One of the greatest scenes in cinema.

IN THE HEAT OF PASSION (1992) walked so WILD THINGS could run. Written/directed by Rodman Flender (IDLE HANDS), produced by Roger Corman. Picked this up on VHS because I love erotic thrillers. Turns out it’s a fantastic satire with meta moments ala DePalma’s SISTERS. Twisty, hilarious. Loved it!

If in doubt, keep things Cannon (films).

*2025 FLASHBACK* “Bede & Steve Vs. Leatherface Ep 2 - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 (1986)... "After A Decade Of Silence... The Buzzz Is Back!"” with guests @aarondries.bsky.social & @warrenmoney.bsky.social Apple: apple.co/4iQYuw1 Spotify: spoti.fi/4kOUFt1 Links: linktr.ee/bedevsthelivingdead

In Brisbane for five (humid) minutes. Impromptu catch-up with these wonderful, creative humans. Lovely to see you Pamela Jeffs, Greg Chapman, and Sandra Makaresz. PS — Greg and I have known each other for over a decade but only met in person for the first time today!

What a great surprise. 3 of my stories have made it into Ellen Datlow’s BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR (volume 17) recommended reading list. What an honour. So thrilled to be featured in such fine company. “Bellow of the Steamship Cow” “The Absolute” “The Wrong Element” Thank you to Ellen and my editors.

WHO AM I THIS TIME? (1982). Beautifully directed by Jonathan Demme, adapted from the Kurt Vonnegut story, starring Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken as shy actors who don’t know how to connect beyond their roles in a community theatre production. A great film about the power of art in our lives.

My first watch of 2026 is setting an incredibly high bar. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, a 1946 fantasy romance written/produced/directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (a huge blind-spot for me, which I’ll be swiftly correcting). This picture is beautiful beyond belief. Frankly, perfection.

Getting myself one of these for 2026.

@sadiehartmann.bsky.social Thought you’d get a kick out of this. I WARNED YOU ALL!

My gay role models as a kid growing up in the 90s.

PASSIONLESS MOMENTS (1983), directed by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, a short film (12 minutes). "There are one million moments in your neighborhood, and as the filmmakers discovered, each has a fragile presence, which fades almost as it forms.”

The US trailer for Takashi Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE goes delightfully hard. Rabid dogs. Warnings. Enjoy at your own risk.

Tonight’s watch. Masterpiece.

Niche post, but there’s a guy on my bus who looks so much like Mike Nichols it’s crazy. Unless it’s his ghost? Just-in-case urge to approach and ask about DAY OF THE DOLPHIN rising…

Between THE RUNNING MAN and THE LONG WALK, it’s one hell of a good year to be a Bachman stan. A great night at the pictures.

It thrills me that this book is continuing to find new audiences. Amazing!

I loved being a part of this. BATTLE ROYALE: Book Club event for the Canberra Writers Festival/National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, a screening of the brilliant film from Kinji Fukasaku followed by a discussion about Koushun Takami’s original book between myself and D.P. Vaughan. Amazing

There are many films. There are many film prologues. But there’s only one MAGNOLIA. “One is the loneliest number…”

I believe ’twas Shakespeare who said, “For never was a story that made me want to cry, more than this of Veronica and her Brundlefly.”

CLYDE FANS by SETH took 20 years to write/illustrate, totals 500 pages. A melancholic masterpiece. It chronicles vastly different brothers trying to keep a tiny fan company alive. Tonally like your favourite Coen bros film or Aimee Mann song or Keats poem. It’s about memory, legacy, capitalism.

I was awarded a Ditmar for Best Short Story of 2025 for BELLOW OF THE STEAMSHIP COW and another for LET THE CAT IN, the podcast I co-host with Kaaron Warren and J. Ashley-Smith. Ditmars have been awarded annually since 1969, and are basically the Australian Hugos. Congrats all. Deeply honoured.

I’m thrilled to be featured among so many wonderful writers in this anthology from the legendary @datlow.bsky.social Coming soon!

Queue JAWS theme at the breakfast table…

Trust @paultremblay.bsky.social to write one of the year’s creepiest novels — a middle grade book! Nightmarish. For example meet Morel, delivered to a family in a sack, a faceless clay boy who moulds expressions on his face with his hands, and who will subsume the life of their young son. Yikes!

BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by @sgj.bsky.social is an outstanding novel, repeatedly blowing my mind. I listened to the audiobook, often having to stop in my tracks on my walks through the country, staring at the sky, shocked, gripped. Immersive, violent, angry, funny, mournful. It never flinches. NEVER.

THE LONG WALK (2025). A powerful adaptation of a great Stephen King novel. Incredible performances. Solid direction. World-building that doesn’t get in the way of character. See it in the cinema so you’re wrapped in its dystopian stranglehold without distraction. One of the year’s best films.

Tonight’s watch is JAMAICA INN (1983), the BBC miniseries based on the classic novel by Daphne Du Maurier and starring Jane Seymour as Mary Yellan. Gothic, romantic, full of mood. The perfect watch for a chilly, rainy night.

Mood board that captures the vibe of the collection of stories I just handed into my agent.

The kindness of readers!

Larry Fessenden’s DEPRAVED (2019), a thoughtful post-modern retelling of the post-modern Prometheus. Who is more depraved—creature, the man who made the creature, or the man who financed the making of the creature? Scenes shot inside The MET without permission are fab. Larry F: a true indie artist.

In 1902, author William Hope Hodgson challenged Harry Houdini to a test of physical prowess, and nothing went to plan. This event is fictionalised as a Hodgson-style tale in my story BELLOW OF THE STEAMSHIP COW, which has been nominated for a Ditmar Award for short fiction. I’m so honoured!

JACOB’S LADDER (1990). A scuzzy, gorgeous film about a traumatised Vietnam veteran caught in a psychological elsewhere. Two surreal hours of moody imagery. An entirely subjective journey from nothing to nothing, with spirituality and the search for meaning in constant liminal tension between.

Bring back phone booths so we can get more iconic phone booth scenes in horror films.

There’s an exciting kinship between the work of Zach Cregger and Wes Craven. Similar preoccupations: Home as horror, social inequality, dream/reality, horror/comedy, bumbling cops, abuse cycles, trope subversion. Comparable visual language, too. Clear, robust direction. AMBITION.

Saturday mornings used to be for cartoons. Now Saturday mornings are for splatterpunk.

Recently losing a dog and reading a book like this was hard. Yet worth it. James Herbert’s FLUKE left me a nice *healing* mess. Sometimes it takes a dog to reveal the hubris of man. But for the most prideful and stubborn of us, maybe the man must become a dog before he’s willing to admit he’s human.

Tonight’s fabulous motion picture. DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!

There are masters. And then there’s Jack Ketchum.

"When are you going to bring back The Horror Show with Brian Keene?" I did it 8 weeks ago. It's called Keeneversations. Guests have included @laurelhightower.bsky.social, @marysangiovanni.bsky.social, @aarondries.bsky.social, @urbancik.bsky.social, and Mr Midnight. www.patreon.com/collection/1...

41 today! I’m determined to make this THE year.

Medicinal cinema (have been very unwell for a week). “MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY” (1970), directed by Freddie Francis. Adorrrreeeee it.

OFF SEASON by Jack Ketchum is utterly brilliant. Motörhead’s literary equivalent—loud, fast, energetic rock and roll, super thrashy. Read it alone in an unfamiliar environment and you’ll realise what a tsunami of force Ketchum conjured on the page. And it feels like it’s coming just for YOU.

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #Books #BookSky📚📚📚 #BookChallenge 5/20

Thank you, Alan!

I voted in this year’s Chainsaw Awards. Fellow horror fans, vote now! Thank you to everyone at @fangoria.bsky.social for everything you do. fan.gd/share-vote-x/ #ChainsawAwards

I've been meaning to post this for a bit, but I got distracted with Honey. @aarondries.bsky.social 's novella Dirty Heads was SUCH a fun ride. This book has awesome 90s vibes and captures the weird feeling of coming out to yourself perfectly. Also it's WEIRD!! Read this!!

Well, I said what I said.

FRONT ROW AT THE AIMEE MANN CONCERT IN THE RAIN. I’VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY BEING DEPRESSED AND WET!

John Boden and I are so grateful for the awesome crowd who came to our book signing today. Catch-ups galore. Familiar and new faces. A delightful interview. Gifts. Surprises. Books flew out the door. Thank you @briankeene.bsky.social and @marysangiovanni.bsky.social at Vortex Books for hosting us.