ABOUT

 

Nightfall is a 2025 science fiction horror short written and directed by Anthony Feliciano and released by Digital Duck Studios. A spiritual successor to The Hatchling, it expands Mesozoic Pictures’ dinosaur anthology with a tense, character-driven survival tale.

 

Starring Trey Shields, Anthony Feliciano, Clementine Benstock, and Michael Cruz, the film was developed from a 2022 treatment and shot over six days in New York City between September and October 2024. It premiered on YouTube on October 29, 2025.

​

​​

PLOT

​

During a birthday visit to the Prehistoric Ordinance Department outpost, young Ann Hayes-Ortega (Clementine Benstock) reunites with her estranged fathers, Callum (Trey Shields) and Devin (Anthony Feliciano). As night falls, a figure from their past—Dominic Vasquez (Michael Cruz)—arrives with a suspicious P.O.D. case.

 

When a pair of Achillobators attacks, the family becomes trapped in their car while the raptors mimic their voices to manipulate the vehicle’s controls. Devin is injured, Vasquez is killed, and Ann suffers an asthma attack until Callum resuscitates her.

 

Devin then discovers the case contains a stolen raptor egg. Returning it to the pack ends the standoff, allowing the family to escape.

 

 

PRODUCTION

​

DEVELOPMENT

 

The project began as a 2022 treatment titled Mimic, centered on a parent and child stalked by voice-mimicking creatures. When production on The Hatchling ramped up, the companion short was postponed.

 

In late 2023, Feliciano reimagined the concept as an anthology sequel involving Achillobators and a fractured family. The returning crew from The Hatchling provided continuity, guiding the film toward a more intense, horror-forward tone.

CASTING & PRE-PRODUCTION

Casting ran from March–May 2024. To build authentic family chemistry, the Hayes-Ortega actors participated in rehearsals and a full “family photo day” outside the Empire State Building. Clementine Benstock incorporated a tribute to King Kong (1933) by bringing a small gorilla plush on set.

​

Feliciano storyboarded and previsualized sequences using action figures and animatics, which helped establish blocking for the raptor attack scenes. Paleo-artist Fred Wierum, recruited in May, designed the Achillobators with a mandate for scientific grounding blended with heightened cinematic presence. The creatures’ vocal mimicry was inspired by European starlings.

​

Returning collaborators included Digital Duck (VFX), Austin Conway (dinosaur vocal designer), cinematographer Harrison Kraft, producer Chris Pugh, and costume designer Jess Beyer. New to the team was composer Kurt Tomlinson, who joined in June 2024.

FILMING

Principal photography was postponed after the original location fell through only five weeks before filming. The delay allowed refinement of the script and performance work. Production ultimately took place across two blocks: September 13–15th and October 18–20th, 2024.

​

Brooklyn and Staten Island served as the primary locations, with the Kingsborough Community College M.A.C. Building standing in for the outpost exteriors and the Greenbelt Nature Center providing interiors. Plumb Beach was used for the shoreline prologue. The second block notably overlapped with Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) filming in the same borough.

​

Night shoots, cold weather, and rain effects made Nightfall significantly more demanding than The Hatchling. A DIY rain setup - using a single garden hose, water bottles with punctured holes, and hand-shaken “rainmakers” - created the storm sequences.

 

A full-scale raptor head maquette was used for eyelines, lighting cues, and actor interaction, ensuring realistic integration with CG animation. Practical tricks included a puppet-operated raptor egg and a feather duster hidden under the car to mimic the shard of broken bone during Devin’s injury.

POST-PRODUCTION

The film features twenty CG dinosaur shots, making it the most technically ambitious project in the Mesozoic Pictures catalog. Wierum’s raptor designs were modeled, feathered, rigged, and animated by Digital Duck before being composited into live-action plates with simulated rainfall and interactive lighting.

​

Digital matte paintings expanded the New York locations with mountains and dense forests to create a remote wilderness setting. Sound design, led by Austin Conway, blended animal recordings—cassowaries, pigs, camels, walruses, and whales—into the raptors’ and sauropods’ vocalizations. Kurt Tomlinson’s orchestral score drew inspiration from Jurassic Park and Scream, combining awe with slasher-style tension.

​

Over 200 titles (205 specifially) were considered before settling on Nightfall, chosen for its atmosphere and its story’s turning point at dusk.​​​

​

​

RELEASE & MARKETING

​

Announced on January 30th, 2025, with the working title The Hatchling Anthology Sequel, the official title was revealed on June 6th. A teaser trailer followed on August 18th, and the full trailer premiered October 6.

 

The team’s social account was rebranded as the fictional Prehistoric Ordinance Department to share in-universe “dinosaur alerts” as viral marketing. The film debuted online on October 29th, 2025.

​​​

​

THEMATICS

​The film explores parental instinct, redemption, and the mirrored dynamics between human and animal families. Devin begins the story resentful of dinosaurs, calling them “monsters,” while Callum’s commitment to his ranger duties strains their relationship and leaves Ann caught in the middle. Devin’s unease deepens when Vasquez delivers a veiled threat—“Let’s not dig up our old ghosts, especially with your daughter in the picture.” Even subtly, Devin recognizes the danger behind the remark, a suspicion later justified when Vasquez’s stolen raptor egg puts the family at risk for his own gain.

​

Devin’s turning point comes when he confronts Vasquez with the sickle claw, acting with the same primal protectiveness as the female raptor it belongs to. Their escape fails because Devin and Callum cling to old roles—Callum as protector, Devin as caregiver—until they exchange strengths to save Ann. Callum must literally breathe life back into their daughter, while Devin overcomes his fear and communicates with the raptors as parents, finally seeing them as animals, not monsters.

​

The raptors’ fight to recover their egg mirrors the parents’ fight for Ann, reflected physically through Devin’s broken arm and the female raptor’s damaged claw. The male raptor retrieving the egg echoes Callum saving Ann, while Vasquez—“the real raptor,” a thief—ultimately endangers both families and drives the film’s central conflict.​

​

​

​

CONCLUSION

​

With its fusion of intimate family drama, practical effects ingenuity, and ambitious visual effects work, Nightfall stands as a significant evolution for the Pine Ridge Anthology. Expanding on the emotional groundwork laid by The Hatchling, the film pushes Mesozoic Pictures into darker, more atmospheric storytelling while demonstrating the team’s growing mastery of creature design, suspense, and character-driven tension.

​

The film’s reception reflects that growth: Nightfall surpassed 100,000 views within its first 48 hours on YouTube—an unprecedented milestone for the team—and its audience continues to expand daily. Viewers have praised its balance of spectacle and sincerity, the realism of its prehistoric creatures, and the grounded performances at the center of the chaos.

​

Behind the scenes, the production challenged the team on every level—night shoots, rain effects, practical raptor references, complex animation, and a story reliant on emotional nuance as much as visual scale. These efforts culminate in a short film that feels larger than its budget, driven by a crew working at the height of their abilities.

​

From its scientifically grounded dinosaur behavior to its tightly focused human story, Nightfall represents both a technical leap and a heartfelt expression of the team’s passion for world-building and genre filmmaking. It signals not only the continued growth of the Pine Ridge universe, but the increasing ambition and artistry of the creators behind it.