‘Night of Wrath’ – A Clean Young Adult Mystery Thriller

My 13 year old son is on YouTube (his preferred source of entertainment) enjoying a new series and proceeds to show me videos from a popular channel “Working With Lemons”. The channel has over 4 million subscribers and makes family friendly “In Real Life” content. The popular YouTube channel creators recently collaborated with another local filmmaking team, Cooper Home Entertainment to work on a new feature film.

In an exclusive interview, James Cooper, part of the creative force behind Cooper Home Entertainment, provided an exclusive look into the making of their latest feature film, ‘Night of Wrath,’ which promises to break new ground as a clean young adult mystery thriller.

The journey of ‘Night of Wrath’ began with a unique collaboration between Cooper Home Entertainment and Working with Lemons, sparked by a shared desire to delve into the realm of feature films. The haunting backdrop of Nightmare on 13th, a renowned haunted house, captured their imagination, leading to the birth of a gripping narrative penned by screenwriter Jon Cooper.

“Being our first feature, we wanted to make sure we were realistic in our expectations and so we set out to find a location we could plausibly base our story in.”

“It wasn’t long after that that we fell in love with the scenery and the ambience of the Nightmare on 13th. Luckily, we have an amazing screenwriter in house, Jon Cooper, and so he set off creating an entire script based on our tours of the Nightmare on 13th and viola! Night of Wrath was born”

The film centers around Hudson Earnest, a leader of the Virtuous Student Society, confronting the skeletons in his closet when trapped in a haunted house. The mysterious “Wrath” threatens to expose the society leaders’ secrets, forcing Hudson into a twisted game to protect his own.

Moving from shorts to features posed a learning curve, but the team’s extensive experience in creating web series and shorts prepared them for the challenge. The transition pushed the team to develop new skills, resulting in the successful production of ‘Night of Wrath.’

“Thankfully, we were prepared for the transition due to the absurd amount of shows and shorts both teams had previously created. Cooper Home Entertainment started out creating a web series called “Coping with Normal” the first season of which would have been longer than most feature films. Yet, creating a feature pushed everybody on our team to learn and develop new skills and fine tune the ones we already had to make this thing possible.”

Filming at Nightmare on 13th was a standout experience for the team, with Director of Photography James Cooper reveling in the opportunity to play with colors and lighting techniques unique to the haunting sets.

“Every day we got to walk through the amazing scenery on our way to the various sets. Every area was so unique that each scene required a very hands-on approach for the camera department.”

However, challenges were not absent. The limitations of time and resources posed hurdles in pre-production, production, and post-production. James Cooper credited the success to the collaboration with Working with Lemons, emphasizing the importance of assembling a dedicated and talented team.

“Together our two companies were able to pull off something amazing that neither of us could have done alone.”

The behind-the-scenes anecdotes added a touch of humor and suspense to the production. Filming in a haunted house naturally brought its own scares, with unexpected encounters with the headless horseman and other eerie surprises providing both cast and crew with memorable moments.

“One morning on set I was heading to the Sleepy Hollow section of the haunted house by myself with the camera in hand to start the prep work for the scene that day. I had forgotten that I asked our contact at Nightmare on 13th to turn on the full experience in that section so I could get a sense of what it looked like in all its glory.”

“When I triggered the motion sensor and the headless horseman came to life along with a tremendous amount of noise I’m sure that the rest of the cast and crew thought it was “bring your daughter to work day” because of the scream I let out of my body. And mine wasn’t the only jump scare during our time at the Nightmare on 13th.”

James Cooper emphasized Cooper Home Entertainment’s commitment to creating engaging movies and TV shows that defy the repetitive patterns seen in mainstream Hollywood. Cooper Home Entertainment aims to maintain the emotional depth and excitement from scriptwriting to post-production, ensuring audiences never have to hit pause, skip, or mute.

“Our entire team is dedicated to achieving this goal from the first draft of a script until the last day in post-production. This means putting in just a little bit of extra work during the writing of the script and pre-production to make sure we don’t lose the emotion, intrigue, or excitement.“

For those eager to stay updated on Cooper Home Entertainment’s projects and potential collaboration opportunities, the studio recommends following them on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook @cooperhomeentertainment. Interested individuals can also subscribe to their newsletter through the website https://www.cooperhomeentertainment.com/ for exclusive updates on upcoming auditions and opportunities.

‘Night of Wrath’ promises to be a thrilling addition to Cooper Home Entertainment’s repertoire, bringing a unique blend of suspense, emotion, and clean storytelling to audiences. As the film prepares for release, fans and aspiring filmmakers alike can look forward to more groundbreaking projects from this dynamic Utah-based studio.

Night of Wrath is directed by Robbie Bagley, written by Jon Cooper, cinematography by James Cooper and is executive produced by Jean Bourne and Stephenie Cooper. The film stars Mia Bagley, Anson Bagley, Camery Bagley Fox, Jennica Anusua, Logan Squire, Tiffany Gale, Gabrielle McCarter, and Sam Cooper.

I love seeing groups of talented filmmakers with similar storytelling goals collaborating to make something greater than what they could do alone. As Cooper Home Entertainment and Working With Lemons enter the post production process it’s time for me to head out to another set and discover more of the filmmakers’ stories behind their next film.

About Warren Workman:

Warren Workman is the founder of the Utah International Film Festival. Workman’s passion is to share the stories of the filmmakers behind the movies and to encourage the next generation of filmmakers. Workman provides these services through ReelVibe PR.