These days, TV creator Taylor Sheridan is busy writing, producing, and directing a host of shows, from “Mayor of Kingstown” and “Tulsa King” to a whole series of “Yellowstone” spin-offs. But it wasn’t long ago that Sheridan, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand filmmakers — who plans to write and direct a big screen adaptation of “Empire of the Summer Moon” – was an actor. Following a major role in “Sons of Anarchy,” though, Sheridan had a hit with his first big-screen script, 2015’s “Sicario.” What many may not remember, however, is that Sheridan made his directorial debut with the 2011 horror movie “Vile,” which he’s since distanced himself from. 

You might not remember “Vile” because it was downright awful, and Sheridan doesn’t talk about it often. That’s because, according to Sheridan himself, he didn’t really direct “Vile,” at least not in the strictest sense. “A friend of mine raised — I don’t know what he raised — 20 grand or something, and cast his buddies, and wrote this bad horror movie, that I told him not to direct,” Sheridan told Rotten Tomatoes in a 2017 interview. 

Ultimately, his friend did make the movie, but when the production hit a roadblock, Sheridan offered his help. “I kind of kept the ship pointed straight,” he acknowledges. But no matter how much he may have helped out on the production, Sheridan thinks calling him the movie’s director is “generous.” That said, Sheridan does admit that his experience on “Vile” helped teach him things that he took into what he considers his real directorial debut, the 2017 Jeremy Renner thriller, “Wind River.”

“Vile” is a fairly bog-standard entry in the so-called “torture porn” subgenre of films that got its start with 2004’s “Saw.” One of many films so good they inspired dozens of imitators, “Saw” practically birthed an entire cottage industry of horror movies where people are graphically mutilated in service of a paper-thin story that’s really just an excuse to show as much blood and gore as possible in an R-rated film.

The premise of “Vile” is pretty routine: A group of stereotypical young people head off on a trip into the woods only to meet unseen horrors they never could have imagined. In their case, it’s at the hands of an otherwise ordinary-looking young woman, a hitchhiker they pick up along their travels. But after being tricked into unconsciousness, the group of friends wake up to find themselves captives, with a small vial attached to their neck that slowly fills with fluid — and when it’s full, they’ll be released. The only way to fill it, however, is to endure ungodly amounts of pain.

An amateurish film at its best moments, “Vile” has everything you could ask for in a laughably bad B-grade horror schlocker: a clunky script, simplistic dialogue, and a cast of inexperienced actors giving overwrought performances. Looking at it even at the time, it’s completely justifiable that Taylor Sheridan would disown the film, making clear that he had very little to do with it other than ensuring its successful completion.