Another great review of our short film Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts, this time from Indie Shorts Mag. Check out their full review HERE.
"Green is the undeniable backbone of the whole affair (puppet Dziga may be the femora). She makes Elnora a particularly enjoyable heroine. Elnora is sweet-spoken and snarky, earnest and sarcastic. Patient. Secretly furious. And borderline psychopathic. The insanity is painted delicious, a tongue-in-cheek approach that transfers to other comedic moments, like a swish pan back and forth between Elnora and Dziga. For Elnora and Parker, the tone is softer than fluffy clouds, even as they share in the task of skinning a dead animal."
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Time for some more glimpses behind-the-scenes of our new short film, the weirdly romantic horror comedy Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts...
Richard Coppen at Panther Studios in Reigate supported us with ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) on our short film. ADR is when actors re-record dialogue in the studio to make every word crystal clear. On Ms Green, our actors jumped back in to perfect lines and capture every subtle emotion: including bringing puppet pug Dziga to life! Richard's skill, patience, and good humor make every session effortless. He doesn’t just run a studio, he makes sound sing.
Click "READ MORE" below to continue...
It takes a whole village to make a film, so to speak, so here's a few of those involved in bringing our film Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts to life.
"From the moment I read Ms Green, I knew I wanted to bring Nick’s vision to life. The script’s blend of dark subject matter with a distinctive quirkiness and humour is something only Nick could achieve, and it immediately resonated with me. I had a clear sense of how Elnora should be portrayed and how I wanted audiences to connect with her. This project was made possible by an exceptional cast and crew, whose talent and dedication helped bring my vision, alongside Nick’s and Ali’s, to the screen. It was truly a collaborative effort, and I am immensely proud of what the team has accomplished."
Check out the first review of Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer) from William Curzon of UK Film Review HERE.
"It's truly a testament to the filmmakers' sheer ambitious filmmaking techniques and the excellent performances that make the more absurd elements work. Thankfully, most of the gags land tremendously, and the brief romantic aspects incorporated into the screenplay feel endearing."
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Check out the first review of Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer) from Mark Lakatos of Take 2 Indie Review HERE.
"Taking the grim compulsions of its titular taxidermist to entertaining heights, Ms. Green and Other Lovely Beasts is a potent one-two punch of wacky and lurid storytelling."
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Dolly the pug plays the real-life version of Dziga II in Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer HERE). Dziga II is the cute, fuzzy, and ever-so-opinionated pug that plays the role of Elnora's spirit animal and her first serious emotional connection in life. Elnora 'gets' Dziga, and Dziga 'gets' Elnora.
He is her loyal and loving muse, her ever-so-special
little guy ... and he's a puppet that talks with a Scottish accent. To her
at least, because to everyone else Dziga just looks like any other pug
dog, but to Elnora he's a life coach as well as an expression of her
jumbled thoughts and unspoken desires.
Dziga
was brought to life brilliantly by Dolly the Pug. Although Dolly is sadly
no longer with us, her cheeky spirit lives on — the very best girl to
embody the delightfully dirty-minded Dizga II.
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Mark Keegan performs the role of Ed Gein, aka The Butcher of Plainfield, in Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer HERE). In the film, Gein plays the role of Elnora's first discovery in the dark world of serial killer history during her time as a lonely teenager, and this ghoulish figure of true crime mythology became her first obsession.
Akin to an imaginary friend, brought to life within the fantasy world inside her mind, Ed is a mixture of confidant and celebrity icon. He is an expression of the deepest and darkest thoughts, fears, and desires that lurk in the shadows of Elnora's mind. Like the bad influence of an addiction, which seized hold of Elnora's tumultuous psyche in her formative years, Ed is the finger pressing down on the bad side of the scale.
Mark Keegan has been an actor since the age of 10, but left it until 53 to turn professional! TV credits include The Windsors (Ch4/ Netflix); theatre credits include a 2-year run as Virgil in 'Past Tents' (which won the Best Comedy 2024 award by London Pub Theatres Guild) and as Diamond Dave/ Uncle Kev in Instanbul, which had a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe; as well as appearing in numerous films across the past 10 years.
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Parker Flynn, performed by Rohan Singh, is the co-star of Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer HERE), and he is an enigmatic, fiercely ambitious taxidermist, celebrated in certain circles as the “New Taxidermist to the Stars.” Brilliant but restless, he works in a fringe medium that many find unsettling, and he is driven as much by a need to prove his worth as by the lure of recognition.
In Elnora, he finds a kindred spirit—someone equally unafraid of the unusual, whose curiosity validates his art and his ambitions. As he navigates the seductive worlds of social media fame and adoring attention, Parker wrestles with a tension between vulnerability and persona, craving admiration while quietly fearing exposure. With Elnora, the promise of connection and acclaim is intoxicating—but it may demand more than he is ready to give.
With a magnetic and precise screen presence, Rohan Singh stars as Parker Flynn. Rohan is a RADA and BRIT School–trained actor, and brings effortless allure and intelligence to the role, revealing the profound in the everyday, marking him as a distinctive new talent.
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
Elnora Green, performed by Lauren Koster, is the main character in Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts (watch the trailer HERE), and she is a misfit’s misfit, suspended between childlike wonder and sharp cynicism. Gentle yet feral, she watches the world with the wary curiosity of a young wolf. A romantic and visual artist, she creates post-mortem pet portraits and offers pre-mortem pet therapy—work that blurs care, ritual, and control.
Beneath her delicate exterior, Elnora is drawn to the darker edges of the human psyche, fascinated by the impulses people hide and the secrets they carry. Shaped by loss, neglect, and isolation, she navigates life from the margins, searching for connection while quietly exploring the fragile, often unsettling balance between love and power.
Lauren Koster is an English, Irish and Burmese actor and writer. Her credits include The Crown (season 6) and Camp Siegfried at The Old Vic, marking her West End debut. She also stars in Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts, citing her collaboration with a delightfully dirty-minded pug puppet as a career highlight.
You can follow the film's progress on Facebook and visit the Oakhill Productions website.
The trailer for the brand new short film that I wrote called "Ms Green and Other Lovely Beasts", made with Ali Causon of Oakhill Productions and directed by Lucy Joan Barnes, has just landed.
Check it out HERE.
Elnora Green and Parker Flynn make their living preserving the legacies of famous pets. Publicly adored, privately imperfect, these animals mirror Elnora’s own concealed compulsions. Confiding in a dark imagined guide and Dziga, her ever-cheerful pug companion, she begins a careful seduction of Parker - one that promises love, revelation, and something far more disturbing.
The cast includes Lauren Koster as Elnora Green, Rohan Singh as Parker Flynn, and features Mark Keegan and Clark Alexander.
The film will soon embark on its journey through the festival circuit with more news to come. Enjoy!
OCD and Anxiety Center of Minnesota is a mental health clinic in the Twin Cities that specializes in treating obsessive compulsive disorder using evidence based methods. Our mission is to decrease the amount of time it takes to be diagnosed with OCD and receive effective treatment, expand treatment accessibility, and spread awareness about what it means to have OCD.We are looking for films to help fulfill this mission, as well as:
- Help others understand the depth of OCD
- Fight OCD stereotypes
- Challenge mental health stigma
- Raise awareness on the more taboo forms of OCD
FWOAN will also be showing as part of OCD Film Fest Vol. 2, put on by the International OCD Foundation.
#1 - to create a series that mixes drama and humour in a way that feels unusual and entertaining, introducing the audience to characters that they will care about and enjoy spending time with ... and#2 - to finally represent Obsessive Compulsive Disorder on-screen as it has never been shown before... accurately and encompassing as many of the varied facets to the condition as possible.“The series will allow the audience to learn more about the condition and gain a new appreciation of what OCD is and how it affects the 1-2% of the population who suffer from it. Importantly, never ‘wagging a finger’ at the audience (I hate that approach)."For Want of a Nail" will be approachable, accessible, and entertaining - while never mocking the condition, or those (such as myself) who suffer from it..."
After its successful festival run, our short film, ‘For Want Of A Nail’ was released in February 2020. Behind the scenes, Director Lucy Barnes, Writer Nick Thomson and Producer Ali Causon, were already developing the idea of progressing the film to a series and started pitching the idea… Then the pandemic hit.Like many, it was a massive setback for us. With the world in chaos and no one really knowing how or when to move forward… we kept our creative minds busy. The 3 of us continued working on the series.... Almost a year and a half later, we are in a strong position to move to the next stage of production and get the green light.Now feels like the right time to tell you a bit more about the proposed series, to raise awareness for the subject matter. To give the OCD community a voice and a more honest representation of a misunderstood mental health condition.
Thanks for your support. - Ali Causon [Producer Oakhill Productions]
TV and films ongoing struggle to depict and represent OCD authentically is a subject that matters to me greatly. I've written about it extensively in the past, most recently for The Guardian. It's a subject I'm sure The OCD Chronicles will return to down the line.
But I'm always keen to get creative voices from The OCD Chronicles on this podcast. If we can see ourselves authentically in the media we consume, then we're one step closer to OCD not being so misunderstood. Filmmaker and sufferer Nick Thomson is the latest creative to attempt to capture the condition - his short film For Want of a Nail is available to watch now. We have an enjoyable conversation on this episode.
You can find more of James McMahon's interviews with creative people who have OCD here and find out more about him here.
A little while ago, we spoke to writer Nick about what inspired him to write the film; here's what he said:
"The simple answer is my own experiences with OCD, but it was because I recognised that my various compulsions and routines were affecting me more and more – becoming more elaborate, requiring more attempts to get them ‘perfect’, and generally causing me more and more frustration. I’d been aware of my OCD for several years but, probably like most people do when they suspect something is ‘wrong’ with them, I dodged the issue for a long time. People with OCD tend to be quite embarrassed by the condition, especially as so much of it is internal – rolling around inside your head – so I kept it to myself and, naturally, it began to spiral. So, for me, writing “For Want Of A Nail” was a cathartic experience.
It was partly an expression of my own OCD and partly a warning to myself. around about the same time, I had seen a few of these ‘quizzes’ on social media – ‘How OCD Are You?’ type junk (oftentimes just pictures of messy rooms with a ‘how uncomfortable does this make you feel?’ one-to-ten scale underneath). I saw that not only were the quizzes themselves drowning in utter ignorance of what OCD is, but I saw that people taking the quizzes were either coming away with the completely wrong idea about the condition, or were actually convinced they had it – some going as far as boasting about it like it was something ‘cool’ to differentiate themselves on Facebook or Twitter. Trust me, an idiotic social media quiz won’t tell you that you’ve got OCD, having OCD will tell you that you’ve got OCD – and everyone who has OCD wishes they didn’t have it."There were two core intensions for me when writing this film: 1) for the audience to come away with a better understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and 2) for the audience to have also enjoyed the story, the characters, and the style of the film - to have been informed and entertained at the same time.
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