Montclair Film Festival 2024: Strange Creatures | Interview with Nicholas Payne Santos

Nicholas Payne Santos takes a new direction in his latest short film, Strange Creatures. Santos, whose films are more comedy horror, takes a more serious approach with his latest and newest project. Audiences might have seen many of his previous and incredible short films like I Am Your Friend (2017), Holiday Fear (2017), Mother F**ker (2018), and maybe his feature film, It Cuts Deep (2020). However, things take a dark turn in Strange Creatures. The seven-minute horror short film was selected to participate in many film festivals over the past year, including the Nashville Film Festival, the Brooklyn Film Festival, the HollyShorts Film Festival, Panic Fest, and more! Santos’ film was to be selected for the 2024 Montclair Film Festival as part of the Midnight Shorts program. In the short, Nell (Quinn Jackson) wanted to see her brother Aiden (Sean-Michael Wilkinson) again, so she visited the site of his death. We spoke with Santos about working on the short film, why he directed it, incorporating Jane Austen into it, and much more!

Kristin Ciliberto: I’m a big fan of horror. Why are you drawn explicitly to horror?

Nicholas Payne Santos: There’s just so much flexibility in the genre to explain. There’s so much to explore, like a wide range of ideas. As a filmmaker, it allows you to focus on visual story characters while also making something fun at the same time. It’s freeing as a filmmaker and fun to make.

KC: Why did you want to tell this story?

NPS: Sadly, my brother passed away. I consistently scroll through my phone, and when I go to my contacts, I still see his contact, and I can’t take myself to delete the contact. It kind of just led to this nightmarish idea of what if I got a phone call from his number and if it wasn’t him on the other end. That led me to this scary idea that it would be a fun short. Much of my previous work was comedic leaning, so I wanted to prove that I could make something scary. I set out to just try to make something terrifying.

KC: The Jane Austen quote also caught my attention. Why did you want to open the film with that?

NPS: It’s funny because I read the book, but I’m not as big as Jane Austen today. Something about that quote captures how I feel about having a sibling.  You can go through a long period without having a deep conversation. Still, you know them so well enough that you can just express yourself in a few words. That quote wraps it up nicely.

KC: It does! I saw this as a zombie film. At least, that is what I took away from it. Can you discuss the makeup and the special effects of how you put this character together?

NPS: I see it as a ghost story but wanted to make it not the typical ghost. I wanted to make this kind of zombie-esque, like a body-decaying ghost. I approached the makeup effects artist, Jared Balog, who I’ve worked with before. We came up with this idea of what his body would look like if he had died a month ago. I was like, what if his ghost looked like? What would his body look like right now, after decaying for one month? That’s how we initially approached it, right? Then, we just tried to come up with a unique design. Also, a big focus was on the eyes to make it feel otherworldly. Instead of contacts, the actor has fake, half-fake eyes that are like those over his eyes. He really can’t see anything at all.

KC: How long did the whole film take to put together?

NPS: Putting it together took about six months. We were ready to shoot in February 2023, but then I wanted a summer feel. I liked it when I first found the location, but it didn’t have the same vibe when no leaves were on the trees. We decided to push it back and wait to shoot in July 2023. Overall, the whole process took about six months. Then, we edited and wrapped up posts quickly. It was like a six—or seven-month period. 

KC: The payphone also caught my attention. Did you bring that to the set, or did you just find it randomly? They aren’t around anymore.

NPS: Yeah, we brought it in. I was looking for a location with it, but unfortunately, you couldn’t find one. It’s very slim nowadays. We brought it in, and my great production designer, Jesse Rodriguez, was able to put it there. It feels like it belongs there. I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the past year while on the festival circuit, like, how did you find that pay phone? And I’m like, well, we brought it.

KC: Did you find it from thrift shopping? 

NPS: It came from a prop house. If you see a movie shot in the New York area with a pay phone, it’s most likely that pay phone because my gaffer said, ” Oh, I’ve had this exact phone at least three times before.” It gets around. 

KC: That’s so funny. Please also discuss the casting process for this film.

NPS: When writing the script, I knew I wanted to go with Quinn Jackson, who also starred in the feature It Cuts Deep. She was so unique in that film that I knew she would deliver in this story. I worked with another filmmaker, Christine Nyland (starring as Becca), to do the phone conversation, and another actor, Sean-Michael Wilkinson, who I’ve also worked with before, who played the brother and is fantastic.

KC: Strange Creatures was selected at the Montclair Film Festival. What does it mean to you as a filmmaker to have the film shown at the festival?

NPS: I love the Montclair Film Festival. It is a prestigious art festival in the New Jersey, New York region. They always sell out crowds, and the theaters are great. It means a lot that they brought me back. 

We are delighted to be reporting live from the 2024 Montclair Film Festival, running on October 18-27, 2024. You can watch Strange Creatures, now available on YouTube and Vimeo.