There’s a certain atmospheric fingerprint left by a Stephen Cognetti film, a familiar chill that fans of his Hell House LLC universe know all too well. Within minutes of 825 Forest Road, the echoes are deafening: the unsettling dolls, the cryptic house with a past, and a quiet dread that hangs in the air like stale cigarette smoke. Having followed Cognetti’s journey from the start, I can say his latest offering doesn’t so much break the mold as it comfortably settles into it. It’s a reflection, but perhaps of things we’ve seen before.
This review dissects the film’s emotional core and key scenes without spoiling the final curtain call. If you prefer going in colder than a morgue slab, you might want to come back later.
The film, provided via a screener from Shudder, lands with the expected weight of a filmmaker leaning into his signature themes. But where his previous work felt like discovering a new, terrifying ghost story, 825 Forest Road feels more like hearing a well-known urban legend told by a different person. It’s cozy in its spookiness, a reliable timepasser for a lonely Tuesday night, but it lacks the fresh horrors that once made his work so vital.
A Town Drowning in Denial
Cognetti’s films don’t just haunt; they grieve. 825 Forest Road is less a story about a haunted house and more an allegorical tale of unresolved trauma. The narrative kicks off with Chuck, Maria, and Izzy, a fractured family unit attempting to stitch their lives back together after a tragedy. They land in Ashland Falls, a town that seems to be holding its breath, perpetually stuck in an autumnal loop of golds and greens. This isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it’s a visual anchor, suggesting a community emotionally frozen in time, cursed to repeat a cycle of suffering without ever moving forward.
The casting initially felt… off. Not in a bad-acting way, but in that distinctly indie-film manner where the faces feel plucked from a dreary small town rather than a Hollywood headshot book. This “wrongness,” however, grew on me. It grounds the film in a stark reality that contrasts sharply with the supernatural rot festering underneath. These aren’t glossy protagonists; they are tired, flawed people you might see at a gas station at 2 a.m., which makes their descent all the more plausible.
Maria, played with a frantic energy, is far more than a stock “stressed wife” trope. Her breakdown is a manic, socially explosive eruption, oversharing and lashing out like someone who has been gaslit into a corner and finally chews her way out. It’s an uncomfortable but deeply relatable portrayal of a mind fraying at the seams, especially for anyone who’s ever had their own mental health scars dismissed as simple hysteria.
A Haunting Built from Silence
The true tension in 825 Forest Road doesn’t come from a ghost, but from what festers in the silence between words. It’s a film about the corrosive nature of denial, personal, generational, and community-wide. Characters witness phenomena and pointedly refuse to tell one another, creating a suffocating atmosphere of mistrust. Like a political debate where everyone screams their truth into the void, no one is actually listening. The real horror is watching this family get strangled not by a phantom but by their own inability to communicate.
A trip to the local library, a dusty tomb of stacked books and outdated records, serves as a perfect metaphor for the town’s buried secrets. Here, mental health histories are filed away next to ghost stories, treated with the same dismissive folklore. This is where the legend of Helen Foster, the resident ghoul, is pieced together. She isn’t just a spirit; she’s an entity born from communal shame and ignored grief, a supernatural tulpa willed into existence by a town that would rather invent a monster than face its own.
While the film excels at building this thematic weight, its narrative mechanics feel worn. The plot follows a predictable path of warnings ignored, escalating paranormal activity, and the stubborn male protagonist who refuses to believe until it’s far too late. Chuck’s dogged insistence on rationalizing the irrational costs him everything, and while this serves the film’s message about the dangers of denial, it also makes the final act feel frustratingly inevitable rather than tragically shocking. The story is smooth and digestible, but it’s a meal I’ve had before.
Is This a Road Worth Traveling?
For dedicated followers of Stephen Cognetti, 825 Forest Road will feel like a familiar, if slightly less potent, brew. It’s an evolution of his obsession with trauma-as-horror, and the emotional core is undeniably present. It’s indie horror with a brain and a bruised heart. However, it never fully escapes the long shadow cast by the Abaddon Hotel.
The film is a competent, moody piece that understands atmosphere is more important than jump scares. But its refusal to innovate or deviate from a well-trodden path leaves it feeling like a pleasant but forgettable ghost story. It’s a watchable diversion, a solid entry in the Shudder library, but it won’t be the film that haunts your dreams.
FILM DATA
- Film Title: 825 Forest Road
- Cast: Elizabeth Vermilyea, Kathryn Miller, Joe Falcone
- Director: Stephen Cognetti
- Writer: Stephen Cognetti
- Distribution: Shudder
- Production: Cognetti Films
- Release Date: April 4, 2025
- Review by: Mother of Movies
The Cognetti Stamp
Stephen Cognetti has carved a distinct niche in the found footage and supernatural horror space, primarily through his acclaimed Hell House LLC series. His directorial stamp is defined by a slow-burn dread that eschews jump scares for creeping atmosphere. He masterfully builds lore through subtle environmental storytelling, using static camera shots of unsettling objects—mannequins, dolls, and clowns—to create a sense of being watched. Cognetti’s narratives are almost always rooted in a location with a dark history, exploring how places absorb and retain trauma, which then infects anyone who dares to enter. A recurring theme is the failure of communication and the fatal consequences of skepticism in the face of overwhelming evidence, a trope he continues to explore in 825 Forest Road.
825 Forest Road is rated:
2.5 Familiar ghosts in a slightly different house out of 5
Familiar Grief in a Haunted Package
*825 Forest Road* is Stephen Cognetti on autopilot, delivering a slow-burn meditation on grief that will feel comfortingly familiar to his fans. While atmospherically sound, it lacks the fresh scares and narrative risks to be truly memorable.
Similar Movies to 825 Forest Road
Catch 825 Forest Road streaming exclusively on Shudder from April 4. The screener provided by the platform, thanks to Shudder for supporting independent horror voices.
Watch 825 Forest Road on Shudder starting April 4, 2025.
This review was written with early access via Shudder’s screener platform. Many thanks to the team for supporting independent horror reviewers.
Select and Discover: Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
Stephen Cognetti’s Best: Hell House LLC
For More Haunted House Horror: The Bloodhound, Good Boy, and The Banishing
This review was updated on October 26, 2023, for a fresh look. While the original take stands, Mother of Movies has re-evaluated the film with sharpened teeth and new context, ensuring it meets our current editorial standards.
