Made on a small budget with unknown actors, Hell House LLC has become a legend in the horror fan community. It and its sequels (with one more on the way) are often talked about, usually with love. Now creator Stephen Cognetti has released a new film on Shudder, and it's his first non-Hell House LLC feature.
1428 had the opportunity to speak with Stephen about Hell House LLC, 825 Forest Road, his relationship with Shudder, why horror fans are so welcoming when it comes to low budget indie films and what is coming up next.
1428 Elm: Stephen, like so many other horror fans, I am a huge fan of Hell House LLC and its sequels. Back in, I guess 2018 or so, I was bored one night, and scrolling through the free to watch horror movies on Prime, and I had never heard of the movie before, but what stopped me was the high number of five star reviews. So I just had to watch it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m always excited when I find something new that’s that unique.
SC: That’s awesome, that’s the way a lot of people found it. Late at night, on Amazon Prime, “Let me give this a try.” That’s what I hear a lot.
1428 Elm: And at that time, I had not even heard of it. So, how did it become so beloved by horror fans, despite it being a small independent film with no big-name stars attached?
SC: Well, I think getting into low budget indie horror film making, you know that you’re going to have to slowly build an audience. I was never under the illusion that we were going to get into theaters and be an overnight success. I knew that if anything was going to happen with Hell House, it was going to have to be word of mouth, and that was going to take some time to just get it around. Because you said you didn’t see it until 2017 or 2018, but the movie came out in early ’16, maybe even late ’15, and I don’t think it was on the radar for a lot of horror fans until maybe even 2019.
And that’s fine, I think the streaming platforms are a great place for independent filmmakers, because they can build an audience over time, and we don’t have to have theatrical access to find an audience. And horror is especially fantastic for that, because horror fans are just dedicated, and if you give them something scary - I myself included - if you give me something scary, I’m gonna watch it. I think that’s the way horror fans are, they just appreciate scares. We don’t need big budgets or big-name actors, we just love a good scare.
1428 Elm: I know there are a certain percentage of horror fans out there that are only paying attention to the bigger stuff, but…I’ve been a horror fan since I was a young child, probably too young to watch those movies.
SC: Yeah, that’s how it always happens, you always get into it when you’re too young to be seeing what you’re seeing.
1428 Elm: And it’s usually a relative who starts it, with me, it was my uncle, he was just very young and didn’t have any common sense! But I’m grateful to him forever.
SC: I would have gotten into a lot of trouble if I had ever shown my nieces any of my films!
1428 Elm: Of course, all of the Hell House LLC films were shot found footage-style, but your new film 825 Forest Road is not. What was it like changing your style from that sub-genre? What were the challenges?
SC: It wasn’t challenging, but the changes for me were a breath of fresh air, because that’s the type of film-making I like to do. I like planning out shots and story boarding, and you don’t really get to do that too much with found footage. For me, it was just a welcome change of pace that I very much appreciated. OK, I said no challenges, but really the challenges were scheduling, budget and time.
When you go from found footage to narrative, obviously it’s tough to do on a small budget. Found footage is relatively easy to do on a tight budget, but traditional narrative is not. So, the producers that I worked with were fantastic, they gave me a lot of days. They gave me 22 days to get this in, it was 95 pages in 22 days, which is more time than I’ve ever had to shoot.
But it was still very tight, and challenging to make our day every day, because it’s not found footage. So that’s always gonna be a challenge on a lower budget movie, whereas with found footage, every scene just has pretty much one bit of coverage for every scene, because it’s just that one first person perspective.
1428 Elm: Tell us a little about 825 Forest Road, which will be joining Shudder’s Halfway to Halloween celebration on April 4.
SC: It’s a haunted house tale told a little bit differently. It’s a non-linear structure, there are three characters living in this house, they’re experiencing a haunting very differently. And, we tell the story from each of their perspectives in every act. Those perspectives will interact with each other and cross amongst each other and there will be parallel storylines, but they’re happening at different times. There are things you see in one act that might influence what you’re seeing in another act, and it might affect another act.
There are Easter eggs to see, it’s kind of like Hell House in that way. There are things in act one that don’t make any sense until you see it from a different perspective in act three.
1428 Elm: How did you come up with the story idea for 825 Forest Road?
SC: The story idea came from me just loving simple haunted house stories myself. Richard Matheson’s The Legend of Hell House was one of the first horror novels I read. Obviously, that’s a little bit grander than a simple haunted house, but to me, that was just a haunted house on steroids. I love that novel so much.
I kind of mixed my love for a haunted house tale, but also for small town folklore. If you go to any small town in America, every town has that story that the locals tell. And coming up with what the story from Ashland Falls was is a fun kind of creative challenge. Every town has their folklore, their little tale, their legend, what is Ashland Falls’? Making that up was a lot of fun to do!
1428 Elm: Did you always aspire to create horror films specifically, or did it just kind of happen that way?
SC: When I was in college in film school, I didn’t see myself as a horror film maker. I don’t really know what kind of film maker I saw myself as, but it kind of evolved that way. The concept of Hell House was able to get funding; it was limited funding, but I was able to scratch together some pennies because it was horror. And I kind of feel like people like horror, so they’ll invest in it.
Once I started writing Hell House, I just realized, huh, writing scares is pretty fun. So I stuck with it ever since because I like doing it. Hell House was my first try at writing something scary. And I realized – this was after college, obviously – that I’ve always loved watching horror, but I never tried writing horror. Once I started writing horror, I realized it’s a lot of fun, and I like doing it. So I think I’m in the genre to stay.
Cognetti hopes to continue his relationship with Shudder
1428 Elm: You have enjoyed a good relationship with Shudder for a few years now, how did all that come about?
SC: They are just the best people. I got to meet some of them in person recently, the folks from Shudder. They’ve always been so supportive of Hell House from the beginning, and I’m just so happy and honored that they’re continuing that with 825 as well.
I hope to keep a relationship with them going into future projects as well. They’re just a great place to be for horror fans. And there are so many horror fans! The best horror fans know that Shudder is the place to be for the best horror, so I love being a part of that. I love my films being a part of that community. If you are a subscriber to Shudder, that means you know and appreciate horror very well.
I was actually subscribed to Shudder myself, and watched them for a while before having any of my films on there - it’s still kind of surreal for me. It feels great, and I’ve just been so grateful to them.
1428 Elm: That’s probably the streaming service that I watch most often. I love that they do so many originals and exclusives.
SC: They’re always expanding and you’re never going to find a lot of these horror gems anywhere else.
1428 Elm: Before we say goodbye – obviously, we have the new Hell House LLC film coming up soon, which is Lineage. Is there anything you can tell us about it just to kind of give us something to look forward to?
SC: Oh, it’s the best of the Hell Houses, it’s the scariest, I’m so excited for it, I can’t wait for everyone even to just see a clip or a trailer. And hopefully that will come not too far off in the future. I’m just very excited for everybody to see this last chapter.
And even though it’s the fifth chapter, I think people will come away saying it’s the best chapter; or if not, close to it, to the original.
Everyone always says the original of anything is always going to be the best, and the challenge to the filmmakers is how to surpass that. Falling short is fine, but if we can at least come close or surpass it, that’s the challenge. I think we did. The cast, the crew, everyone clicked so well, and I think we put together a great product that everyone is gonna like. It’s potentially the final chapter of Hell House as well.
1428 Elm: Well, from a fan’s perspective, I have not been disappointed in any of the Hell House LLC films. I’m very much looking forward to this one.
SC: Well, thank you
1428 Elm: Do you have anything else coming up in the future that you are allowed to talk about?
SC: Not that I’m able to talk about yet. There’s a film that I am desperate to shoot, it’s definitely the scariest thing I’ve ever written. It’s a period piece, that’s all I can say, and we’re just in the early stages of negotiating when production’s going to be and all that. Hopefully there will be an announcement within the coming weeks or months about when it’s shooting and what it is, and I can talk all about it, but right now it’s too early.
Every day I’m just eagerly clutching the script like, “I want to shoot this, I can’t wait to shoot it!” I can’t wait for everybody to hear about this project, because I love the concept, and it’s very scary. It’s completely different from anything else I’ve ever done.