Stephen’s overall career path was never in question, even from a young age. “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker. Even when I was playing with toys, it was always me pretending I was making movies.” During high school, he participated in a summer camp at Princeton’s campus, the New York Film Academy. It was his first introduction to filmmaking, even though he jokes at the time they were only using 16mm cameras. Things continued to accelerate when he was accepted into Temple’s film program. He describes the years as a gradual escalation, becoming more hands-on after each semester, which helped him better his craft. “There’s a lot of professors pushing you to go past mediocrity, trying to think outside the box when you were submitting films and projects. I didn’t always succeed though, but that’s what school is for: to fail. You want to be able to fail when you’re in school. That’s the whole point of learning: why you failed and getting better as a filmmaker.”

Stephen lived in Philadelphia for a few years after graduating and then decided to move to New York City to start focusing on short films. “I wanted to get more experience on set and put to practice everything I learned at Temple. Try to make something but also keeping the stakes low. You want to work your way up to your first feature, because if it’s not good, you might not get the chance to make a second one!” He produced three comedic short films: Caravia Nights and Bernie Waldoff Investment Securities IOU Capital in 2009, and Thomas Jefferson Lives in 2011. “The shorts were comedy-based and I put them in a few film festivals. That was huge a deal when you’re a young filmmaker and just get invited to a festival, let alone a screening.”

He quickly had that hunger to venture out into feature films, though. “At some point, you must make the transition from short films to features. It’s got to be strategic, so what’s it going to be? I had a lot of love for the horror genre, but I never even thought about making them. It made sense; I watch horror films all the time. I consume and love scares!” The decision being strategic and methodical has been a noticeable through line throughout his career. “The horror genre has a market built in. It’s easier to find an audience in horror than it is other genres, especially when you’re on the indie level. Horror fans don’t care if it has no name actors or what your budget is; if it’s scary, it will work for them. You must be creative and clever.”

Cognetti is already hard at work on his next film, which will be a ghost story titled A Body in the Woods. “It’s another horror film; an original. The script is something I’m very passionate about; I think it’s my best writing ever.” In an announcement to Bloody Disgusting, he added, “It's something I wrote right after I finished the edit for Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor and was in a great horror mindset. I can’t say much about the scripts details other than it’s super spooky and I can’t wait to begin filming, which will hopefully be sometime soon.”

These days, he resides in Scranton with his wife and children. He’s still never too far from Temple or its Owls, though. “Coming across fellow Owls here and there, and when you bump into an alum or a student going to Temple, it’s so great to connect and just ask questions.” Funnily enough, this exact thing happened very recently for him in Scranton. “I recently met some alums from Temple who were at one of the theaters [for Hell House]. We bumped into each other and were talking after one of the screenings. She’s at Temple right now, a film student, and absolutely loving it.” 

Given his trajectory throughout the years, Stephen has plenty of great wisdom to bestow on the young filmmakers of tomorrow. “Really use that time wisely, and all the resources that Temple has to offer. Try to teach yourself new things, get outside your comfort zone and do something no matter how poorly received it may be.” He goes back to the idea of failing and being okay with doing it. “Fail awesomely in film school, just do wild things. Get all the mistakes out now and have fun. Try it out and learn from it, because once you’re out, the stakes get higher. You never want to look back and be like, I wish I did more while I was there.” 

Whether it’s in Scranton or back in Philadelphia, his love and connection with Temple persists. “Philly’s such a great city. I look back so fondly at Temple and the film school. It was an awesome time in my life, and it meant so much to me. It was always in the back of my mind going into my first feature. The tools and knowledge that I gained were just always there with me diving into short films and then features afterwards. I can’t wait to get back on that campus.”