This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Why did you decide to change formats for this one?
Stephen Cognetti:Well, [found-footage] was the format I think worked best forHell House.
© Shudder
But [825 Forest Road] was definitely a story that was not a found-footage story.
I went to film school and was trained as a filmmaker in the traditional sense.
Found footage is something that I personally love.
© Shudder
I love found-footage horror.
But its not something that I wanted to do all the time.
So it was a really nice change of pace to do something outside of found footage.
© Shudder
io9: Obviously scaring the audience is a goal for any horror filmmaker.
What was different about your approach in a narrative format as opposed to your found footage films?
What draws you to those storytelling elements in particular?
Cognetti:Theres something about [inanimate objects] thats so fun to play with.
An inanimate object being out of place is just so simpleto me, thats always been so subtly creepy.
Thats just always a fun theme, even if it carries over to something else other thanHell House.
I also just like folklorelike small-town folklore.
So this one is just like, well, what if one of those stories wasactuallytrue?
Its not just a fun story that people tell each other about the town.
And someone whos a fish out of water, how does that affect him and his family?
I remember talking to neighbors and everybody would have a story to tell about the towns history.
I had a lot of fun writing this film.
Why did you decide to do different points of view, with the overlapping scenes?
Cognetti:I like nonlinear storytelling.
I think its interesting and fun to write that way.
And I kind of feel like haunted house movies are a very overdone subgenre of horror.
io9: Though its not a found-footage film,825 Forest Roaddoes have a livestream sequence.
Why did you want to include that?
It was just a scare that worked for her character.
And it just came out that way.
I think its a fun scare.
Its always fun, I think, to include something that seems found footage within a traditional narrative film.
Cognetti:Those are things that I love to do.
io9: What can you tease about the fifthHell House LLCmovie,Lineage?
Is it a prequel?
Cognetti:Its not a prequel.
We live in the past a little bit, we live in the present a little.
So Im very excited for that as well and thats coming out in August.
io9: Oh coolso itsnotfound-footage.
Cognetti: Yes, non-found footage, and I think it will be the scariest of them all.
And is this going to be the lastHell Housemovie?
Cognetti:I think so.
I think at the very least itll be the lastHell Housemovie Im a part of.
And thats not to say that this last movie wraps up everything.
I dont think the story is wrapped up at the end ofLineage.
I think theres still more story to tell.
I just dont know if I can make anotherHell Housemovie after this.
[Laughs]
825 Forest Roadarrives April 4 on Shudder.
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