Private Project

Hush...Hush, Nellie Oleson!

After shooting a low-budget horror film, director Kelly Hughes gets a chance to work with his childhood idol Alison Arngrim, the actress who played the scheming Nellie Oleson on TV's Little House on the Prairie. But fitting Arngrim into the finished product becomes an exercise in futility as Hughes shoots increasingly absurd (and gory) scenes with Arngrim that don't have much to do with the original plot. Featuring extensive interviews with the cast and vivid film clips, "Hush...Hush, Nellie Oleson!" is a love letter to low-budget filmmakers and the former child stars who enable them.

  • Kelly Hughes
    Director
    Heart Attack Theatre, La Cage aux Zombies
  • Alison Arngrim
    Key Cast
    Little House on the Prairie
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Exploitation, Reality, Horror, Trash
  • Runtime:
    49 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 7, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DSLR
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Holly Weird Film Festival
    North Hollywood, CA
    United States
    June 9, 2019
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Kelly Hughes

At the height of the Grunge Rock Era, Kelly Hughes created a grungetastic body of work with his suspense anthology Heart Attack Theatre on Public Access TV in Seattle. For several seasons, Hughes made a new mini-exploitation movie every week, titillating cable TV audiences in the pre-YouTube era.

Years later, Hughes created a documentary about his work. "Heart Attack! The Early Pulse Pounding Cinema of Kelly Hughes" had a successful run on the film festival circuit, and it is currently available on Amazon Prime.

Hughes was also interviewed for the upcoming "Channeling Yourself", a documentary about the Golden Age of Seattle's public access TV.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it." That's the theme of my documentary "Hush...Hush, Nelle Oleson!"

As a kid in the '70s, I grew up watching "Little House on the Prairie" on TV. And when I grew up and started making low-budget films, I dared to dream about celebrities I'd like to work with. One of them was Alison Arngrim. She played the scheming Nellie Oleson on LHOTP.

One day, I got up the courage to email Alison, and she actually responded. And before I knew it, I was directing scenes of her pouring blood on human sacrifices in the remote forests of the Pacific Northwest, and traumatically shoving S'mores in her co-star's mouth.

These scenes didn't necessarily have anything to do with the movie I had already shot. But because I so much wanted to work with Nellie Oleson, I tried to force our increasingly bizarre footage into our existing plot.

I had a lot of fun working with Alison. She was a real trouper who adapted to my guerilla-style filmmaking. And she bonded with my cast of regulars. (I've worked with some of the same actors for over twenty-five years now.)

Overall, with this documentary, I want to give a glimpse into my creative process, and to encourage other filmmakers to dive in, get dirty, and follow their dreams.