Michael Stein is an American composer and electronic musician, with partner Kyle Dixon. They are known for composing the score for the Netflix series Stranger Things, for which they won a Primetime Emmy Award and received two Grammy Award nominations. The pair are members of the electronic band Survive and compose music for film, television, and other media under the name Short Hour. Description above is from the Wikipedia article Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, licensed under CC-BY-SA; full list of contributors is on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- Composer
- 9 on MovieCove · 10 credits in all
What are Michael Stein's films like?
Across their 6 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Power and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 1 · Earnest 4
Light 0 · Serious 1 · Dark 4
A split, not a type: Grounded 3 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 1 · Intense 4
Steady 1 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 2
Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 2 · Even-paced 3 · Relentless 0
Casual 0 · Engaged 4 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 4
Resolved 1 · Open-ended 3 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet3
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Michael Stein's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 6 of their 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Netflix (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Michael Stein's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
10 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page.
Midcredits score: 78th percentile of all films
The Garden We Dreamed(2026)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Lost in the Night(2023)
Midcredits score: 42nd percentile of all films
The Retaliators(2021)
Midcredits score: 25th percentile of all films
The Forgotten Four (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2021)
The Hole in the Fence(2021)
Midcredits score: 48th percentile of all films
Native Son(2019)
Midcredits score: 35th percentile of all films
Valley of the Boom(2019)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all shows
Butterfly(2018)
Midcredits score: 34th percentile of all shows
Stranger Things(2016)
Midcredits score: 96th percentile of all shows
Career shape
A full career of 6 titles from 2016 to 2026.
Biggest box office
Lost in the Night (2023)
Highest rated
The Hole in the Fence (2021)
Most popular right now
Butterfly (2018)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
Awards
a Primetime Emmy from 3 major nominations, 2017.
- Primetime Emmy, won · Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
+1 other major body · 2 nominations
- Grammy Award, nominated ×2 · Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Michael Stein's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 45th percentile, the median of all 6; across their 5 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 43rd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up3
- 25th to 49th6
Shape of the crowd
8 of their 9 titles are Mixed.
- Universally Loved1
- Mixed8
Reviewers score the sound and music 72/100 in their films, across 4 reviewed titles; fans 78, detractors 53. The element that speaks to their work as a composer.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Michael Stein work with?
People who share at least 2 of Michael Stein's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Kyle Dixon shares the most, 6.
Directors
- Joaquin del PasoShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), The Hole in the Fence (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Joaquin del Paso
Writers
- Lucy PawlakShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), The Hole in the Fence (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Lucy Pawlak
Composers
- Kyle DixonShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), Lost in the Night (2023), The Hole in the Fence (2021), The Retaliators (2021), Native Son (2019), Butterfly (2018)See all 6 shared titles with Kyle Dixon
Producers
- Fernanda de la PezaShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), Lost in the Night (2023), The Hole in the Fence (2021)See all 3 shared titles with Fernanda de la Peza
- Alejandro SugichShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), Lost in the Night (2023)See all 2 shared titles with Alejandro Sugich
- Itzel SierraShared titles: The Garden We Dreamed (2026), The Hole in the Fence (2021)See all 2 shared titles with Itzel Sierra
