Aug 14, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min · 13 segments
Today, we have a killer deep dive with horror director Mike P. Nelson! From his breakout post-apocalyptic thriller The Domestics […]
Mike P. NelsonGuestJohn WoodHostAnd I can imagine, 'cause I remember some of the days w- where it was, are we coming into work tomorrow or not? Because there'd be some kinda hiccup with something, and it was, it was really one of those things where that's all I could think about was like, "Man, this is...
I mean, it's gotta be something where you're just, like, sitting there." 'Cause I mean, you're trying to focus on making a movie and being the creative side and having that going on, but at the same time, it's your property and people are just on top of you trying to, "Well, no, you have to do it this way," and that's gotta be a little, I don't wanna say frustrating, but it's gotta be hard to work whenever you're, um, whenever it's your property, like something that you fully created-
... and then people are trying to tell you how to make it, I guess [laughs] is the best way.
I mean, there was a couple tough things because first of all, being a first feature and then knowing that, especially, like, we started shooting and, and I think the first things that we were shooting were pieces of, it was, like, me redoing-
Like, the stuff that I made in the short was one of the first things that we ended up going out to shoot, and that was such a struggle because I knew how I made the short feel, and I w- I loved how the feel and the griminess and, um, of that short came across, but I was getting a lot of pressure to not make the film feel as grimy as that.
And so I had to find a balance, and it was a struggle because not only that, but, like, things that we found that were magic on the short weren't necessarily translating the same way for the feature.
And so that first week, or yeah, that first week was really tough because nothing was turning out the way that I was hoping it would.
But as soon as I let that go and was like, "You know what? This isn't the short.
This isn't the Domestics that I was making, uh, that I made two years ago, that I made two years prior to, two or three years prior to shooting this." I was like, "This is something new.
Like, you can do this." And that's what I did, and as soon as I did that, it was really interesting to see how the first week, which was a bunch of people sort of, like, looking over at a first-time director saying, "Does this guy know what he's doing?" Suddenly turned into second week, everybody saying, "Whatever you need.
I let it go, and I just became somebody who was like, you know, we, y-you, you connected with your crew.
You, you listened, um, and you were just, you just actively were trying to make the best movie you could, and everybody saw that, and everybody saw some of, like, the difficulties that were surrounding it a-as, as you did.
And I can imagine, 'cause I remember some of the days w- where it was, are we coming into work tomorrow or not? Because there'd be some kinda hiccup with something, and it was, it was really one of those things where that's all I could think about was like, "Man, this is...
I mean, it's gotta be something where you're just, like, sitting there." 'Cause I mean, you're trying to focus on making a movie and being the creative side and having that going on, but at the same time, it's your property and people are just on top of you trying to, "Well, no, you have to do it this way," and that's gotta be a little, I don't wanna say frustrating, but it's gotta be hard to work whenever you're, um, whenever it's your property, like something that you fully created-
... and then people are trying to tell you how to make it, I guess [laughs] is the best way.
I mean, there was a couple tough things because first of all, being a first feature and then knowing that, especially, like, we started shooting and, and I think the first things that we were shooting were pieces of, it was, like, me redoing-
Like, the stuff that I made in the short was one of the first things that we ended up going out to shoot, and that was such a struggle because I knew how I made the short feel, and I w- I loved how the feel and the griminess and, um, of that short came across, but I was getting a lot of pressure to not make the film feel as grimy as that.
And so I had to find a balance, and it was a struggle because not only that, but, like, things that we found that were magic on the short weren't necessarily translating the same way for the feature.
And so that first week, or yeah, that first week was really tough because nothing was turning out the way that I was hoping it would.
But as soon as I let that go and was like, "You know what? This isn't the short.
This isn't the Domestics that I was making, uh, that I made two years ago, that I made two years prior to, two or three years prior to shooting this." I was like, "This is something new.
Like, you can do this." And that's what I did, and as soon as I did that, it was really interesting to see how the first week, which was a bunch of people sort of, like, looking over at a first-time director saying, "Does this guy know what he's doing?" Suddenly turned into second week, everybody saying, "Whatever you need.
I let it go, and I just became somebody who was like, you know, we, y-you, you connected with your crew.
You, you listened, um, and you were just, you just actively were trying to make the best movie you could, and everybody saw that, and everybody saw some of, like, the difficulties that were surrounding it a-as, as you did.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.