not liking it. Like either they maybe had dyslexia or it was distracting for them or like in an ADHD sort of way. So there's all sorts of reasons someone might like them other than like, I don't like to read.

• 6:19Josh Clark?

  Huh, I'd never considered that, but that's really a good point. Great, okay, good. Well, if you don't like subtitled movies, I don't think there's an English dub to it. I think it is all subtitles, unfortunately, but there's a movie that I, I told you about before that I loved. It's called Lamb, the A24 movie with the girl with the dragon tattoo.

• 6:43Speaker 02

  Yes, Nomi Rapice.

• 6:45Josh Clark?

  Yes. And it is a completely bizarre and off the wall, but it's also one of the most heartrending movies I've ever seen. It's so, it's just so, there's parts of it that you just want to like hug everybody. But it's, it's considered a horror movie.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 7:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah. It is in Icelandic, I think, and there's subtitles. And it's so well done that I watched it once without subtitles. I think maybe even the first time and I knew, I basically got everything that was going on except for like a couple of conversations that really didn't matter that much.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  Oh, that's cool. I like that. I think I've had that experience before.

• 7:23Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it is. It's kind of fun because you're like, I'm part of the, the universal humanity. I don't even need words.

• 7:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:30Josh Clark?

  I don't even need to understand what's coming out of your mouth.

• 7:33Speaker 02

  Well, I have, this is spooky season for movies for me, you know, and I watch a lot during October. And I just last night was looking up like one of the best horror movies of the last, you know, of the 2020s and, and have a shortlist going. So I'll add these to the list and I appreciate it.

• 7:47Josh Clark?

  All right, well, let's take a break and then come back and we'll hear about your stuff.

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• 10:27Speaker 02

  All right, we are back and I am going to recommend a couple of spooky books, everyone, because I have talked before, kind of briefly on the show, about having never really gotten into horror or fiction, but jumped back on the bandwagon when I randomly picked up a book that just looked cool, from the author Keith Rossin, a very great writer from Portland, who Stephen King, no less than Stephen King has championed.

• 10:52Josh Clark?

  Wow.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  And I had started reading, you know, I read his duology, Devil by Name and Fever House, which was a zombie thing, and both of those are great. And then I read his follow-up to that, which was Coffin Moon, which was about a vampire story, which was great. I think all of these have been optioned, by the way, so hopefully they'll come to a movie or TV screen near you. And then I got an advanced copy. I know I shouted it out briefly, but I want to talk to everyone about his newest book, Crone. As we know, a crone is a witch, and this is a witchy story. And again, I don't want to give too much away, but it is a really great witchy story that goes in all sorts of kind of cool directions.

• 11:36Speaker 02

  What I love about Keith's books is that they are, first of all, they are expertly written. He's just a really, really great writer. And after having read some lesser horror novels since then, I picked up another couple by other people, I now really appreciate like how great Keith is, just with the pen or the thingies on the keyboard.

• 11:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  So he's a great writer, and all of his books have this humanity and this heart, and they always involve some sort of family story going on. So a lot of it is heartbreaking at the same time as being like super scary, and he has such a way with describing things in such a gross, gross way.

• 12:17Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah? That's tough to do, man.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, he uses words like, that people don't use anymore, like torpor and stuff like that, where like, I gotta look it up even to see what that is. And so he's just a very great descriptor, which are my favorite kinds of writers. So check out Crone, and all of his books, but Crone is the most recent one. And I'm in touch with him via Instagram, and he seems like a really good dude as well.

• 12:43Josh Clark?

  Well, sure. If you're on somebody's bandwagon, they're probably a good dude.

• 12:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, and we're both adoption dads, so we have that in common and chat about that.

• 12:53Josh Clark?

  Very cool.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  And then the next one, you know, I think I told you, I'm not going to shout it out because I told you on the plane, on the way home from the cruise, the one I was reading about the theme park, wasn't very good. But I did read another pretty good one called Hidden Pictures. It is a horror fiction novel by Jason Reculak, and it was a New York Times bestseller. And I'll just read the description on the back, because it doesn't give too much away.

• 13:19Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 13:20Speaker 02

  Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job babysitting Ted and Caroline Maxwell's five-year-old son Teddy. She immediately bonds with a sweet boy who is never without his sketchbook. His drawings are the usual fare, trees, rabbits, balloons, but one day, he draws something different, a man dragging a lifeless body.

• 13:38Josh Clark?

  Yikes.

• 13:39Speaker 02

  Then his stick figures evolve into increasingly sophisticated sketches depicting one disturbing scene after another. Is Teddy troubled, or is he channeling forces he cannot possibly understand? Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory must decipher the images and save Teddy before it's too late.

• 13:58Josh Clark?

  Nice. Who wrote that?

• 14:01Speaker 02

  His name is Jason Reculak, I guess is how you pronounce it. And Stephen King also has a cover quote saying, "A one-of-a-kind thriller. I loved it." And it's good. And kind of one of the fun things here is, is the author draws these pictures along the way.

• 14:22Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, that is cool.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  As well. So he's drawing these pictures, and it's the first sort of creepy one, there's just a nice impact you have when you're seeing these kind of just kid drawings, and all of a sudden you see the creepy one. And the story takes a lot of twists and turns. I'm sure this is going to be optioned. I'm sure it already has, and it's in that pipeline, because it would make, I think it would make a pretty fun movie.

• 14:45Josh Clark?

  You know, I think that a horror story is one of the hardest types to carry through an entire novel, because you have to pay everything out just so, or you have to go all in and then top every scene, essentially, or else it's just like, what are you doing? I think short stories are the ideal, or is the ideal format for horror. So if you can pull off a horror novel, you're doing something pretty spectacular, in my opinion. Not many people can do that.

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm with you. I'm kind of new to the whole thing, but we have read a bunch of short horror for, you know, our Halloween episodes. So I think I'm with you on that. So it's, I'm not sure how much more I'm going to go down the horror lane, because I'm kind of one for two with the non-Kate Rossins, when I was four for four with him.

• 15:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  And I'll read every book that Keith puts out, like, as soon as it comes out. I'm like, that big of a fan at this point.

• 15:41Josh Clark?

  Keith spoiled you.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  He has spoiled me. Can't go back. I need to read a Stephen King. I know it's kind of silly that I haven't, so.

• 15:49Josh Clark?

  Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, you've never read a Stephen King novel of any, like, none of them? Is that what you're saying? Is that what I'm picking up?

• 15:59Speaker 02

  No, I've never read any horror or any Stephen King, and so I've had people recommend various ones. I would like to read a really scary one. Maybe I should read The Shining. That might be a good one to start out with.

• 16:11Josh Clark?

  So it is nothing like the movie, you know, right? You know that from being.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  I've heard a lot of that, yeah.

• 16:16Josh Clark?

  Okay. I think Stephen King's actually a great example of what I'm talking about. My beef with his novels is that very rarely by the ending are you just like, man, this is a great ending. It's like, great buildup. The payoff's up there. His short story collections are out of this world, though.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  All right.

• 16:36Josh Clark?

  So, yeah, maybe consider.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Maybe I should do that.

• 16:39Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Yeah, but let me know what you think of whatever Stephen King book you read.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Do you have a particular short story or anthology of his that you can recommend?

• 16:49Josh Clark?

  I like the earlier ones, like Skeleton Crew, or whatever the other one is, I can't remember. It had like a bandaged hand with an eye in the middle of the palm.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 16:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah, creepy stuff. But he had some really good, like genuinely scary short stories. And then his son, Owen, whose pen name is Joe Hill, he has a great story collection, short story collection called 20th Century Ghosts, that I think blows his dad out of the water.

• 17:17Speaker 02

  Oh, okay. Well, he has a quote on here, too, from Joe Hill, "One of the best and most inventive ghost stories I've read in years, a beautiful dark rush of a novel." I didn't realize that was his son. I guess he did that to keep from appearing as a nepo baby?

• 17:30Josh Clark?

  Yep. And I think that was a great move. And even if his dad's calling publishers to get his stuff published, he deserves it. He's that good.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  All right, well, check those out. This was kind of fun. I liked it. I hope everyone else did.

• 17:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I liked it too, Chuck. I hope I didn't hog too many recommendations.

• 17:47Speaker 02

  No, this is, this is great. I thought it was well-balanced and went down smooth, like a fine scotch.

• 17:53Josh Clark?

  Well, let us know if you took this like a fine scotch, or if you're just like, guys, don't ever do this again. We want to hear all of it. And I think short stuff is out. Happy Halloween.

• 18:07Speaker 04

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