Silent Night Deadly Night (Mike P. Nelson, 2025) Review

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“Just don't forget who you are and what you do.” One of the most notorious slasher movies of the 1980s, torn from theatres after a fervent protest by concerned mothers, Silent Night Deadly Night (Charles E. Sellier Jr., 1984) nonetheless survived with a sheer bloody mindedness that produced four sequels and not one but two remakes. But how far can you really stretch such a straight forward, but admittedly vivid, concept as a serial killer in a Santa suit?...

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Storyboards vs Finished Product: 'Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts'...

The storyboards for Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts were made by Mike Cosford (visit his website HERE), with whom we had worked with before on For Want Of A Nail. Fun fact: on FWOAN, some of the storyboards depicting the protagonists had a striking resemblance to the actors that played the parts - before they had even been cast! However, this time around we already had our cast in-place, so there was no magical precognition (as far as we know, anyway!)

Here are a few comparisons between Mike's storyboards and snapshots of the finished film.

The main opening of the film takes place inside a fantasy world in Elnora's mind, brought to life as if a scene from a Universal Monster Movie from the 1930s and 40s. Tilting down from the naked branches of December trees and tracking forward, we come to find Elnora isolated and (seemingly) talking to herself ... but she's not really alone. The bottom of the garden at producer Ali's mother's house was transformed into the outskirts of a rural cemetery for this scene...

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Dolly the Pug: Scene Stealer of 'Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts'...

Dziga II, the pug sidekick of Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts protagonist Elnora Green, was portrayed in the film in two different ways: the first was how Elnora sees Dziga (as a children's TV show puppet that talks with a Scottish accent, articulating her innermost thoughts and desires, bringing some semblance of clarity to her own confusion in the curious world of Celebrityville), and the second was as everyone else sees Dziga - as a real-life pug dog.

We found Dolly the pug through one of our actor's family members, and our Art Director Olivia was able to then hand-craft the puppet version to match Dolly. Bearing in-mind that we'd be working with a real animal, and one that wasn't a professional in the industry, I made sure to write her scene in such a way that it required nothing too complicated from Dolly - just a few choice shots to get the point across about how different people actually saw the character of Dziga II...

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Behind the Camera: 'Ms Green & Other Lovely Beasts' #2...

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.

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Flavours of the Month: January/February 2026...

A grizzled Finn on the rampage, banging synth rock, and a cloud-scraping Knight are some of what's been setting the tone of my January/February 2026...

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