Aaron Dries
@aarondries.bsky.social
Author/screenwriter — Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Australian Shadows, Ditmar award-nominated and Aurealis winner. DIRTY HEADS, CUT TO CARE, HOUSE OF SIGHS, A PLACE FOR SINNERS, THE FALLEN BOYS, and WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE. Repped by Annie Bomke.
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
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
October 22, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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
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…”
But there’s only one MAGNOLIA.
“One is the loneliest number…”
October 21, 2025 at 11:24 AM
There are many films. There are many film prologues.
But there’s only one MAGNOLIA.
“One is the loneliest number…”
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.”
October 18, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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.
October 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
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.
October 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
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!
Coming soon!
October 1, 2025 at 10:21 PM
I’m thrilled to be featured among so many wonderful writers in this anthology from the legendary @datlow.bsky.social
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
Queue JAWS theme at the breakfast table…
September 20, 2025 at 12:53 AM
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!
September 14, 2025 at 9:42 PM
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.
September 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
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.
September 11, 2025 at 10:13 PM
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.
September 10, 2025 at 12:03 PM
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.
September 5, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Mood board that captures the vibe of the collection of stories I just handed into my agent.
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.
August 29, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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.
Footage of me reading BELLOW OF THE STEAMSHIP COW at Conflux Convention last year to a packed audience. So much fun.
August 26, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Footage of me reading BELLOW OF THE STEAMSHIP COW at Conflux Convention last year to a packed audience. So much fun.
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!
August 26, 2025 at 6:11 AM
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.
August 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
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.
August 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
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.
August 10, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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.
August 8, 2025 at 10:23 PM
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.
August 7, 2025 at 9:52 PM
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!
DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!
July 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Tonight’s fabulous motion picture.
DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!
DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!
There are masters. And then there’s Jack Ketchum.
July 22, 2025 at 2:11 PM
There are masters. And then there’s Jack Ketchum.
41 today! I’m determined to make this THE year.
July 14, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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.
“MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY” (1970), directed by Freddie Francis.
Adorrrreeeee it.
July 11, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Medicinal cinema (have been very unwell for a week).
“MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY” (1970), directed by Freddie Francis.
Adorrrreeeee it.
“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.
July 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
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.