When there's no room in Hell, the dead come to this website

Dreidel of the Dead is a stop-motion love letter to horror cinema. When the dead overrun New York City, movie-obsessed Eli Katz and his loyal dog, Babka, barricade themselves inside their Upper West Side apartment, hoping to survive until rescue arrives.

As eight nights of Hanukkah unfold, Eli discovers that a lifetime of horror movies may have prepared him for the apocalypse. While fending off undead neighbours, he reflects on unrequited love, grieves the loss of his mother, and learns that survival means confronting both the living and the dead.

Creating Eli and Bloom

CREATING ELI

This was key to the whole project, and it happened by chance. was finding a hero. I knew I wanted him to be a Jewish New Yorker who had lost is faith and was a movie fanatic schlub. A humanised Jay Sherman would ideal and so I had the head designed and 3D printed whilst I looked for a suitable body. The search did not take long, as I discovered an overweight figure that I could use that, when combined with a dirty shirt and a bathrobe and jammies gave me a hero. But that hero was an inch taller than all the other characters and so Eli became a giant. A giant who I wanted to be unconventional, the unconventional anti-hero.

A sarcastic giant, a sardonic giant with a extensive horror movie knowledge and collection, who misses his mom, secretly adores the awkward girl in the building, and takes no shit from zombies. I also wanted him to have a wardrobe as the movie is set over different times, before, during and after the zombie outbreak, with his primary outfit being a homage to Arthur Dent in my beloved Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a man who goes on adventures across the universe in his PJs and bathrobe.

Batter up! Eli’s bat is not called Lucille. Lucille is the name of a Ball. His bat is called Bruce.

And this is a comedy in tone. Despite the odd heart felt scene, and a few horror moments, it is a comedy. Where else would you get to see a 6 foot 6 man in a Ny Mets muumuu and no underwear asking a girl to go to Horror Con?

The blinks were added by Kwasi in post, and brought Eli to life. Again, little touches by independent artists can make all the difference.

The voice though, Eli needed a voice, and that would come from Daniel Hirsh.

A man on a mission. Who caught COVID right at the wrong time.

MAKING BLOOM

The physical process of making the characters was improvised. Educated guesses. I wanted them to look real, more real than puppets and in keeping with the sets that, for all intents and purposes, looked real. For Bloom I first took photos of my own head. It was a vision, and this was the start.