iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just received a copy of new horror anthology 'Something Peculiar XI' featuring my story 'At the Club'. A woman tries to find out where her elderly widowed father is going to at night. The answer is much more disturbing than she could ever have imagined. Available now from blackshuckbooks.co.uk

The opening paragraphs of my story At the Club.
'Maggie could hear the doorbell ringing inside the house so she knew it wasn't broken, but when she stepped to the side and leaned over the platnt pots to peer through the window into the thin slice of living-room she could see between the curtains, there was no sign of movement and no glimpse of her father..."

011

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 22h

I've written a new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles). This is #85 and it's called 'Drama'.

052

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 21h

YouTube's algorithm has thrown up one of my favourites - Al Green on a Lulu Hogmanay Special in the mid-90s, wrestling both band and crowd towards joy as he performs Let's Stay Together www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue9Z...

youtube.com

Let's Stay together- Bring it on home to me-Al Green 2/2

YouTube video by mrjbroberts

000

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Adrian Chills @adrianchills.bsky.social · 22h

#85: Drama

A screenshot of a Guardian headline by Adrian Chiles. It reads 'I have a new favourite medical drama - and now I want to have a nasty accident in Pittsburgh'.

(Alt-text for next image)
The first of my Dramas took place ten years ago. Looking back now it was a very rudimentary piece barely worthy of the name, best remembered now as the progenitor of all my subsequent works. I was cycling home from work on a rainy Friday evening, my mind dull and slumberous from the crushing mundanity of my job, my future stretching out in front of me like the road - arrow straight, filled with traffic, a route that screamed monotony. As my front wheel hit a discarded beer bottle and I felt a momentary loss of control, an idea sparked to life within me like a flame being ignited; a way to break the tedium.
The next piece of debris that appeared in the road - a broken-off shard of car fender - was something I aimed for rather than attempted to avoid. As I hit the piece and felt the bike shift beneath me, launching me into space, I caught a glimpse of a bus beside me, the open mouth of a young woman passenger seeing me begin to fall. My adrenalin spiked. For a moment I felt like the centre of the world.
Then I hit the road, bounced against the curb, narrowly avoided having my head be crushed by the back wheels of the same bus. As I lay there, staring up at the concerned faces looking down at me, with the sound of the ambulance in the distance, I felt more joy than I had in a decade. I had found my calling.
(Continued on next alt-text)

(Continued from previous alt-text)
It took three months to recover - two broken ribs and a badly bruised hip - but I spent that time planning my next Drama. I wanted somewhere picturesque, somewhere crowded, somewhere that would add to the mise en scene I was creating. Finally I settled on Paris.
It was near the Arc de Triomphe that I set my stage. Mindful of the danger - I have no death wish - I carefully bided my time before steering my bicycle into the path of a battered old Renault 6 - chosen for its nostalgia value - and found myself catapulted through the crisp Paris air to land on the tarmac. Mid-somersault I glimpsed the shocked face of a man and his dachshund observing me, and felt that familiar tingle of pleasure.
Since then, I have staged dramas across Europe. Prague, Berlin, Barcelona, Budapest, Stockholm, Turin, Brussels. Each location chosen for both their aesthetic appeal and the high rating of their nearest hospitals (quick and effective treatment is key to a swift recovery - and I have so many other places where I wish to perform.)
As an experienced artist, I try to vary the site of injury, taking inspiration from accidents I am able to view online (TikTok is very good for this). I know I can’t go on forever, but I still have some ambition.
To this end, I am planning my greatest Drama - a head-on collision outside the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. (I’m assured by reviews online that Pennsylvania hospitals are excellent with head trauma.)
I can’t wait to be launched into the air once more, feel the thrill of seeing those faces as I fall.

1105

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 22h

I've written a new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles). This is #85 and it's called 'Drama'.

052

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Lovecraft & M. R. James could only dream of writing a sentence like this.

321252

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On the contrary, those are clearly Elvis Costello 1978 legs.

2171

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Offbeat crime caper with Keach and Forrest as blue-collar guys caught up in a heist that goes south. There's a madcap energy to it that is at times a bit wearing, but the ending - a shootout that happens in a condemned building while it is being demolished by wrecking ball - is fantastic.

141

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Treated myself to a Sunday evening cinema screening of Michael Mann's Manhunter - first time I've seen it on the big screen - and can highly recommend.

1111

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

011

Reposted by Steven Sheil

JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is a terrific discussion of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding’s novel THE BLANK WALL, via the The Pink Smoke podcast, featuring guest @scsheil.bsky.social. Thanks, Steven, for the link! #BookSky 💙📚 #FilmSky podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

Ep. 64 The Blank Wall

Podcast Episode · The Pink Smoke podcast · 28 September 2020 · 1hr 40min

141

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Currently trying to figure out how the title of this new film on Netflix works

A poster for the film Baby Do Die Do. It shows an Indian train carriage with a young woman in a headscarf standing in the aisle holding an umbrella by her side, while all the other seated passengers look at her with wariness

220

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Katrina Austin @katnip-quizzer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you don't yet follow Adrian Chills, you need to do so.

011

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Learning from the Guardian that if you think Brian Cox in Manhunter is a better version of Hannibal Lec(k)tor, you're a haughty, hipster film-bro.

A screengrab from the Guardian review of the Manhunter 40th anniversary re-release by Peter Bradshaw. "It has long been a haughty, hipster film-bro affectation to claim that Cox is better in the role than Anthony Hopkins. (Lecktor’s early acoustic stuff was great, you see, before he went electric as Lecter.) I think that’s a bit obtuse, for all that Cox is of course very good. Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs is the definitive version: face it. But I will concede that Cox is more interesting"

170

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#LastFourWatched The Clan's Heir Is A Trans Woman (2013) - bloody, heartwarming yakuza story Izo (2004) - surreal Takashi Miike samurai-slaughters-through-the-afterlife action Gunslinger (1956) - female-focused Roger Corman Western Summerfield (1977) - slow-burn atmospheric Aussie thriller/drama

A Letterboxed Recent Activity bar showing the four films mentioned

1110

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles.) This is #84 and it's called "Chard".

2139

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Netherworld Books @netherworldbooks.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Out today - Something Peculiar 11 I guess Black Shuck Books is widening the lens of their excellent GREAT BRITISH HORROR series- no UK anchor, just great weird stuff from last year I just finished Sinophagia (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐), another excellent anthologyl. So this is 4th on TBR bookshop.org/a/84468/9781...

bookshop.org

Something Peculiar XI

SOMETHING PECULIAR continues the legacy established by the GREAT BRITISH HORROR series, showcasing the best in modern weird fiction. Every year, the series will feature eleven previously unpublished s...

012

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Fred Connelly @brendonconnelly.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I had cause to discuss this brilliant thing today. Captain America has a few important things to say about America, as written by Peter B. Gillis (author of my beloved Tailgunner Jo comics).

Listen to me — all of you out there! You were told by this man — your hero — that America is the greatest country in the world! He told you that Americans were the greatest people — that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it, and shine more brightly! He went on about how precious America was — how you needed to make sure it remained great! And he told you anything was justified to preserve that great treasure, that pearl of great price that is America! Well, I say America is nothing! Without its ideals — its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash! A nation is nothing! A flag is a piece of cloth! I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could as easily be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany! As a people, we were no different from them! When I returned, I saw that you nearly did turn America into nothing! And the only reason you’re not less than nothing — is that it’s still possible for you to bring freedom back to America!

123

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles.) This is #84 and it's called "Chard".

2139

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Casket Based @cineblah.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm making a documentary about the RLNI situation and I am contacting various organisations. However I thought I'd turn to bluesky as well, I'm looking to interview people either connected to the RNLI, to refugees/those working with refugees and also with counter-protestors. Please share.

598113

Reposted by Steven Sheil

garth marenghi's darkcayce @cayce.zone · 23/09/2026

outrageously cool transition into this split screen sequence in Fleischer's The Boston Strangler

49622

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Andrew Male @andrewmale.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Jabs Ma’amy

452

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Excited for the new It Follows sequel

A shot from the new Nathan Fielder documentary You Can See Everything. It's a wide shot of a suburban lawn. Nathan stands in the mid-distance, staring.

020

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Today’s best second-hand buy is this lovely-looking (and very chunky - nearly 600 pages!) late ‘60s compendium of suspense stories. A specially composed foreword by Ogden Nash gives a taste of the contents.

A hardback book with a black cover - Hanging By A Thread edited by Joan Kahn. The words are designed to look as though hanging from a rope.

Foreword by Ogden Nash
Have you ever seen such a pride of names?
Lions from Gorky to M. R. James, Pearson (Edmund) and Thomas (Dylan), Roughead, recorder of victim and villain, Hammett and Thurber and H. G. Wells, Dunsany bearing his bag of spells, Tacitus, who will cure your lassitude With a murder tale of nasty veracitude, Albert Camus, and Stephen Crane And Bulwer-Lytton's maleficent brain, Plus other illustrious ladies and gents, Masters and mistresses of suspense, Of howling horror or quiet grue,
Silently creeping up on you With many a tale hitherto unknown
As unearthed by suspense-editor Joan, The greatest Kahn, unless I'm blotto, Since Genghis, Kubla, and possibly Otto.

160

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Is Survivalist Dogmance a) Band who recorded one Peel Session in the 1980s b) Thomas Pynchon character c) A columnist for Tatler d) A nightclub in a 90s cyberpunk thriller e) All of the above

5100

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just seen the new Brad Pitt film described as a 'survivalist dogmance' in The Guardian, if anyone is looking to get in on the ground floor with a new nanogenre.

2111

Reposted by Steven Sheil

JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

New on the blog today, my thoughts on THE BLANK WALL by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. An utterly gripping novel in which an ordinary woman finds herself in an extraordinary situation. Filmed by Max Ophüls as THE RECKLESS MOMENT, it's a 5-star knockout read! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/09/22/t...

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

Praised by Raymond Chandler as one of the best suspense writers of her era, the American writer Elisabeth Sanxay Holding produced eighteen crime novels and many short stories over the course of her…

64210

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles.) This is #82 and it's called 'Location-tracking'

084

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Book buyer’s disease, the stages: 1. Find a batch of books in a charity shop from a crime writer I haven’t read 2. Think ‘I should buy one and see if I like it’ 3. Notice they are 4 for £1 4. Think ‘What if I really like the first book?’ 5. Buy 16 books

A pile of sixteen paperback books by Dorothy Gilman in a vertical stack.

8086381

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles). This is #83 and it's called 'Tailbone'.

263

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles). This is #83 and it's called 'Tailbone'.

263

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Mayhem Film Festival @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Tickets for individual films as well as a limited number of Full Festival Passes are now available for this year's festival. All details: www.mayhemfilmfestival.com/tickets-line...

mayhemfilmfestival.com

Tickets & Line-Up — Mayhem Film Festival

001

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Andrew Hickey @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 17/09/2026

I literally can't think of anything more unutterably evil than deliberately preventing lifeboats from going out to sea. Just monstrous.

311945

Reposted by Steven Sheil

markmcan.bsky.social @markmcan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is incredible

011

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Adrian Chills @adrianchills.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#82: Location-tracking

A screenshot of a headline to a Guardian column by Adrian Chiles. It reads 'Location-tracking apps have turned me into a gibbering wreck - but I just can't look away'

(Alt-text for next image)
The silence is the worst part. When the dust storms abate and the metal shields which form the walls of our base camp stop resounding with the pock pock pock of wind-blown gravel, all that is left is the quiet hum of the life support system. That, and the sound of my own fevered breaths.
I’ve long given up hope of anyone responding to my distress signal; this planet is too far from the trade paths, not even named on our star-maps.The chances of someone coming to my rescue are infinitesimal at best. If any of the others were still here, we could perhaps together have sought a way to repair our ship, but alone it’s hopeless; I’m no engineer.
(Continued on next image)

(Continued from previous alt-text)
So I sit and wait, and listen to the silence. And watch the screens in front of me.
And gibber with terror at what they show.
When we first crash-landed here, thirty-eight cycles ago, we were a crew of four; myself, Landon, Contreras and Masur. We thought the planet uninhabited - the rocky terrain and lack of plant life seemed to indicate a dead world, or at least one that was inimical to sustaining life.
How wrong we were. Seventy-two hours after landing, while Landon worked on attempting to repair our propulsion system, we heard for the first time the sound of movement outside our base camp; scuttling sounds, as though from many legs moving quickly across the rough ground. Then a scream.
Landon.
Visibility is poor on the planet - the nights are weeks long, and the atmosphere above so thick as to block any light from the surrounding moons - so we could not see what was happening to him, even as his cries grew further and further away.
I ran to my screen, saw his location indicator - the signal, as for all of us, broadcast from the tiny bio-chip implanted in his skull - moving rapidly towards a nearby cave formation.
Contreras and Masur acted fast. Instructing me to wait behind, they took their weapons and headed out into the darkness.
I never saw them again. Their location indicators however, kept moving, out there in the night.
When eventually I ventured from the base camp, I found only horror. Landon’s legs, ripped off and scattered in the dust. The whole lower part of Masur’s torso nearby. Of Contreras there was only a ragged, torn foot.
But still, on the screen, they moved.

I watch them even now, for hours at a time. It’s almost a compulsion. I know they are out there, the remnants of Landon, Contreras and Masur, carried by legs that scuttle on the earth, circling the camp, waiting for just this silence.
I will watch them as they come for me. I won’t be able to look away.

0256

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I've written a brand new Adrian Chills story (short horror stories inspired by the Guardian columns of Adrian Chiles.) This is #82 and it's called 'Location-tracking'

084

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

As part of a John Carpenter retrospective and collaboration between Cinematek and @offscreenff.bsky.social, on Friday 18 September at 19h00 at Cinematek I shall be presenting THE THING (1982) at Brussels Cinematek cinematek.be/2026-09-18-1...

Kurt Russell in The Thing, with a large, hollowed-out block of ice.

A man on fire in the snow outside US Outpost 31 in The Thing

43512

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today's best second-hand buy. I've been after this for while, primarily because it was the basis for the (sadly unmade) vampire movie screenplay that William Faulkner wrote for Howards Hawks in 1945 which was to star Maila Nurmi aka Vampira. Also - I can't resist a mapback.

A 1940s paperback published by Dell - Dreadful Hollow by Irina Karlova. The cover feature s a bat flying over a landscape with a red/yellow/green sun behind it. White lines around the cover frame the sun like an eyeball.

The back of the book. It's an illustration of a map - a country house in some woodland. Text above it reads "The Grange - scene of mystery in Dreadful Hollow.

192

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

192

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Somewhere in America there's a guy who has applied to the FBI four times and is now suddenly going to be accepted, and everyone he knows is going to lock their pets away when he comes over.

030

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea screens tonight in Edinburgh with host @ninjaworrier.bsky.social talking to director @jeaniefinlay.com. Tickets: glimmerama.com/allriversspill

A poster for the event, featuring a picture of Director Jeanie Finlay and Host Amber Wilkinson. The screening is dated September 15 at the Cameo Picturehouse and there's a link to get tickets: glimmerama.com/allriversspill

Screengrab of a Letterboxed review: Review by
nikita

Not super sure what my expectations were for this, but it exceeded them.

A perfect storm of the actual issues plaguing the country; deindustrialisation, money-grabbing local politicians, government agencies that aren't fit for purpose & private business pushing our ecological systems to breaking point.

Another Letterboxd review screengrab: Yet another reminder of how much UK politics will favour image, money, and short-term solutions over actually helping communities and acknowledging their very real, damaging problems. Not to mention the classic reticence of accepting responsibility or willingness to lay the blame at the feet of corporations.

Jeanie Finlay crafts this documentary in a way that not only communicates the vital nature of the issue and how livelihoods that have been passed through generations are disappearing, but also does justice to the personalities and compassion of the subjects, including the lovely Stan Rennie. It says everything it needs to say, and has a truly personal touch which makes it so easy to connect with.

Another Letterboxd screengrab: Watched by Lisa 19 Mar 2026
A seemingly peaceful film that contains within it a heart of rage. Beatifully shot & completely unpretentious, with a loveable main character who draws you in and stays with you long after the credits roll. Justice for Stan, the north east of England and the precious creatures of the sea 💔🦞

031

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea screens tonight in Edinburgh with host @ninjaworrier.bsky.social talking to director @jeaniefinlay.com. Tickets: glimmerama.com/allriversspill

031

Reposted by Steven Sheil

Eye For Film @eyeforfilm.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Eye For Film's @ninjaworrier.bsky.social will be hosting a Q&A with @jeaniefinlay.com tomorrow after a screening of eye-opening documentary All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea at Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh. Details about the film & screenings at www.glimmerama.com/allriversspill #FilmSky🎬🐟

022

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We've announced the full line-up for this year's Mayhem Film Festival - spiders, vampires, alien pregnancies, alternate realities, ghosts, Guy Maddin and Gothic rage! All details below:

031

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Amazing things are happening in the retail spaces of Nottingham

A corner vape shop with a sign on it reading LOVELY SHOP 1

A close-up
Of the shop frontage - an AI image of a chimpanzee in a baseball cap and sunglasses puffing on a vape

040