Before Yellowstone, before Sicario, Taylor Sheridan dipped his toes into horror, and nah, not for glory, but as a favor to a friend. Vile (2011), his directorial debut, is a brutal little indie about ten strangers locked in a house and forced to endure extreme pain to escape. And it wasn’t even a passion project. Sheridan reportedly stepped in to direct as a favor to a friend.
The film follows ten strangers who wake up locked in a house and are forced to endure excruciating pain in a twisted experiment designed to extract brain chemicals. They have just 22 hours to survive or die trying. Premiering at Film4 FrightFest before landing a U.S. release in 2012, Vile doesn’t even have a Rotten Tomatoes score.
The One Horror Movie Taylor Sheridan Wishes You’d Forget
Taylor Sheridan Vile exists, and the veteran writer admits it only happened because a friend begged for help.
The film follows ten strangers who wake up locked in a house and are forced to endure excruciating pain in a twisted experiment designed to extract brain chemicals. They have just 22 hours to survive or die trying. Premiering at Film4 FrightFest before landing a U.S. release in 2012, Vile doesn’t even have a Rotten Tomatoes score.
The One Horror Movie Taylor Sheridan Wishes You’d Forget
Taylor Sheridan Vile exists, and the veteran writer admits it only happened because a friend begged for help.
- 6/24/2025
- by Heena Singh
- FandomWire
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Taylor Sheridan has made himself into one of the most important people in Hollywood. As the creator of "Yellowstone," in addition to being pretty much that show's sole writer, he has managed to craft a full-on TV empire that extends beyond his hit Western. There are spin-offs, as well as other hit shows like "Tulsa King," "Lioness," and "Landman," all stemming from Sheridan's mind. Yet, the filmmaker had relatively humble beginnings behind the camera -- his feature directorial debut is a horror movie that one would be forgiven for not being aware of.
The movie in question is called "Vile" and was released in 2012. It's an ultra-low-budget, not at all highly regarded movie in the, for lack of a better term, "torture porn" sub-genre that became popular in the early 2000s, in no small part thanks to the success of the "Saw" franchise.
Taylor Sheridan has made himself into one of the most important people in Hollywood. As the creator of "Yellowstone," in addition to being pretty much that show's sole writer, he has managed to craft a full-on TV empire that extends beyond his hit Western. There are spin-offs, as well as other hit shows like "Tulsa King," "Lioness," and "Landman," all stemming from Sheridan's mind. Yet, the filmmaker had relatively humble beginnings behind the camera -- his feature directorial debut is a horror movie that one would be forgiven for not being aware of.
The movie in question is called "Vile" and was released in 2012. It's an ultra-low-budget, not at all highly regarded movie in the, for lack of a better term, "torture porn" sub-genre that became popular in the early 2000s, in no small part thanks to the success of the "Saw" franchise.
- 1/19/2025
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Vile
Stars: Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith, Greg Cipes, Elisha Skorman, Heidi Mueller, Maya Hazen, Rob Kirkland | Written by Eric Jay Beck, Rob Kowsaluk | Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Ah, the torture-porn genre, how I’ve missed you. Not really. But it does seem that every year FrightFest manages to pull a new example of the genre out of the woodwork for the delictation of the baying horror-loving audience in attendance. Last year we had The Tortured, this year its Vile, And interestingly the two are not that disimilar…
Like many a horror film before it, Vile asks the age-old question: “How far would you go to stay alive?” In this case our eight protagonists, all of whom are kidnapped, have tubes attached to their brains and then locked in an abandoned house, are tasked with seeing how much pain and torture they can take, if it means living so see another day.
Stars: Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith, Greg Cipes, Elisha Skorman, Heidi Mueller, Maya Hazen, Rob Kirkland | Written by Eric Jay Beck, Rob Kowsaluk | Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Ah, the torture-porn genre, how I’ve missed you. Not really. But it does seem that every year FrightFest manages to pull a new example of the genre out of the woodwork for the delictation of the baying horror-loving audience in attendance. Last year we had The Tortured, this year its Vile, And interestingly the two are not that disimilar…
Like many a horror film before it, Vile asks the age-old question: “How far would you go to stay alive?” In this case our eight protagonists, all of whom are kidnapped, have tubes attached to their brains and then locked in an abandoned house, are tasked with seeing how much pain and torture they can take, if it means living so see another day.
- 1/9/2013
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Vile (World Premiere)
Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Written by Eric Jay Beck and Rob Kowsaluk
Starring Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith,
USA, 2011
Vile was our late-night film on the second day of Frightfest this year and it claimed to be a hybrid of Cube, Saw and Hostel. But let’s make something clear, it has none of the verve or intellect of the former two titles and little of the polish of the latter. It’s merely yet another stupid, brain-dead, ugly little film where a bunch of people (mostly strangers) wake up in a room (which in this instance turns out to be a house) and they are forced to hurt each other in an attempt to win their freedom. There’s no twist here or extra-layer of invention, the bunch of unlikeable protagonists are all encumbered with a pair of tubes and vials that are attached...
Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Written by Eric Jay Beck and Rob Kowsaluk
Starring Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith,
USA, 2011
Vile was our late-night film on the second day of Frightfest this year and it claimed to be a hybrid of Cube, Saw and Hostel. But let’s make something clear, it has none of the verve or intellect of the former two titles and little of the polish of the latter. It’s merely yet another stupid, brain-dead, ugly little film where a bunch of people (mostly strangers) wake up in a room (which in this instance turns out to be a house) and they are forced to hurt each other in an attempt to win their freedom. There’s no twist here or extra-layer of invention, the bunch of unlikeable protagonists are all encumbered with a pair of tubes and vials that are attached...
- 9/18/2011
- by Al White
- SoundOnSight
Vile
Stars: Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith, Greg Cipes, Elisha Skorman, Heidi Mueller, Maya Hazen, Rob Kirkland | Written by Eric Jay Beck, Rob Kowsaluk | Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Ah, the torture-porn genre, how I’ve missed you. Not really. But it does seem that every year FrightFest manages to pull a new example of the genre out of the woodwork for the delictation of the baying horror-loving audience in attendance. Last year we had The Tortured, this year its Vile, And interestingly the two are not that disimilar…
Like many a horror film before it, Vile asks the age-old question: “How far would you go to stay alive?” In this case our eight protagonists, all of whom are kidnapped, have tubes attached to their brains and then locked in an abandoned house, are tasked with seeing how much pain and torture they can take, if it means living so see another day.
Stars: Eric Jay Beck, April Matson, Akeem Smith, Greg Cipes, Elisha Skorman, Heidi Mueller, Maya Hazen, Rob Kirkland | Written by Eric Jay Beck, Rob Kowsaluk | Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Ah, the torture-porn genre, how I’ve missed you. Not really. But it does seem that every year FrightFest manages to pull a new example of the genre out of the woodwork for the delictation of the baying horror-loving audience in attendance. Last year we had The Tortured, this year its Vile, And interestingly the two are not that disimilar…
Like many a horror film before it, Vile asks the age-old question: “How far would you go to stay alive?” In this case our eight protagonists, all of whom are kidnapped, have tubes attached to their brains and then locked in an abandoned house, are tasked with seeing how much pain and torture they can take, if it means living so see another day.
- 8/26/2011
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Sci-fi review and news site Quiet Earth has debuted the official trailer for Vile, which will show at the Film 4 Frightfest in London, England. Vile is partially based on the Milgram experiments, in which participants were encouraged to shock another volunteer (actually a confederate). Some people, when told to, will shock others to death. Thankfully, this experiment was only a simulation, but the trailer for Vile shows realistically that most of humanity will do almost anything to another e.g. torture, if instructed by a higher authority.
Vile will show at Film 4 Frightfest August 26th, 2011 and the trailer for director Taylor Sheridan's first film shocks below.
The synopsis for Vile is here:
"Fifty years ago Yale University professor Stanley Milgram held a series of social experiments based on Nazi war criminals’ psychology. They were devised to answer a simple question; how far are people willing to go when instructed by authority?...
Vile will show at Film 4 Frightfest August 26th, 2011 and the trailer for director Taylor Sheridan's first film shocks below.
The synopsis for Vile is here:
"Fifty years ago Yale University professor Stanley Milgram held a series of social experiments based on Nazi war criminals’ psychology. They were devised to answer a simple question; how far are people willing to go when instructed by authority?...
- 7/3/2011
- by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
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