YMMV / Skeleton Crew

• Harsher in Hindsight: "Cain Rose Up," about a college campus shooting, is already one of the more disturbing stories in the collection, but the surge in school shootings has only made the story harder to read. In particular, the shooting's first victim, a young, pretty blonde student, is implied to have been targeted because of the killer's misogyny. With the rise of incel shooters who target women for "rejecting" them, that part only hits closer to home.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the early days of the Jaunt, it was understood that one could send a letter to someone else in another part of the world and receive it immediately. Years later, email came into the picture, effectively serving that purpose without teleportation.
  • The protagonist of "Beachworld" is a 5'5" man named B. Shapiro. Even funnier, because the story is about him being stranded in the driest place in the galaxy.
• It Was His Sled: The ending of "The Jaunt" in which Ricky enters the Jaunt awake and emerges completely insane is one of the most infamous and discussed endings to a Stephen King short story due to how horrifying it is.
• Realism-Induced Horror: "Cain Rose Up" features no supernatural elements, only a college campus shooting from the perspective of the killer. The fact that shootings like the one in the story could, and have, happened multiple times makes it horrifying.
• Squick: The details of Richard Pine's Autocannibalism.
• The Woobie: Poor, poor Ricky from "The Jaunt". He decides to hold his breath so he can remain awake and see what it's like. It turns out that, while it only lasts for a few nanoseconds in objective time, it seems to take a million years to the traveler if they are awake, and they are stuck in the void the entire time. Unsurprisingly, he's completely insane by the time he gets out.

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