Christmas Horror Feature 'Holly Dear' Sets Up Santa Clarita Shoot for Fall 2026 With Women-Led Creative Team

A micro-budget Christmas horror feature with a dark and genuinely unsettling premise is moving toward cameras, and crew in the greater Los Angeles area should take note. "Holly Dear" is currently in pre-production and active casting, with principal photography scheduled to begin September 26, 2026 in Santa Clarita, California, and wrapping December 22. That timeline is notable: this production is designed to shoot through the holiday season, leaning into its Christmas horror identity in a way that suggests practical seasonal locations and atmosphere will be a priority. With nearly a year until cameras roll, the hiring window is open, and early movers will have the best shot at landing a spot on this one.

The film is written, produced, and cast by Ashna Sharan, a multihyphenate whose involvement across three critical departments signals the kind of tightly controlled, independent creative vision that tends to define micro-budget genre filmmaking at its best. Sharan is serving simultaneously as writer, producer, and casting director, a combination that tells experienced crew this is a project where creative authority is centralized and the team around the production will need to share that vision. Directing is Kelly Lynn Warren, and the production describes its creative leadership as an award-winning, women-led team. Producer Wayne Jay rounds out the producing team alongside Sharan. The logline itself is striking: a social media influencer, fleeing stalkers and the pressures of her public life, retreats to a Los Angeles house, only to discover she has been deliberately lured by a mysterious owner who intends to turn her into his "good girl" Christmas doll. It is the kind of high-concept, contained horror premise that travels well in genre markets and tends to make effective use of a single primary location.

The production companies behind "Holly Dear" have not yet been publicly identified, and the distributor is similarly unnamed in available materials. What the production does claim, however, is guaranteed distribution, described as having been greenlit after being pitched out of a competitive field of thousands of submissions. That is a meaningful detail for crew assessing risk on a micro-budget project. Guaranteed distribution does not always mean wide theatrical release, and in the micro-budget horror space it frequently points toward a VOD, streaming, or genre-platform deal rather than a major studio rollout. Still, for crew building credits in the horror and holiday genre space, a project with locked distribution is considerably more attractive than one still searching for a buyer after the fact. The production appears to be self-financing or backed by private investment, which is consistent with the micro-budget label.

Filming will take place in Santa Clarita, California, a location that makes considerable practical sense for this production. Santa Clarita is home to one of the most established production infrastructure corridors outside of central Los Angeles, anchored by facilities including the longtime stages and backlot resources that have supported everything from network television to independent features for decades. The city sits in Los Angeles County and qualifies for California's Film & Television Tax Credit program, which at the micro-budget tier can meaningfully offset production costs and is likely a factor in the location choice. Santa Clarita has a strong local crew base given its proximity to the greater LA talent pool, and productions filming there regularly draw from the same community of experienced IATSE and non-union crew who work throughout the Los Angeles basin. For crew based in the San Fernando Valley or north of Los Angeles, this is an especially accessible commute. The story is set in Los Angeles proper, so some additional unit work or establishing photography in LA itself is plausible, though the primary production base appears to be Santa Clarita.

As a contained Christmas horror feature, "Holly Dear" has a production profile that experienced genre crew will recognize immediately. Single-location or limited-location horror is a format that rewards resourceful department heads: the production design team will need to build and dress the central house location to carry sustained menace across a full shoot, the cinematographer will be tasked with finding visual variety within a constrained setting, and the sound department will do heavy lifting in atmosphere. Practical effects and makeup are almost always prioritized on this type of project over VFX pipelines, making this a strong opportunity for practical effects artists, hair and makeup designers with horror experience, and set decorators who understand how to use domestic space as a psychological tool. At the micro-budget level, crew should expect a lean department structure, compressed shooting days, and a collaborative environment where versatility is valued. Union status has not been confirmed, but micro-budget horror features in California frequently shoot under SAG-AFTRA's Ultra Low Budget Agreement and may be non-union on the crew side, which is worth clarifying directly with the production.

With principal photography still nearly a year away, "Holly Dear" is at the stage where smart crew make first contact and get on the radar before the competition heats up. The full production listing on ProductionList.com includes contact information, office details, and scheduling updates as they become available. Given that Ashna Sharan is simultaneously handling casting and producing duties, agents and talent with horror or thriller experience should also be watching this one closely. Check the listing now, set a reminder, and reach out early. In the micro-budget space, the crews that get hired are almost always the ones who showed up first.

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