Stephen Graves
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stephengraves.co.uk
Stephen Graves
@stephengraves.co.uk
1.6K followers 1.5K following 9.1K posts
Special Projects Editor at Decrypt, director of short films (The Dead of Winter, premiered at @frightfest.bsky.social), player of D&D, painter of little Warhammer/MESBG men. @stephengraves on Twitter.
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stephengraves.co.uk
The thing that really baffles me is that Aaronofsky was the guy who used macro photography to create the beautiful visuals of The Fountain because he chafed at the homogenous look of early 00s CGI.

THAT GUY did this?

nofilmschool.com/2013/05/micr...
Aronofsky cites 2001: A Space Odyssey as a key influence in his desire to avoid CGI, because that film's FX powerfully illustrate how well real photography of real objects can hold up, even viewing the film decades later. An article from Wired goes into even greater detail about the work of macrophotographer/marine biologist Peter Parks, who masterminded and filmed the chemical and biological elements key to the effects:
January 30, 2026 at 7:55 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
Everything reminds me of her.
Excerpt from BFI Sight & Sound article "Trimming Tolkien: on the faithfulness of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings." Text reads: Sauron’s eye, which sucks at the souls of those tempted by the Ring when it appears in the seeing stone the Palantir and Galadriel’s mirror, resembles an all-consuming vaginal slit, in contrast with the horizontal eye that adorned covers of the book. The Eye of Sauron in Peter Jackson's "The Two Towers," which resembles an all-consuming vaginal slit if your mind is inclined to go there straight away.
January 21, 2026 at 9:36 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
A fairly eclectic selection. #LastFourWatched
Letterboxd Last Four Watched: The Old Man and the Gun, Hamnet, Tamara Drewe, The Day of the Jackal.
January 16, 2026 at 8:18 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
The holy of holies!
A pot of 1980s Blood Angel Orange paint, held over a shoebox full of Citadel paints of similar vintage.
January 14, 2026 at 9:05 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
Poster for MirrorMask, written by absolute cunt Neil Gaiman.
January 12, 2026 at 10:11 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
Screenshot of Apple Music settings showing the option to disable animated album artwork.
January 10, 2026 at 10:43 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
Gaten Matarazzo is finally free to play Micky Dolenz in the Monkees biopic.
Gaten Matarazzo Micky Dolenz
January 2, 2026 at 10:32 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
My short horror film THE DEAD OF WINTER is now available to watch on ShortsTV's Prime Video channel:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/det...

👻❄️

Previously screened as part of the Christmas Stories collection, now you can watch it on its own. And it's still *technically* Christmas until Twelfth Night...
Poster for THE DEAD OF WINTER, depicting an eerie hooded Figure standing at the far end of a moonlit alleyway. Text reads: The Dead of Winter Now available on ShortsTV Prime Video
January 1, 2026 at 8:09 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
By a curious coincidence, None at all is exactly how much suspicion the ape descendant Arthur Dent had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape, but was in fact from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and not from Guildford as he usually claimed. Arthur Dent had never, ever suspected this. This friend of his had first arrived on the planet Earth some fifteen Earth years previously, and he had worked hard to blend himself into Earth society - with, it must be said, some success. For instance he had spent those fifteen years pretending to be an out-of-work actor, which was plausible enough. He had made one careless blunder, though, because he had skimped a bit on his preparatory research. The information he had gathered had led him to choose the name 'Ford Prefect' as being nicely inconspicuous.
December 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
Mood.
A giant plush swan slumped in a chair.
December 29, 2025 at 11:21 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
I screened this as part of COLD SNAP: SHORT HORROR FILMS FOR WINTER NIGHTS, it's great!

independenthorrorsociety.com/event-review...
A mock vintage horror paperback cover depicting a snowbound house resembling a skull, with windows for eyes and icicles for teeth. Text reads: ActOne presents COLD SNAP Short horror films for Winter nights December 11th at 7pm
December 28, 2025 at 7:40 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
An unsettlingly large toilet with chipboard walls, strip lighting and a bare concrete floor. The toilet itself is located in the far right corner of the room. The Lifeform from The Backrooms has been superimposed on the photo.
December 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
I miss him so much.
Monty, a black cat. Monty, a black cat. Monty, a black cat, attacking shoelaces. Monty, a black cat, looking out of the window.
December 26, 2025 at 9:58 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
He genuinely does look like something out of Salem's Lot here.
The bloodless, fanged visage of Tiny Tim.
December 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
The Christmas decorations in this National Trust are a bit Wicker Man.
A festive decoration made of fir branches and baubles, at the centre of which is a gold skull. A star made of twigs.
December 23, 2025 at 1:17 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
A Right and Proper Christmas Tree.

🎄
A little Christmas tree festooned with vintage baubles, multicoloured tinsel and plastic Santas.
December 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
In The Dead of Winter I made sure the monied family had one of those monochrome colour-coordinated John Lewis Christmas trees, which frankly warrants their supernatural punishment.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Poster for The Dead of Winter showing a couple wrapping presents in a fancy-looking sitting room, with one of those Christmas trees with colour-coordinated baubles and decorations that they probably hired a stylist to come up with.
December 21, 2025 at 8:44 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
OG Leman Russ remains undefeated.
Leman Russ as depicted in the original Rogue Trader book, a wacko little creep festooned with arcane prosthetics and bionic bits.
December 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
Literally just finished this guy (barring a couple of touch-ups and a transfer).
A vintage plastic 2nd Edition Chaos Space Marine painted up as a Word Bearer. He has a wiggly, fleshy tentacle arm. A rear view of a vintage plastic 2nd Edition Chaos Space Marine painted up as a Word Bearer. He has a wiggly, fleshy tentacle arm.
December 19, 2025 at 10:56 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
IYKYK.
Screenshot of The Brussels Times. Text reads: Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the 'Dubai of the Caribbean' Thursday, 18 December 2025 By The Brussels Times Newsroom Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the 'Dubai of the Caribbean' Belgian-born crypto billionaire Olivier Janssens is planning to establish a libertarian community with its own legal system in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Financial Times and Belga reported this week. A panel from Garth Ennis' Punisher comic, showing three large angry-looking polar bears looming over a couple of luckless mafiosi, going "RRRRRRRRRR!" In an inset, one of the mafia goons grins gormlessly up at the ursine behemoths, saying, "It's bears."
December 18, 2025 at 10:41 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM
stephengraves.co.uk
Different publication, similar sentiment. www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/...
I awake the next morning feeling unbelievably nauseous and constipated, and stumble blearily across the road for breakfast at the railway station. If there ever was a restaurant here, there isn't now, just a vending machine selling crisps and Twixes. "Had this been the case in Bond's day, would he have eaten a Twix for breakfast?" I wonder. "Probably, judging by his constant desire to fuck up his body." I eat a Twix and begin to hate James Bond.
December 16, 2025 at 11:21 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
Over on @shudder.com we have @kierlajanisse.bsky.social's adaptation of Algernon Blackwood's "The Occupant of the Room," screening as part of The Haunted Season:

www.shudder.com/series/watch...
Poster for The Occupant of the Room, showing a man covering half his face with his hand, wearing an alarmed expression. Text reads: Don McKellar Ben Petrie Delphine Roussel Maxine Peake The Occupant of the Room a film by Kier-La Janisse
December 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
On Christmas Eve at 7pm we have @nunkie.bsky.social presenting a live-streamed performance of MR James' "An Episode of Cathedral History," one of his lesser-known tales:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-episode...
Robert Lloyd Parry of Nunkie Theatre, in character as MR James' narrator.
December 16, 2025 at 6:39 PM
stephengraves.co.uk
With Christmas drawing near, it's time to share my annual thread of Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve...

👻🎄❄️

Starting, somewhat self-servingly, with my own THE DEAD OF WINTER, which is now available to watch on Amazon Prime as part of this ShortsTV compilation:

watch.amazon.co.uk/detail?gti=a...
Poster for The Dead of Winter. Image shows a bearded man looking apprehensively back over his shoulder, a door with an elaborate Christmas wreath in the background. Text reads: The Dead of Winter Now available on ShortsTV Prime Video
December 16, 2025 at 6:32 PM