Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Stephen Cognetti- writer & director- Hell House LLC

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Stephen Cognetti- writer & director- Hell House LLC · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entity that they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener describes it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: What goes down at the Avaddon Hotel and the Carmichael Manor?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is caught on the mic.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta tell a little story.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of years ago, I think it was like two years ago, maybe three years ago, the first Halloween season post-COVID-19.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's 2020.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter and I are sitting in my garage.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I had a TV in the garage, a couple lawn chairs, just kind of a little hangout area.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's what us Midwesterners do.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're cruising through Amazon and we're looking for something fresh, something outside of the box.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I came across Hellhouse LLC.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter normally is not into those movies, but she absolutely loved it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely loved it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I have told every single person I know about that movie and that franchise.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I have the distinct pleasure to have the writer, director of Hellhouse, LLC, Stephen Cognetti, joining me on the podcast today.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, sir?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me on.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it is a pleasure.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So before we get into the tales of what led us to the Avidun Hotel or the Carmichael Manor, let's talk about Steven a little bit.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's your background, man?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You said uh you're a Midwestern.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm uh Pennsylvanian, um, Keystone State guy, and um uh Scranton, Pennsylvania, where we make the best paper uh around.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um no one no one beats us there.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh film school Temple University, which is uh in Philadelphia.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I lived in Philadelphia for most of my later teens into my 20s, moved to New York.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's where I met my wife, and I wrote Hellhouse and then from New York.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know if you know this.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't um New York's expensive.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Not many people know that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh because it's an undiscovered Manhattan's an undiscover, undiscovered gem, but um it's but the prices have gone up recently.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um so unless you're unless you work for Goldman, you can't afford to live in there anymore.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we fled the city, we moved back to my hometown, back to Scranton, um, or in the surrounding burbs.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's where I've been uh that's been my home operation ever since.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: What types of fiction kind of inspired you growing up that led you to film school?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I got I honestly it's so funny because it's not it's not horror.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love always loved horror, but like I was I got into horror, I love the genre, but growing up my favorite filmmaker um was always James Cameron.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I like because like I grew up like T2, the Abyss, uh true lies, uh uh aliens.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so like I was just like every everything James Cameron, I was like, like, is the greatest thing in the world, and that's like I want to be a filmmaker like him.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it but it was after like um when I went to film school, and when I got out of film school, I realized like, oh, you you mean like it's really hard to get a hundred million dollar project to make uh a movie like Titanic.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm, well, how else can I start making films?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why like horror just came to me soon, like right after that, because um I loved the genre so I love uh reading horror, like Stephen King's my favorite novelist.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I've I grew up reading Stephen King, just never saw myself making horror, but then I just clicked.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, why not?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I not like seeing that as a why am I?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wrote uh I decided to jump into horror, wrote Hellhouse as my first script.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it went from there.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just kind of like, oh, I I think I like it's fun writing scares, it's fun writing scary stories.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and and so that's I got it, I got into horror filmmaking later, but as a kid growing up, it was you know, everything like James Cameron was I thought was the coolest, uh, you know, the best filmmaking there is out there.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you ever like you you go back to like the stories, like how the abyss was made, that's insane.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's insane.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And like that's in filmmaking that like on another level that like I can't believe like they were even allowed to do, like actually merged in tanks that they do depressurization and all that every day and underwater for like hours, um, full uh shooting uh days and stuff like that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just like I have such an admiration for like pushing the envelope like that, like he did to get what he wanted.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And those those films are all classics, they're they're amazing films, so right, right.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the fact that you keep bringing up the abyss because that movie is a hidden gem because it came out in the mega summer of 1989 when the first Tim Burton Batman movie came out, Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones, and The Last Crusade.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like so many awesome titles you're just ripping off of it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, and just all in one summer.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, how the hell did that happen?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it it's great because watching the Hellhouse series, you can tell they are horror movies made by somebody that's not linear, directly linear to horror in a very similar way that Jordan Peel has approached it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because nobody would have thought Jordan Peel, the guy, the Kean Peel guy, makes some of the greatest horror, modern horror.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So every time I go back and see a Keen Peel sketch, I'm just like, like, this guy is this guy is just doing it out.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you said Stephen King is your favorite author, James Cameron is your favorite director.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: What would be kind of a surprise to fans of your movies as far as a favorite character and a favorite work of fiction specifically?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, uh, what I I take a lot of inspiration from, uh, especially when writing um Hellhouse and making the sequels, uh, was uh I loved uh the series Lost.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved what they did there.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that uh it was at uh Kews and Lindelof um that that um that they they made like a mystery that you wanted to dive into.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: You wanted to find so much more.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like after you watched an episode of Lost, you would be Googling like names of characters to see if there's any significant meaning there and um mythology behind everything they just put on the screen, dialogue and uh and visually.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so like I I love that.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And on a very smaller scale, I try to put like have a like a little bit of that in in Hellhouse and just like have like things that you can look things that may not make sense when you first see them, but then when you see the next uh thing, it makes sense and you can go back and re-watchable that way.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Things that like a mystery that like people have fun like diving into and finding Easter eggs in.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I took a lot of inspiration from uh from Lost.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's like it was such a fun series for that reason.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's like you can you'll study the screen and look for any clue, any Easter egg.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had a lot of fun trying to replicate that, making Easter eggs in this story, um, both visually and in the dialogue as well.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, excellent.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So one of my past podcast guests, are you familiar with the director Taylor Morden?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He did the last blockbuster, but he just did a lost documentary.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so if if you get an opportunity, check it out.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll actually I'll I'll send you a link to his profile.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm all in on it.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think it's called getting lost, but um but yeah, he he brought back a lot of the original actors from the show and kind of talked to them about it.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: As a fan of Lost, I think you might appreciate that for sure.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh what I will say about the ending is that I love the last season, I think I love the finale.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think the finale was amazing, and it and it's like it's like I I cried, and uh I've never cried earned a finale of anything.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it it totally made the whole season irrelevant.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not like so.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lost is a very rewatchable show, the last season is not, right?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because it's as you basically say, like, nothing that we're seeing on screen is actually like really matters because it's like it was all like you know, in a in another universe or world, or um what um, but uh the finale, I just it just they played it so well, they tugged at the heart strength, the score was amazing, they got everyone's favorite characters together just to hug it out at the end, and that's what you just like.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to I enough of the uh you know, your your your screen goes to black.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, like what am I gonna do with that?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I want to I want to see them hug it out in the afterlife, you know.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great segue because talking about your series, the Hellhouse series, the first three movies you have described in other interviews as one continuous movie with three chapters.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the Carmichael manor is kind of a continuation, but an explanation.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's I I really like the unique concept of that because it gives you a little bit of backstory without spoiling anything.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: How was it closing the Abaddon chapter?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's what what I always wanted to do was uh to close that out and be done with it.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: First, to say, like, I'm uh uh it really I burned it down because in my own mind I was like, I'm not coming back to this.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's burned down.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's no more to nothing more to do with the hotel.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was hoping I I I had written another script that I didn't made in 2021, hasn't come out yet.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's A25 Forest Road.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I was just hoping to branch out from there.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh and so while waiting for A25 to come out, uh I kind of got a little bored.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: This idea for Carmichael Manor hit my, you know, got into my head, and I'm like, you know, I think I can make this like it could be scary, it could be good.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I wrote a draft.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I think I got something here, so I fleshed out from there.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I it was never that was really never really my intention when I in 2019, when we finished the first, the the third film.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I thought that that was it, and I'm going to then um be making, you know, bigger, uh better horror movies.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh, but as it turns out, you know, like you know, Hollywood doesn't come knocking on your door, and you know, you gotta do whatever you can do to get a movie made.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um I was able to make A25, which was great.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we had a little bit bigger of a budget on that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: But uh so I was like, uh my only opportunity right now is just to see if I can expand the Hellhouse world.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and and it was it was it was lucky that like I because I had this good idea to do it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I I just went with the idea, fleshed it out, uh, wrote this and it came together, and then I got like excited about the project.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, this is not something I'm just doing just because I don't know what else to do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is something like this, like I'm I'm into this film, I'm into this, this, this script.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then uh and so it's just like a it was like a year of just writing draft after draft and and getting it perfect and casting and um and it's so like yeah, it was uh I I did I didn't really mean to do the Carmichael manner.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: I always had like a lot of the plots that were in there, like in the back of my head, like knowing that there was that world out there, and and so I um you know the sa the all the stuff that happened at the in the 80s and and with Patrick Carmichael, um the characters that were in it that we introduced, they were I had already written um a lot about them already.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I had like outlines already about all this, but I never really thought that that was gonna be the next movie.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh so I was able to take those outlines, take those old those scripts of like um prequels, put it together, and make and make and put and put it all into the Carmichael.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and it worked out.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, so far reviews are good, so I'm just happy I did it because uh it turned out turned out well our cast was amazing.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're they're getting uh the praise that they should because uh I'm just so lucky I I found all of them.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people who played um Amargo and Rebecca and Chase and Margaret and uh Catherine, they're just like they were all so great, and uh and um so I just I everything I lucked out on on that and that end cast wise too, which helps.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and it's great because it works as both a prequel and a sequel, and very few movies accomplish that.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Was it intentional or just happenstance after the fact when you went and you did the original Hellhouse movie where you were able to combine several sub-genres of horror all together?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You took found footage, documentary, supernatural, the occult, and then maybe unintentionally created a sense of iconography with just the clown itself and the clown costumes.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Was that intentional or did that happen by accident?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to say it happened by accident because uh all those elements were planned.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um I you know what I I took huge inspiration from another found footage film, doc you found footage film called uh Lake Mungo.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if anybody who's listening to this has not seen Lake Mungo, uh like check it out.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's and especially if you like Hell House, it's such a creepy, foul documentary, um uh horror film, and it's so well done.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I realized, like after the first draft of Hell House, I didn't like it, I didn't like the direction.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: But then I realized I'm like, what if you made it a documentary style, like like Mungo?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then I took and I decided to take it on all my favorite elements, like uh true crime, uh shows like uh hard evidence, datelines, and stuff like that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like you know, style it after that, take that direction towards the script and see what see where it comes out.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that was like the next few drafts were going in that direction, and I was like, ah, I really like this.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is fun, it's got a catch, it's got a hook.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, I think people will get into it um from the start, um, uh as opposed to it just being uh a general narrative uh film.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: It has a and I I think that was like a better angle, a better hook.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went with it from there.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So do you find when you write that you draw a lot of parallels to people that you know or experiences that you've had in past versions of your life?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's one character in particular, Alex, uh, from the original movie, that I saw a lot of myself in.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like he had a vision, he had a goal, he's obsessed to see that goal and that vision through.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, holy shit, that was me back in the rock band days.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I related to that guy.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So do you do you kind of see different people in your life and kind of include them as influences to your writing?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think you uh I think writers um have to, especially for someone like me, um, I have to write what I know.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh it's so funny you say that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think what people like about the original Hellhouse is that all five the all five of the main casts, I think everybody knows connects with one of them.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or it's like knows someone to like, oh, I definitely have an Alex in my group of friends, you know, like oh, I definitely someone's the Paul.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I sell myself in Alex so much because I feel like when you're making a movie, especially a first feature, there's it's it's it's very tough.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Filmmaking is very tough, and it's it's it's uh every day is uh is a grind.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I kind of felt like I felt for myself, I felt like Alex as well.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I felt the same thing, like he had to get that that show off the ground and it had to happen.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt the same way, like like when you're uh you know you're on an island and you're you're making this movie and it and you have to get it made and all kinds of external pressures, everything can go wrong, and everything does go wrong on a on a film set.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so like I was I just I felt exactly like Alex making Hellhouse uh as Alex did being in being Hellhouse.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So for sure.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I you and I are the same, we both relate it to Alex.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, what have been your biggest challenges throughout making this series and as a writer and filmmaker yourself?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the biggest challenges have been um well the with the original, it was just um the normal uh I would say like um issues you have on just any kind of uh making your first feature.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna like and every things were gonna go wrong, and they did go wrong, and we had we learned a lot.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um we had a lot of sound issues, we had a lot of uh uh you know, things like where like I could have done that so much easier now, knowing everything having four of these films under my belt now.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm like, oh, I made so many rookie mistakes on the on the first one.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the thing is is that coming uh I made uh two and three were very tough.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the challenges in two and three were um creating new scares in the same exact place.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: That was the biggest challenge coming to write.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I knew I wanted to finish the story and kind of like and grow it after and grow it into two more films um and finish it out after the third one, but like it's like the story's there, but people are gonna watch Hellhouse for the scares and writing the scares in the same environment, the same rooms.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember being like uh in the in writing three and being like, How many, how many more scares can we have in 2C?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like like there's only so much that can happen in one one room in a hotel, you know, right, right.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um but I but I I do like what we came up with, and uh I I did like the scare with uh having getting Ryan Jennifer Sarah back in um in three and having her in two C.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that was a pretty cool callback scene.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually pretty spooky too.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: But that was the challenges.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was just coming up with like new scares in the same environment, and I think that's why Hellhouse 4 um is taking off a little bit and and getting some positive um buzz uh from fans, is because it was such a breath of fresh air to write scares in a new environment, in a whole new area.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just and that's what I loved about doing this film, was that like I'm free of the change of the first three.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I just can write an original story in an original place, make it in original characters in the world, it's still in the world of Hellhouse, but it's it's its own film.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was just like the creativity of it's just flowing.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Every like the the the scares came so easy.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I kind of felt like ah it feels good to be outside the Abaddon because it's just I feel like it's just it just uh creatively was just like an explosion, and and like I feel that was constraining me on two and three was being in locked into this location, uh but I still wanted to finish the story.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it was just the writing of the scares are the biggest challenges in uh in filmmaking for the the latter two, and and that and that obviously cleared up for four.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think the scares and four um were better because of it, because we were outside the Avaddon.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, didn't you bring somebody in for the first movie that had experience with haunt attractions to kind of advise and assist with that?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Explain that a little bit because I thought that was a really good take.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because as somebody that's had experience with haunt attractions myself, I was like, man, this is painfully accurate.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: What were your uh what's your experience?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, were you like, did you agree in your one?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: One one of my one of my uh really good friends owned a haunt attraction in Omaha, Nebraska.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember him being a part of the build year after year after year after year, and trying to keep it fresh on top of that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's the toughest thing.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the thing about haunts have to do is they always got to keep it fresh, you always gotta change things up.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's a it's a tough business.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um because because of that, like every year you have to you know get bigger and do something to to to keep the audiences coming in.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: But no, I didn't bring someone in.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I actually just went to someone.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: We we made the movie at her haunted house.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um her name's Angie Moyer.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: She's been just been such a close friend ever since.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so she owns the Abenon Hotel, what is called the Waldorf Estate of Fear.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so we shot there, and she was just um instrumental in making that part of the film so much better and authentic because of her own experience.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: She, I didn't know what goes into making a haunt.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So the script uh is very vague on a lot of the different haunts.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's like in this room, there are lights, and there's someone coming and scaring you, and in the next room, someone else comes.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, I need I needed her to kind of like help me flesh out like how is this tour gonna look?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Where where are we moving?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Who like what are these lights?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: What are these costumes and gags?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, we'll do this, we'll do that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so that that made that part of it a lot easier.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I researched a haunted attractions in the lead up to this, um, to making the movie, and I found out that the haunt world is just such a big you know, community, um, industry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And they have their own conventions and you know where the where the people are selling and buying.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's just like such a giant industry, and it's so cool.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I love it because I love getting them going to haunts myself now.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's just because it's such a fun thing to do in October.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like it is October, like that's what you do.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so but yeah, finding Angie uh coming, going to her haunt was just such uh uh so lucky for us because she was such a resource to the film, and also the location that she owned fit the script so well uh because it looked abandoned on the outside and it's still functioning on the inside.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had so many problems.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I wrote the script, I was like, where am I gonna film this?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually looked into abandoned places, and I was like, but this doesn't make any sense.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's a liability, A, it doesn't actually have electricity, B.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um, how are we actually gonna film here?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: So then I then that's why I had the epiphany of like, why don't we just look for actual functioning haunted houses and go from there?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how we came upon Angie.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's fantastic.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what's great about it, and I would say actually on both sides of the pendulum with the first movie and the fourth movie, is the locations are characters in and of themselves.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like the that basement in the first movie, it's like, man, I've been in basements like that.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know, yeah.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've assumed that the walls were gonna open up and some demonic figure was going to take me.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also been in homes like the Carmichael Manor, which are very rich, very lavish.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, the thing about it is, is it looked just as it looked almost like it was ripped from 1989 at the same time?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it it was almost like you know, I don't want to ruin what happens in the movie, but what happens in the movie that it just had been untouched since that point in time.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: That uh that is uh by design, and we have just an amazing uh production designer.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Sophie Schneider is our um is our production designer.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: She was I met her um for working on 825 Forest Road.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I hired her to be the production designer on that, and she crushed and she was amazing.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that was the first time we actually had like a functioning um set uh production designer uh on our set.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I asked her, I was like, hey, um uh making another hell house.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can you can you would you mind coming in on that?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and she was excited to do it because she had seen hell houses before.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so we so we got to work together again, which was great.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so she's uh just so good at what she does.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I told her, I'm like, we have this giant manor and we got to make it look like it's a time capsule from the 80s because the script says it's like it's like the place, it's just like a time capsule.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think even one of the characters says that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: But um, and so she did such a great job because I didn't want to overwhelm her.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: The place has like, you know, 18 bedrooms.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, we only have to focus on the bedrooms we're shooting in, you know, you don't have to like change the whole place over.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And what I liked about the mansion too is that it wasn't it was very minimally furnished, it was in like nothing modern about it already.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's not like we had to get like a team and like thousands of dollars to like bring in furniture from like um we had we had a lot to work with already there, and then Sophie could just go start with what's there and then build build out from there, and she did a great job doing that.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but like I told her just to focus on where we're shooting.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the manor's so big that most of the casting crew were actually able to stay there the whole time while we're shooting.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome! Yeah, we're and that was good because you never want to you know be sleeping where you're shooting.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we're it had so much room that like nobody was staying in a room where we were shooting, and it had that much space in it.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: So where people were sleeping was completely separate from the parts where we were filming, um, which is the biggest reason why you never see the kitchen in the in the movie.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say something about that.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because like that's the place where it's kind of like the gigs up, like we have all our caterings always in there, like all the craft service stuff, all the fruit salads and the the the chips and everything, uh the crackers and all the granola bars, they're all like out in there.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we're like, we'll just talk about the kitchen but never really see it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but that was the only but uh yeah, other than that, we were able to like can have a contained part of the of the manor where it's just the movie and everybody else stays in separate parts of it, uh, because it's just that big and it worked out uh so well.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but yeah, but Sophia was great on uh on making and really make making that pop and making it making it really feel like he just walked into a place that hasn't been touched since 89.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So how would you say that your style has evolved from the first movie to the fourth movie?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would say that uh I pay a lot more attention to um I just I just I think my writing is a little better now.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um so um I think I I I write scares, I set up scares a little bit better now.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think I just think the whole process of the of writing the script is just I think is more thought out um and more uh deliberate, and I take my time better.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh not that like I've rushed the original script to Hellhouse, but I just feel like uh I just know what I'm doing, what I want a lot more.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so the scripts are just coming a little quicker.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and because I I had to rewrite the original Hellhouse so many different times because I didn't really know, as I said before, it was a narrative, then it became then it became the documentary after many rewrites, and I finally found the focus, and I kind of feel like I'm more focused in when I get into the writing process early on.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I know exactly what I want to write, and and scares kind of come a lot easier.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I think my writing's evolved since the first one.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um a filming-wise, I just um I think with any filmmaker, I think it's just it's just it's if you know what you want to see, that's the most important thing.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have to know exactly uh how the frame should be and how you want the scare to come out.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I feel like I'm better at that now um than maybe I was in the original, but uh I still think the styles of scares are the same, so I don't think there's anything different from that.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I like the slow burns, I like uh subtlety, I don't like anything.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh I like I like to minimize the the jump scares, although I think you know every film will have them.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's not like we're like we're above them or we're not gonna do them, but I just like I like concentrating on building the suspense of a scare um and just making you feel uncomfortable rather than having this big payoff of a big boo at the end.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's kind of I feel like that's always been the same.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's that's changed.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's just been my style and I I've stuck to it.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I just I think just as a as a writing scripts has come a lot easier since the original.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think that would be the most uh the biggest part of evolution for myself.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: So in the movie, the newest one, the Carmichael Manor, did you intentionally lay the groundwork for potential future installments of the film?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because it felt like there's a lot of like a lot of breadcrumbs there.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I love doing that, and and I never know if I'm gonna be able to, you know, flesh that out.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if I don't, I I like leaving things like uh a mystery that the someone who's watching can kind of fill in themselves, be like, I think this may this was what happened, blah blah blah.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then maybe I won't actually fill it in myself, but I did want to I did have ideas about where it would go from there, um, including a lot of the history of the 80s.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have 120 pages of script about what happened in in that hotel in the 80s leading up to the the suicide and everything to do with Patrick and everything like that.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I only brought it in a little sprinkled it in a little bit through Catherine's home videos.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um we don't never see anything that happens at the hotel.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: But um I would love to uh you know to probably flesh things out further.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a quite the question I get asked the most is probably is are we is there gonna be a fifth one um next?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would love I would not not ruling it out.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying I just I just don't know.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I have other scripts I really want to make, and and then um, but I just so whatever comes next, it it might be a hellhouse, it might be uh it might be something else.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: I uh but as of right now, I have no idea.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, even if it's just uh an olive branch into something else in the Stephen Cognetti universe, you know, like maybe not a direct sequel, but maybe something that kind of sp sprawls off and is its own thing, right?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I you know, I just uh I I like writing uh horror and um I just want to make um more of it.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I have some ideas, some scripts that I've written, and I want to get them made, but it's it's um it's it's tough.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right all made is very tough.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's that's why I'm like, I have no idea what I'm gonna do next because I just don't know what I can make next.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what kind of budget I'm gonna have.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, um, you know, but I obviously I want to make something in 2024, uh you know, maybe by the spring, summer, or the fall of 24.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so whatever that's gonna be, I gotta obviously figure that out soon.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's perfect.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's a perfect segue to what I was gonna ask next is what is next for you.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I have no idea.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, um I um I don't know, and that's the thing.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And as I was saying, I do get asked that, and uh I have an idea for the next hellhouse.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to make it, but I also have other scripts that I would like to make too.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it really all depends on what I can get a budget for and um and timing and everything.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I as of right now, as we speak, I have absolutely no idea what the next film will be.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have ideas of what I would like them to be.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's just it's just you know, you it's just it's such a tricky business.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: You never know what you can make, and you know, like who knows?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing, I think that goes for any form of art whatsoever.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is there's like one side of you that's hoping the momentum of your last project will carry you into your next, yeah, but there's that other side where like I just gotta keep hustling, yep, or else that momentum's just gonna hit a brick wall at some point in time.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the way I feel.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just gotta like uh you know, as I said, like um, you know, Hollywood's not knocking on my door.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like uh, you know, uh I I will be making um uh you know, finding a budget any way I can, and but I gotta do it.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I want guys, I want to make something next.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and just yeah, you're right.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a it's it's the grind, it's the hustle.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that will never change.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I um gotta it that's the that's the fun part.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's the fun part about pre-production, or um it just we or uh I guess this the development stage is you know, you gotta you you write a script and you're like, hmm, now how the hell am I gonna make it?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and then so it's like I I know I can make I could probably raise enough to make this script.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: I probably can't raise enough to make this script, so then it's gonna have to be the other script.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, decisions get made that way.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but so we'll see.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I don't know.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I had a better idea.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just have I have several scripts I want to make.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're also I think they're scary, I think they'll be fun.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're my style, so if anybody likes Hellhouse, they'll enjoy them.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just I just don't know if I'll be able to get them made, is the problem.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a writer, director, what is your dream project barring money not being an issue?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, um I I have uh a couple of scripts that are close to my heart that I would like to get made that I think would go over well.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh I don't want to say specifically just because it they never see the light of day, or if they do, um then uh it would be a pleasant surprise though.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: But uh um but uh the same thing.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's they're scary, they're um they're I think they have fun characters, good story, mystery to it.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh yeah.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but also I I but I would but again, I think also what I have planned for what would be a next hell house, I think is a really fun story, really creepy.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if I and I've I promised myself this, if I make it another hell house, it is not going to be found footage.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I I just I'm I'm done with found footage.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do it.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's it's not because I didn't knock on the medium, it's just I I love I love found footage movies.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's just for myself after four of them, I just kind of I get so frustrated with the lack of coverage sometimes where I just kind of like I want I want to be able to shoot this from another angle, but no, it has to be locked in this angle.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I just told myself I just want to make um if I'm gonna make Hellhouse, I'd like to do it a little differently and make it like a traditional narrative.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um instead of a found footage.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that would be fun for the franchise too, uh, to have something a little different.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I know it's like your franchise, you gotta stick with what it the formula has been, but I think people would like this as well.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So are there any thoughts of later on down the road maybe veering away from horror and doing another genre?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, I mean like when I was making my short films in college and at and right out after college, um they were all comedy-based.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I can I can write a good joke, but I just have so much more fun writing horror, and I think there's there's a better market for it.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I love the horror community, the horror audiences.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I myself am one of them, and I consume horror, and I just feel like there's just such a fun fan base of horror out there that it's just like I why would I leave this?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why nobody nobody wants to see my rom-com, you know?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I I enjoy being in being a part of the horror community and uh and and making horror movies.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a lot of fun.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's crazy about the horror community that not a lot of people understand is now granted, there's a small segment of it, but unlike Star Wars fans, comic book movie fans, pro wrestling fans, there's not as much gatekeeping as one would imagine there would be in horror.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Horror fans, by and large, and horror creators are pretty open-minded to about anything and everything.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's one of the things that I love about the genre.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's that's what I mean.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and so it's like you can have uh fun debates, and I think generally everybody's very uh kind and fun, and all the outpouring I've gotten from the Hellhouse franchise has been so much so nice from horror writers and just uh fans alike.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have so many so much fun meeting people, um, and people that are you know, we're all the fans of the same horror films.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: We all love you know the classics, the exorcists and Halloween, and um so uh it's a community um unlike any other, I think, in terms of genres of film.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I think it's just like we all just love consuming horror, talking horror.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and yeah, we're not we're it's a it's it's that's what I like about it's a very nice community.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not mean.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously you've there's trolls everywhere though, but right um generally speaking, um, it's just like yeah, everyone just anything for they'll watch anything from the big, you know,$20 million studio horror film to to Hellhouse, you know, on a that's on a tiny budget, and they'll give it the same uh respect of viewing it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and and and um and that's what I I love about uh horror is that you could do that.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I don't think you could do that in any other genre.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, you you really you really can't, and I absolutely love that.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the fact that we're kind of segueing this conversation into community because that's a big thing about what the caught on the mic platform is all about.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's not necessarily about the subject matter at hand, you know.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've uh had fighters, musicians, people from all walks of life on on the show, but it's about the people uh behind those things.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of my uh favorite questions I ask every single guest that does my show, because the answer is so unique, is uh what's your advice uh for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is just uh everybody would begin listening more instead of uh trying to get their opinions heard.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think it would one of the I I just think I I value listening uh so much um and hearing perspectives that are different from your own and just trying to understand them rather than just uh coming out and criticizing and um um because it's just it's such a hot climate.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: It always is.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: I always say like right now, it's such a such a but like you could you could say that at any year, it always is.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I feel like the best the best people are the ones that uh that that listen.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: Also ask questions, um, and uh smart questions, obviously.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't I don't subscribe to that.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's no such thing as a dumb question.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there are.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh, but just you know, there are I I guess I would say open-minded, not closed off.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh just being open to anything, experiencing, you don't have to like everything, but just understand it and know why you don't like it and instead of just judging it immediately, um, uh broadly.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I know that's a long, random answer that never really tied to anything, but I would say just uh being open-minded and listening.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um just I think if everyone did that, I think they would just everyone just find more common ground and the trolling would stop and and uh no, the trolling would never stop, obviously.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um it would just be uh maybe just a little bit more contained and uh it's just uh it's it's it's unfortunate, but uh it will always that will always be a part of life, but but it's just we can try to contain it a little bit more if we all just try to listen.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, absolutely.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because uh the show Ted Lasso brought this quote to light, but it's the Walt Whitman quote be curious, not judgmental.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that sums up exactly what you just said so well.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: So uh man, I uh I really appreciate you taking the time and you know having this conversation with me.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I am a fan of your films, I'm a fan of you, sir.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm I'm hoping we can stay in touch and maybe talk more in the future.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had so much fun.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I'm on board to talk anytime.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Stephen Cognetti, thank you for doing the show.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: The world's a much better place with you and it.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, I'd like to thank Stephen Cognetti for doing the show today.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can find L.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: L L C N all three L T four six.