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Study 180 - The Box / Gone (Patreon)

Published:
2026-10-08 17:18:22
Imported:
2026-10
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Join us for a double feature of holiday horror from Jack Ketchum: The Box and Gone!

Special thanks to reader Aaron Campbell, co-author of 12-FOOT SKELETON! Grab yours before it grabs you! First issue releases October 14th.

Next up: The Tarn by Hugh Walpole

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Comments

Sundance

Howdy guys! Please feel free to share if you’d like! I’m a 30 year old guy who is struggling and also in recovery for an Eating Disorder. It began at the age of 28. Im a Huge horror fan of any type of media. Not a lot scares me but now I am very much scared of food. I wasn’t expecting a story of any type on this show to bring up Eating Disorders. Going from 175 pounds to 118 pounds in a year is crazy to me now looking back. I’m at a healthy-ish weight for someone of my age, height and physical daily activities. Like the boy and people in this story. Many many times have I thought “why eat?” “What’s the point?” Many times I wanted to give up and thought what did I do to myself to make me this way? Through help of friends, family and my amazing fiancé. I’m getting the help I need both physically and mentally. I have good days and really bad days. That’s recovery for ya. I was told men with Eating Disorders are tend to be either pushed aside and told to “man up and eat” or not thought about. I’ve been told many times to “just eat”. Which is something no one wants to hear when dealing with this. Food to me now is just numbers which is sad but hopefully one day I can see it and enjoy it for what it is. I’m in a far better place than I was before. This story hit me hard while I was at work but I feel so happy knowing story genres I love are bringing up this tough topic and showing how hard it can be, even in a small way. Thank you both for covering this story. Truly. My apologies this is so long

Karl Haikara

Jack Ketchum is one of the most disturbing authors I've ever encountered particularly his crime novels, he really makes you feel bad real downers lol. But a truly great author

witchhousemedia

Your comment is not too long! Thanks so much for sharing and glad you're getting the help you need. We all get our share of complex problems for which the solutions seem simple from the outside. That's what can make them hard to talk about. Chiming in here shows that you're doing the right things and I'm glad that this story was rewarding for you! Glad to have you listening! -CF

Sundance

I really appreciate the comment! Thank you! Definitely a tough subject to talk about and bring up. It’s been getting easier with time to bring up and share. Looking forward to more stories!

Jason Thompson

I love his work in Pokémon. Didnt know he was also a horror author. Great stuff

Ryan Thomas

Thank you, Sundance, for sharing with us. Also, thank you Chad and Chris, for showing your deeply felt empathy for people who struggle with depression and disorders, and for people witnessing loved ones go through such difficulties. I have heard from both NPR reports and my psychiatrist that body dysmorphia and eating disorders have been on the rise amongst men, as is the loneliness epidemic. It takes much strength to reach out through the fear for support, as I know from experiencing my own struggles. We are all worth the work, and we includes them, you and me.

Sundance

My fiancé has been my biggest supporter and helping me with my Eating Disorder. She told me that men who suffer from it tend to get the help and attention they need. She told me most people think it only affects women/others which is obviously not the case. I deal with body dysmorphia because of it. I never understood how bad I looked at my lowest till now and how bad it really was. Seeing how I am now compared to then is hard for both past me and how I view myself now. I try to look at the positives of how I look and it can be exhausting and extremely hard.

Noah Hyatt

I don’t know why, but when Chris was listing off the masks of the children, kept hearing “A werewolf, a witch, and a bugawonanaynen” no matter how many times I replayed it, and I just sat there wondering if I was supposed to know what that was. The way it hit my ear I thought maybe it was some irish folk monster or something? I have since figured out it was bug-eyed alien and listening back have no clue why I couldn’t understand it lol

HRPrice

“An essential loneliness…” Could be depression? “…Just not hungry.” Also a potential symptom of depression! Could it be that the father was unaffected by the “nothingness” in the box because it wasn’t a revelation to him in the way it was to his family? Because he had a lifetime of quiet coping mechanisms, unspoken and unshared? I remember reading an article once, about a kid who suffered a brain injury that left him unable to feel hunger, and how hard it was for his parents to convince him to eat. I don’t remember where I read it and couldn’t swear to you it was a true article (coulda been a stealth horror story), but I remember it vividly for two reasons: 1) The child wasn’t quoted in it at all. It may be that he was too young for the reporter to consider it ethical, or he wasn’t interested in participating, but it felt ‘off’ to me that this article about a child’s injury was almost entirely about his parents’ experience. 2) It occurred to me that humans have a LOT of mechanisms in place to convince us to eat. Hunger, flavor, satiation, social constructs around sharing meals and gifting food… and if any of them break, it dawns on you just how much WORK it is to eat. To get food, cook food, chew food, multiple times a day! It becomes frustrating, exhausting. It’s hard to imagine if you haven’t experienced it, I think. It’s one of my red flags that my anxiety/depression is creeping up on me, so I think about it a lot.

Eli Wennstrom

Hey, guys! I’ll add maybe a (hopeful?) potential other read of “Gone”: that the trick or treaters are ghosts, and the woman’s daughter isn’t being “let out” of the afterlife. The story does take place on the night where the veil is at its thinnest, after all.

Illegal_Structures

Wow, what incredible stories. I’ve heard of Jack Ketchum by reputation only, but I will definitely check out his writings after this episode. Just a quick question about the story “Gone,” do you think it’s possible that the trick-or-treating children might have been figments of the woman’s imagination? The way they suddenly disappeared seems a little too uncanny. Perhaps this encounter with the children represents the protagonist’s fear/desire that her daughter might still be out there somewhere. Would be curious to hear your thoughts. Also, fun fact, to be called a “childish eater” once meant to be voraciously omnivorous when it came to food. Children in the late 1800s and early 1900s (regardless of social class or economic background), were known to gleefully devour fermented vegetables, organ meat, oysters and coffee, among many other things. For a social history on this subject, interested parties can check out “Picky” by Helen Zoe Veit.

Doug Bolden

I assumed it's that blended with something like a Bradburian "the kids represent things that are gone" and therefore have a connection to her daughter as a gone-thing though for whatever reason the daughter is not allowed to roam free like the other haunts of Halloween. A metaphor for being haunted by grief while also a fairly traditional horror story where we can't know who/what is taking and holding the missing children. Probably fairies. Always stupid fairies with their mead and their jammy toast.

Doug Bolden

I am going to save my excitement for Ms. Mack for when you get to it but let it be known that I am excited for Ms. Mack. It does what it does so well.

Rafe Ball

Coming to a Strange Stories RPG session near you soon - The Night of the Bugawonanaynen!

BitterPill

Do NOT start with The Girl Next Door. It is based on the true story of Sylvia Likens. Hell, her story might have been what was in The Box. It's very tragic and shows the worst of humanity. I am in the middle of Off Season currently. It's brutal, but it's your more traditional horror story. And the man paints a vivid picture, that's for sure.

It's a Ghost.

Much like you said on the episode, I think the protagonist of "The Box" is cynical and lacks a connection with other people but is *hungry* for meaning in life. It's what keeps him going despite feeling depressed and alone. On the other hand, his family was much more happy and optimistic to begin with but lost their will to live when they discovered the potential meaningless of life.

It's a Ghost.

I really "enjoyed" these stories, but they do indeed feel more ***real*** than the typical strange story. It reminds me in a way of the movie Midsommar, where the real horror that happens ~10 minutes into the movies was absolutely horrific because it could actually happen, and I don't want to see that ever again. However, the horror of the rest of the movie was much more supernatural and more "Arthur Machen," so I felt like I could handle it so much more.

Jim Cannon

I laughed a little too knowingly when Chris mentioned all his reasons for living are similarly manufactured.

Blair Leggett

Hey guys! Thanks for covering Ketchum's "The Box". What a wonderfully morbid tale full of dangerous ideas. I was wondering if you could have "Jovanka Vuckovic" on for an "extra credits" episode? She directed and adapted "The Box" for the all-female horror anthology film "XX". (Funny story, I happened to meet Jovanka at Necronomicon 2013 because we were both Canadian and were drunk singing our national anthem to a bunch of Americans trapped with us in a Biltmore elevator... but that as they say is another story) I'm sure you could reach out to her in social media. If you had her on, I'm sure you could talk about the challenges in adapting Ketchum's work. She would be an amazing guest, and she is 'kick-ass' to boot!!!

Blair Leggett

Great call out for the Canadian movie "Pontypool"! Any story that uses "semantic satiation" as a survival strategy is great in my books! By the way, speaking of 'knowledge infection' have you guys read "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm? It probably wouldn't work for the show (too long & too current), but it's a wicked read with a scary focus using 'careful what you know' as it's central theme. Check it out as a side-project... it does not disappoint!

Kevin Lama

Anyone else think of the movie "Seven" when it was asked "What's in the box?"

Ken Linck

Thank you, Sundance. This was kind of a hard listen , and I don't think I'm ready to read the actual story yet. It was too reminiscent of contending with family that suffered overlapping depression and eating disorders. The struggle of trying to find something for a loved one to live for landed somewhere behind my rib cage. Sundance and Ryan, I am so happy that you were getting through it. We are, as well, and it will always be the work of our life. I knew this already, but it's a way that is easier to carry when you know you're not the only one shouldering it.

Wulf Mungus

Great stories! There is something in particular about the Box, and it's "memetic horror" that reminds me of Junji Ito's work. Everyone supernaturally wasting away, but not really caring...

Jason Thompson

As a parent, the PG rated version of “The Box” is the one where it makes the kid only eat chocolate

Sundance

Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it. I hope you’re doing well and are safe!

margarks

I recently read Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki in which there is something called the EndPlague which is basically the idea that when a society is advanced enough to understand the math of the universe they will realize that entropy is absolute and fall into despair because there is no avoiding the doom. In the book because of this each society that gains that knowledge falls into war and violence, but The Box made me wonder if maybe that is what the boy saw in the box. That he saw the nothingness at the end of the universe and realized that there was no point in anything. And then each time he explained this to someone else, they also felt that despair.

CoolToad

Pretty fucked up stuff. Happy Halloween everyone!

Chris Murray

The man on the train gives me that Barton Fink feeling. Somehow I'd missed Jack Ketchum and his horrors-of-reality - thank you Chris & Chad for the introduction, great stuff.

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

The family in the story “The Box” wouldn’t have been having those problems if they concerned themselves more with the only empty box that truly mattered: Jesus’s tomb post-resurrection. I’m not making fun of believers here. Rather, I’m offering this in evidence against the claim that these stories defy joking. I will grant however that it may be impossible to make any jokes about the stories that are actually funny or that make the least bit of sense.

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

Thanks for bringing up Barton Fink, which is such a horrifying movie on so many levels. At the end when Fink is told by the movie studio executive which has Fink under contract that he can be replaced by any number of writers who can do the same work just as well. That he essentially has no value, and yet he is not permitted to escape his contract. Good grief. And then Fink is left to face the question of whether this predicament is a function of the bad bargain he accepted with the studio, or if it has been true all along, even when he was being celebrated as an important new voice on Broadway. You’re not ultimately important, and anyone can do what you do. Also, no one cares what you just witnessed in the hotel.

Eric S. Vallone, M.D.

Regarding, “The Box.” Wait a minute!!! So was the guy on the train supposed to be Santa Claus? And was it his penis in the box? You guys strongly implied this but never made it clear.

Kidz Bop Nine Inch Nails

Maybe it's because I'm a fresh-faced 26-year-old who hasn't had to come to grips with their own mortality yet, but the idea of life having no real meaning/significance on a cosmic scale just seems... normal. Do trees have a 'reason' for growing? Did the dinosaurs need some lasting greater purpose to do their thing? No and no, so why would we? Eat good food, make good friends, admire the beauty (and horror) of nature, and enjoy the experience while you're here. Things will always continue on after we're gone, and that's ok.