The Devil on the Staircase
E834132
The Devil on the Staircase is a dark fantasy/horror short story by Joe Hill that blends folklore and moral fable elements in a uniquely stair-shaped, typographically experimental format.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Devil on the Staircase canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9980369 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Devil on the Staircase Context triple: [Full Throttle, hasShortStory, The Devil on the Staircase]
-
A.
Behind the Candelabra
Behind the Candelabra is a 2013 biographical drama film about pianist Liberace’s secret relationship with Scott Thorson, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh.
-
B.
Dry September
"Dry September" is a short story by William Faulkner that explores racial tension, rumor, and mob violence in a small Southern town.
-
C.
Guilty as Sin
Guilty as Sin is a 1993 legal thriller film starring Rebecca De Mornay and Don Johnson, centered on a defense attorney who begins to suspect her charming client may be a dangerous criminal.
-
D.
Murder One
Murder One is an American legal drama television series from the mid-1990s that follows high-profile criminal cases over the course of a season.
-
E.
The People vs. Jean Harris
The People vs. Jean Harris is a 1981 television drama film that dramatizes the real-life murder trial of Jean Harris, with Ellen Burstyn portraying the title character.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Devil on the Staircase Target entity description: The Devil on the Staircase is a dark fantasy/horror short story by Joe Hill that blends folklore and moral fable elements in a uniquely stair-shaped, typographically experimental format.
-
A.
Behind the Candelabra
Behind the Candelabra is a 2013 biographical drama film about pianist Liberace’s secret relationship with Scott Thorson, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh.
-
B.
Dry September
"Dry September" is a short story by William Faulkner that explores racial tension, rumor, and mob violence in a small Southern town.
-
C.
Guilty as Sin
Guilty as Sin is a 1993 legal thriller film starring Rebecca De Mornay and Don Johnson, centered on a defense attorney who begins to suspect her charming client may be a dangerous criminal.
-
D.
Murder One
Murder One is an American legal drama television series from the mid-1990s that follows high-profile criminal cases over the course of a season.
-
E.
The People vs. Jean Harris
The People vs. Jean Harris is a 1981 television drama film that dramatizes the real-life murder trial of Jean Harris, with Ellen Burstyn portraying the title character.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
dark fantasy work
ⓘ
horror fiction work ⓘ short story ⓘ |
| author | Joe Hill NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authorNationality | American ⓘ |
| centralCharacterType | young man ⓘ |
| centralMotif | staircase ⓘ |
| centralSupernaturalEntity | the Devil NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| editorOfOriginalAnthology |
Al Sarrantonio
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Neil Gaiman NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 2010 ⓘ |
| genre |
dark fantasy
ⓘ
horror ⓘ weird fiction ⓘ |
| hasFormatExperimentation | yes ⓘ |
| hasIllustrations | no ⓘ |
| includedInCollection | Stories: All-New Tales NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| laterIncludedInCollection | The Devil on the Staircase and Other Stories NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| length | short story length ⓘ |
| literaryDevice |
allegory
ⓘ
symbolism ⓘ unreliable narration ⓘ |
| literaryStyle |
folklore-inspired
ⓘ
moral fable elements ⓘ |
| narrativeForm | prose ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person narration ⓘ |
| originalPublicationMedium | Stories: All-New Tales ⓘ |
| partOfAuthorBibliography | Joe Hill short fiction ⓘ |
| publisherOfOriginalAnthology | William Morrow NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingElement | Italian village ⓘ |
| targetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| theme |
deal with the devil
ⓘ
guilt ⓘ moral consequences ⓘ punishment ⓘ temptation ⓘ |
| tone |
dark
ⓘ
macabre ⓘ moralistic ⓘ |
| typographicalFeature |
experimental typography
ⓘ
stair-shaped layout ⓘ |
| usesFolkloreElements | yes ⓘ |
| usesMoralFableStructure | yes ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Devil on the Staircase Description of subject: The Devil on the Staircase is a dark fantasy/horror short story by Joe Hill that blends folklore and moral fable elements in a uniquely stair-shaped, typographically experimental format.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.