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Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
- Hilarious in Hindsight: At one point in the novella, Red writes: "In every prison movie I've ever seen, this loud wailing horn goes off whenever a prisoner goes missing. That never happens at Shawshank." So what happens in the movie when it's discovered that Andy is missing from his cell? A loud wailing horn goes off.
Apt Pupil
- Complete Monster: Todd Bowden is a budding psychopath obsessed with the war crimes committed by the Nazis in World War II, and as such, is overjoyed when he learns his elderly neighbor is in fact Kurt Dussander, a former Nazi commander in hiding. Blackmailing Dussander into regaling him with tales of his atrocities, Todd becomes aroused at the very thought of the crimes Dussander committed, even fantasizing about raping Jewish women while they scream in terror. Beginning to show his sadistic tendencies by cruelly crushing a bird to death, Todd starts butchering homeless people for his own entertainment, claiming that they are just subhuman trash that no one will miss. Regularly lusting to murder his loving parents and girlfriend for minor annoyances, staying his hand only to keep out of trouble, when Todd realizes he will be caught for his crimes, he decides to go out with a bang. Todd proceeds to murder his guidance counselor before heading to a highly-populated location and opening fire on any random citizens in the area for five hours straight before being stopped, joyful at finally getting the chance to indulge in his most wicked desires.
- Ho Yay: A lot between Todd and Dussander, despite the age gap. At one point Dussander, musing on their intertwined fates, remarks, "My boy, we are fucking each other." And then there's Todd's lack of interest in women...
- Paranoia Fuel: That nice, folksy old guy who lives on a quiet little street? Yeah, he's a horrendous Nazi war criminal. And the seemingly normal boy next door wants to be just like him.
- Realism-Induced Horror: One of the story's most horrifying aspects is that there are no supernatural elements at all, just the possibility that the old man living on your street could have been instrumental in one of the worst atrocities in human history while seeming like a charming, grandfatherly type. There's also the horror of how easily a teenager could become obsessed with and even sympathetic to those atrocities, which hits even closer to home in modern times with fears of teenagers and other young people becoming radicalized by extremists they may have encountered in entirely normal places.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The book spends most of its time on Todd and Dussander, both of whom are completely and irredeemably evil and devoid of any redeeming traits. A Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist is only introduced in the book's last act; until then, there's nobody else to really root for.
The Body
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- There's a brief mention of someone with the last name Darabont, when Frank Darabont would become one of King's own favorite adapters of his work.
- When the four boys reach the train trestle, Adult Gordie muses that none of them even thought about crawling over it because the movies had taught them that "Only Losers Crawl." Come the film adaptation, Butt-Monkey Vern crawls the length of the bridge and almost gets himself and Gordie killed because of it.
- Tear Jerker: Adult Gordie's entire passage about his yearning to go back to the woods to search for Ray Brower's missing blueberry pot.
- Values Dissonance: Gordie's narration uses the word "faggot" quite shockingly casually.
The Breathing Method
- Tear Jerker: Every single thing about poor Sandra's life and her sudden, gruesome death, which she somehow defies just long enough to bring her child into the world.
