Julia Barnett is an actress, writer, director and producer whose company with co-founder Mindy Raymond —Rolling Reels Productions — recently completed the holiday film Christmas in New Hope and the horror film Texas Cult House. In the piece below, she explains how one led to the other.—M.M.
I never intended for my first film as a writer-director to be a Christmas movie. The goal was to sell the script and make a little money for the next project.
But when the production company that offered to purchase it ghosted me, I got annoyed and decided that if they weren’t going to make it, I would find a way.
That’s when my now-producing partner, Mindy Raymond, jumped on board. Mindy is a fierce advocate for Texas production through her work with the Texas Media Production Alliance. Together, we produced, for under $500,000, the film A Christmas In New Hope, a heartwarming holiday film starring Katrina Bowden, Ryan Cooper, and child actor Mia Armstrong, who lives with Down syndrome. My dear friend Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights) popped in for a supporting role.
We loved the experience, but the last thing we wanted was to be pigeonholed into the Christmas genre space. So in our last week of principal photography, I pitched an idea to Mindy: a micro-budget horror film we could shoot entirely on my six-acre property.
I’d been developing a horror script with my cousin, co-writer Zachary Raber, loosely based on true events that occurred during our childhood. The result was Texas Cult House, a terrifying story about a group of teenagers whose rebellious night in an abandoned home of a former cult leader spirals into a deadly fight for survival. This movie was our chance to prove we were more than just holiday cheer.
We wrapped A Christmas In New Hope in March of 2023 and filmed Texas Cult House four months later on a $50,000 budget. We wanted to prove what we could do with a micro-budget. Our goal was to maximize the potential for a high return on investment. With Mindy at the helm as producer, I knew we could make it a success.
A Christmas Crew for a Horror Film
The core of our strategy was to re-engage the crew from our Christmas movie. This is how we began to build our “village.” We had great working chemistry, and that was our most valuable asset. Unable to pay full-day rates, we offered lower pay with backend points to entice production heads to join the project. Everyone bought in, and the rapport we had built during the Christmas film gave us a huge head start, as we were all already in sync.
With a skeleton crew and a tight budget, we had to get creative. My husband, Van Tracy, handled the practical effects out of our home. As an on-camera acting teacher, I had access to teen actors, so we cast some of my former students. This project also allowed us to reunite with key talent.
Adrianne Palicki was eager to get in on the grassroots project, so I wrote a role for her in the script. We also reunited with Ryan Cooper, who had played the hunky neighbor in our Christmas movie. This time, he was anything but hunky, transforming into the terrifying cult leader and joining us as a producer on the film. Just like the crew, we had to be scrappy with every aspect of production. Curtis Heath (Peter Pan & Wendy) had created the upbeat score for our Christmas movie, and I wanted to hire him again — but our budget didn’t allow us to use him in the same capacity.
He kindly offered to provide unlicensed stems from his work, which I stitched together to create our haunting score for Texas Cult House, along with some of his original melodies for key moments in the film.
Texas Cult House and a Truck Full of Meat
We leaned on our local Austin community in a big way. Local restaurants and coffee shops donated meals and day-old pastries to keep our cast and crew fueled.
Then came one of those wild, serendipitous moments. While Mindy was traveling to a meeting, a large cooler filled with frozen meat, including ribs, sausages, and more, fell off a truck right in front of her colleagues. When the question was asked, “Does anyone need 60 pounds of meat?” Mindy’s hand shot up. The meat was brought to set, and a local restaurant volunteered to cook the bounty for our crew. It was the perfect, wild example of how our entire community, our village, rallied to make this movie happen.
What started as an experiment to keep our careers from getting stuck in a snow globe turned into unexpected success. “Texas Cult House” premiered on opening night at the Austin Film Festival, where it caught the attention of The Coven Sales Agency, known for hits like Terrifier 2 and 3.
This success is validating, but for us it’s about the business model. People can look down on lower-budget projects, but we are focused on creating the highest possible ROI. A Christmas In New Hope, is already profitable, sending dividends to investors and paying actor residuals. We applied that same lean, strategic approach to Texas Cult House, proving that a $50,000 film can have premium production value and secure worldwide distribution.
Our proven track record is what’s fueling our next feature. While our next project is a significantly higher budget, we are still eager to keep the ROI in mind for investors. Texas Cult House led to an incredible partnership with The Coven for our next feature, 1989, a thriller-horror I wrote that is set in a Texas commune. It tells a sister-wife story of women coming together to take control from a male-dominated cult.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue our journey and prove that we’re far more than one-genre filmmakers. We’re producers who build sustainable careers for our community right here in Texas.
Texas Cult House is now on Amazon Prime Video and is coming soon to Tubi.
Main image: Rolling Reels co-founders Julia Barnett, left, and Mindy Raymond.