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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil
@scsheil.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.2K following 2.6K posts
Screenwriter and director: 'Mum & Dad', 'Dead Mine'. Writer of dark fiction. Co-Director of Mayhem Film Festival. Nottingham, UK. https://linktr.ee/StevenSheil
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · Oct 12
I've put together a list of links of where to buy, rent, watch or read my work. It's all here: linktr.ee/StevenSheil
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 24m
I'm on the Britflicks podcast this week, talking about 21 years of @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social, + three horror films that changed my life - Theatre Of Blood, Deep Red and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5QRp...
Steven Sheil on 21 years of Mayhem Film Festival and Movies That Changed Your Life: Theatre Of Blood, Deep Red, Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Podcast Episode · 3 FILMS THAT HAVE IMPACTED EVERYTHING IN YOUR ADULT LIFE: A Britflicks Podcast with screenwriter Stuart Wright · 10/10/2025 · 33m
podcasts.apple.com
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
regretteruane.bsky.social
Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 2d
They’re just so good, little bit dada, little bit pop, all creep and spook, divine
A book page with a collage of black and white painted bats surrounding a black and white photo of two smartly dressed white men, against a purple painted background A book page with a collage of black and white painted witches with skulls for faces and a photo of a clown in harlequin costume, against a spattering purple painted background
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
regretteruane.bsky.social
Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 2d
Every single one of the illustrations is a brilliant brooding exercise in evoking dread & doom.
I’d never seen his art before I picked up this book, but after an Earl E. Mayan internet odyssey I’m completely smitten
A collage painting with black and white cut out photos of human faces and a snarling Alsatian dog surrounding a white painted sheet ghost, all against a black and purple background made of paint drips suggesting a spooky wood, above which door shapes are scratched in black ink A collage painting in which a phot of two white men, one standing wearing a cowboy hat and crumpled shirt and trousers, the other squatting wearing preppy clothes and a sailor hat, are surrounded by an ominous purple painted background, above them a black and white painted skull, to their left a black white and grey painted area which is fairly abstract but suggests tv static intermixed with shadowy branches
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 21h
I've written a new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles).

This one's called 'Priscilla'

bsky.app/profile/adri...
adrianchills.bsky.social
Adrian Chills @adrianchills.bsky.social · 21h
#28: Priscilla
A screengrab of a headline to a Guardian Adrian Chiles column. It reads 'I met Priscilla Presley this week - and couldn't believe she was in the same building as me' At first I thought it was a trick of the mind, another ruse by the building in which I had been imprisoned these long weeks…months…years…?—another attempt to addle my wits, turn me into one of those pitiful, loathsome Unmen who range the desolate landscape which surrounds The Old House, their brains destroyed, their bodies become little more than flesh-draped skeletons, lurching on unsteady feet as though strung like marionettes. But quickly I realised that the woman I saw, wandering distressed through the cavernous hallways, confused at finding herself untethered from her own reality, was as much a captive as I. How Priscilla—for that was the name that she gave—came to be trapped here too, in this crumbling, shifting, ever-deceitful puzzle of a building, I could not fully discern, for her memories were as confused as my own. I asked her if she too had read that mysterious journal which I had found abandoned at the castle ruins, but she knew not of what I spoke. Instead her tale was one of ‘television studios’ and ‘PR junkets’ and other things beyond my ken. I began to surmise that this dreadful structure in which we were contained was not only at the nexus of other universes but also served as a waypoint for travellers through time. And another revelation came too—that the house was growing hungrier. It has now been a week since myself and Priscilla joined forces to fortify the defences of this malevolent edifice. The keening of the Unmen has become only louder, and has been joined by another, more unsettling sound—the expectant gnashing of swinish teeth. I fear we have not yet seen the worst inhabitants of the boundless nightmare landscape beyond these walls and I shudder to think of what that means for maintaining our safety. All I know is that with the arrival of Priscilla—whose courage and resilience is both boundless and vitalizing—I have, for the first time in months, found a reason—even in the midst of this mind-bending terrror—to hope.
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
adrianchills.bsky.social
Adrian Chills @adrianchills.bsky.social · 21h
#28: Priscilla
A screengrab of a headline to a Guardian Adrian Chiles column. It reads 'I met Priscilla Presley this week - and couldn't believe she was in the same building as me' At first I thought it was a trick of the mind, another ruse by the building in which I had been imprisoned these long weeks…months…years…?—another attempt to addle my wits, turn me into one of those pitiful, loathsome Unmen who range the desolate landscape which surrounds The Old House, their brains destroyed, their bodies become little more than flesh-draped skeletons, lurching on unsteady feet as though strung like marionettes. But quickly I realised that the woman I saw, wandering distressed through the cavernous hallways, confused at finding herself untethered from her own reality, was as much a captive as I. How Priscilla—for that was the name that she gave—came to be trapped here too, in this crumbling, shifting, ever-deceitful puzzle of a building, I could not fully discern, for her memories were as confused as my own. I asked her if she too had read that mysterious journal which I had found abandoned at the castle ruins, but she knew not of what I spoke. Instead her tale was one of ‘television studios’ and ‘PR junkets’ and other things beyond my ken. I began to surmise that this dreadful structure in which we were contained was not only at the nexus of other universes but also served as a waypoint for travellers through time. And another revelation came too—that the house was growing hungrier. It has now been a week since myself and Priscilla joined forces to fortify the defences of this malevolent edifice. The keening of the Unmen has become only louder, and has been joined by another, more unsettling sound—the expectant gnashing of swinish teeth. I fear we have not yet seen the worst inhabitants of the boundless nightmare landscape beyond these walls and I shudder to think of what that means for maintaining our safety. All I know is that with the arrival of Priscilla—whose courage and resilience is both boundless and vitalizing—I have, for the first time in months, found a reason—even in the midst of this mind-bending terrror—to hope.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 16h
It's great on the big screen - that dreamlike atmosphere really works.
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
theoscargoff.bsky.social
Oscar Goff @theoscargoff.bsky.social · 17h
Legitimately incredible film. Think Maya Deren disguised as Ed Wood.
mutualimsure.bsky.social
Mutual I'm Sure @mutualimsure.bsky.social · 17h
Dementia (1955) is a dialogueless fever dream film about a woman's nightmare experience on a single night in LA. Made a decade too early to be a hit, it's a mix of German expressionism and American noir and closer to 60s films like Carnival of Souls and Polanski's Repulsion. It's worth an hour of
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 16h
Fantastic film. We put on a screening of it about ten years ago at @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social with a specially composed new soundtrack by a local rock/electronic band called 8mm Orchestra. It was incredible.
A shot of a cinema screen with the title 'Dementia'. A silhouette of a guitarist is standing in front of it.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 17h
No-one seems to be trying to make AI Succession, or Normal People or Sex Education, because that would mean working on writing and concentrating on character and trying to make something that makes people feel something more than just 'wow that was cool' or 'what a spectacle'.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 17h
AI can't yet handle face to face conversations between people with any degree of conviction or consistency, so despite what people claim, it's nowhere near replacing Hollywood or Netflix, at least at the moment. But there doesn't seem to be such a push to create human dramas with AI.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 17h
From what I've seen, a significant amount of AI filmmakers want to create something looks like a $100 million sci-fi blockbuster, and AI can - at least in terms of random screenshots - do that for them, so there is a kind of egalitarianism there, but it's such a narrow aim.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 18h
#binspiration
A photo of a green wheelie bin on a city street. Printed on the side of hte bin, taking up nearly the whole space are the words 'Winning is not the Point - the Effort to Win is'
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 19h
Had a look at some of the films featured previously at this festival plus some other AI-produced shorts to see if this aim of 'HBO-level' film was accurate, and at a basic level AI can't yet even create a convincing 1 minute scene of 2 people talking in a room without them regenerating in every shot
A shot from an AI produced short. 8 screenshots show a supposed continuous conversation between two people. On the left a woman in black sci-fi armour, with her hair tied back, on the right a man in a black polo neck. They are in a grey and black room. Every shot of the woman shows a different face and so does every shot of the man.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 21h
I've written a new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles).

This one's called 'Priscilla'

bsky.app/profile/adri...
adrianchills.bsky.social
Adrian Chills @adrianchills.bsky.social · 21h
#28: Priscilla
A screengrab of a headline to a Guardian Adrian Chiles column. It reads 'I met Priscilla Presley this week - and couldn't believe she was in the same building as me' At first I thought it was a trick of the mind, another ruse by the building in which I had been imprisoned these long weeks…months…years…?—another attempt to addle my wits, turn me into one of those pitiful, loathsome Unmen who range the desolate landscape which surrounds The Old House, their brains destroyed, their bodies become little more than flesh-draped skeletons, lurching on unsteady feet as though strung like marionettes. But quickly I realised that the woman I saw, wandering distressed through the cavernous hallways, confused at finding herself untethered from her own reality, was as much a captive as I. How Priscilla—for that was the name that she gave—came to be trapped here too, in this crumbling, shifting, ever-deceitful puzzle of a building, I could not fully discern, for her memories were as confused as my own. I asked her if she too had read that mysterious journal which I had found abandoned at the castle ruins, but she knew not of what I spoke. Instead her tale was one of ‘television studios’ and ‘PR junkets’ and other things beyond my ken. I began to surmise that this dreadful structure in which we were contained was not only at the nexus of other universes but also served as a waypoint for travellers through time. And another revelation came too—that the house was growing hungrier. It has now been a week since myself and Priscilla joined forces to fortify the defences of this malevolent edifice. The keening of the Unmen has become only louder, and has been joined by another, more unsettling sound—the expectant gnashing of swinish teeth. I fear we have not yet seen the worst inhabitants of the boundless nightmare landscape beyond these walls and I shudder to think of what that means for maintaining our safety. All I know is that with the arrival of Priscilla—whose courage and resilience is both boundless and vitalizing—I have, for the first time in months, found a reason—even in the midst of this mind-bending terrror—to hope.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
Considering that I've never yet seen an AI short film that could convincingly portray even a one minute scene of two humans talking in a room, this seems like it would be an impossibly high bar.
A screengrab from the article. It reads "The benchmark for selection? 'Whether a film could plausibly be screened on mainstream platforms like Netflix or HBO,' Rice says"
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
scumbelievable.bsky.social
Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 1d
I reviewed DEAD MAIL, a frankly astounding little thriller about loneliness, music, analog systems, and the exploitation of Black musicians by their white managers and collaborators.

www.patreon.com/posts/140799...
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
@johnnymains.co.uk Just saw this for sale on eBay, which is way out of my price range (and most people's I would imagine), but look at that collection

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32680732...
CREEPS LIBRARY set of 11 ed by Charles Birkins Philip Allen, London 1932-36. | eBay UK
Edith Olivier, "The Cupboard of Dread" by E. O'Donnell, 'Queer" by C. Cullum. Tales of Dread, P. Allan (London), 1936. A series of books issued by publisher Philip Allan (London) between 1932-36. Edit...
www.ebay.co.uk
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
andrewhickey.500songs.com
Sexy Andrew Hickey Costume @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 1d
Of course, there is absolutely no such thing as a best lyricist for myriad reasons, not least because what qualifies as a "good lyric" depends very much on the whole song.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
One of my favourite songs has the line "Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong" as a key part of it, and on page that's nothing, but in the song itself it's everything.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
The final ep explicitly portrays Gein as a muse to various other serial killers, but also paints him as also a kind of victim whose mind had just been turned. (Though there's also a reading - as with many other parts - that this is all delusion).
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
State of the nation update: yesterday there were brand new England flags pinned up high on every lamppost on Mansfield Road by the side of the Forest. This morning they were all gone. This evening one of them now has a hand-painted sign which reads 'We Are Welcoming'.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
All the Psycho/TCM scenes are there to support this thesis about the lineage of influence from true crime mags/Ilse Koch comics through Gein and into the true crime/horror audiences of today, so they all have this kind of writing.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
Bloch is basically Hitchcock’s Gein-Explainer in this so I don’t think there was any desire to give him any more personality than that.
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scsheil.bsky.social
Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 1d
This is the first scene featuring Bloch, at a dinner party with the Hitchcocks. The second scene, in a studio canteen, has Bloch talking about Gein's childhood and how he was inspired by schoolbook stories of scalping & cannibals, true crime magazines and Ilse Koch.
Title card: 1959 HITCHCOCK: Gein was schizophrenic, was he not? BLOCH: Yes, they are often triggered in early adulthood. For Eddie, it really seems like the trigger was these photographs of Nazi atrocities. (Puts box of photos on dinner table) H: And had he not seen them…? B: Might have stayed a small-town simpleton. H: Such is the power of the photographed image. B: That’s right, you cannot hide from what a photograph shows you. You cannot pretend a photograph is anything other than what it is. A photograph is truth. H: That’s right. B: And Eddie, when he saw what the Nazi’s did, he couldn’t wrap his head around it, he was completely stunned, but I really think that the horror of it never registered. What Eddie saw in those photos was the truth and the truth is, here’s just another thing that people did. Like riding a bike or drawing a picture. And so Eddie wanted to do it too. Some sort of morbid fascination. And really couldn’t understand what was wrong about it. ALMA: About digging up dead bodies do you mean? B: Well, uh…among other things. Alma: You’ll have to excuse me Mr Bloch, Psycho is a fantastic book and I congratulate you on its success but Alfred, no one’s going to want to watch this film. (Gets up from table). You’ll have to excuse me before I say something I’ll regret (leaves) H: She’s right, of course. This is not cinema that anyone will recognise. It is entirely new. But she’s dead wrong to say that people won’t want to watch it. Our audience lives in a world in which God has been banished, they live in daily fear of nuclear annihilation, they’ve stared, quaking, minds numb, at the sheer magnitude of the evil that was the Nazi holocaust, seen for the first time in history what human beings are capable of when the moral compass is off, lost. Frankenstein, Phantom Of The Opera, they won’t cut it anymore Mr Bloch. Our audience has found a new monster - that monster is us
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Reposted by Steven Sheil
johnnymains.co.uk
HALLOWEIRD @johnnymains.co.uk · 1d
My *major* occult discovery POSSESSED, a novel by Rosalie and Edward Synton (real surname Corse-Scott), has a cover! It's out on December 4 - I'm *really* excited for you to read the book and my 5,000 word introduction which gives life to the authors and a critical overview of the novel.
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