The Quays’ familiar puppet animation is here enhanced by the use of animated iron filings, which suggest the rapid formation of frost over every surface, the swaying of the individual particles suggesting a hefty buffeting by a keen, piercing wind.

Prefiguring some of the arboreal imagery that they would later use in their classic feature Institute Benjamenta, the Quay Brothers’s third entry in the Stille Nacht series delves into the darkest corners of the forest for its dream-like and psychotronic imagery.