Taylor Sheridan is best known for developing the hit series Yellowstone, but the filmmaker’s directorial debut is a horror movie that’s almost unwatchable. Few creators have had as meteoric a rise as Sheridan, and the actor-turned-writer/director is one of the most popular names in TV in the 2020s. Even before his TV success, Sheridan made his mark with movies too.
Known for his unique blend of modern crime dramas with a neo-western flare, Sheridan gained notoriety for films like Sicario and Hell or High Water. Though he’s only directed three feature films thus far, he’s written and produced several more, and it isn’t hard to spot a project that has Sheridan’s fingerprints all over it.
His TV outings have been explosively popular, with the Yellowstone series branching out into a full-blown franchise. Even though everything Sheridan has produced for TV has been a success, his movie career is a bit more spotty. His directorial debut is practically unrecognizable to his other works, and it’s certainly the worst thing he’s made thus far.
Taylor Sheridan’s Vile Is Absolutely Nothing Like His Usual Style
Don’t Go Looking For Sheridan’s Neo-Western Trademarks
2011’s Vile is not usually mentioned when talking about Taylor Sheridan’s works, and for good reason. The independent horror flick was not written or produced by Sheridan, and according to the man himself, he doesn’t even consider it his directorial debut (via Rotten Tomatoes). Therefore, it has none of the filmmaker’s popular trademarks.
Vile was written by Eric Beck and Rob Kowsaluk.
Instead, it’s a Saw or Hostel-inspired torture film involving a group of people who are forced to brutally mutilate themselves in order to escape. It’s primarily set within one location, and features a roster of stock-standard horror characters who essentially serve as window dressing for the movie’s gore effects.
Unlike Wind River or Hell or High Water, which cleverly blend western imagery with a compelling crime story, Vile is very much a straight-to-video horror experience meant to capitalize on the genre’s popularity. It has nothing unique to say, and isn’t even particularly original among other intentionally gross films from that era.
Vile Isn’t Just A Horror Movie – It’s A Bad Horror Movie
Vile Lives Up To Its тιтle In All The Worst Ways
There’s very little good that can be said about Sheridan’s first feature film behind the camera, and based on his own comments, he was not particularly involved. So-bad-they’re-good horror films are often a delightful experience that can have an audience laughing and screaming in equal measure, but Vile is just a dour exercise in misery.
Without an interesting character to root for, the entire horror premise feels shaky at best, and the reasoning behind the torture is convoluted.
The poor technical execution can be excused because of its shoestring budget, but the script is so lackluster that it often feels incomplete. Without an interesting character to root for, the entire horror premise feels shaky at best, and the reasoning behind the torture is convoluted.
A Taylor Sheridan horror movie is an interesting prospect, but Vile is not worth watching. Unlike other failed debuts, there’s no part of Sheridan in the film, so there’s absolutely nothing of interest for even the most die-hard Yellowstone fan. Vile could have been made by anyone, and it’s best that audiences just forget it the same way Sheridan did.
