Auteur filmmaker Riley Cosby Brings Ideas into Fruition with his Do It Yourself Energy

Not many student filmmakers are able to bring their ideas into fruition, but Riley Cosby, 22, has spent hours every week working to make as much as he can before he graduates. A senior at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, Riley will be graduating this upcoming spring with a degree in communications. His real passions lie in filmmaking, which he has been doing independently for a little over five years now. 

Rileys made over ten short films now ranging in genres from rom-com to horror to action. The first short film that he was recognized for was a noir horror short, “The Art of Descent,” which went to the LAVA Film Festival as well as the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival in 2024. His rom-com “Where At Thou?” went to the Easthampton Film Festival in early 2025, and his most recent project “Battle Angel,” an Anime inspired live-action short film, which will be premiering at Access Film Festival and LAVA Film Fest this fall.

As a lover of all things horror, Riley decided to make his return to the genre with a short film that is set to release this upcoming Halloween. “Mercy: Queen of the Undead” takes inspiration from zombie movies like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, telling the story of a woman who orchestrates the zombie apocalypse just to get a date. This was the first project that Riley utilized a GoFundMe to raise funds, and he was able to obtain an impressive $800 from fundraising. With this, he was able to go all out on props, set design, and special effects, setting the groundwork for a film that’s in-your-face and explosive. 

I was able to sit down with Riley to discuss his upcoming film and all that led up to it. Here’s what he had to say: 

What sparked your initial interest in filmmaking?

So in high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was low-key thinking of being a YouTuber. I made, like, comedy sketch videos on YouTube, but I didn’t really like it. I didn’t like the consistency of it. I watched a lot of movies with my dad and what my dad did for me is he took me to this film festival in Austin, because I lived in Austin at the time, and it was nothing but horror films. It was like features and shorts made by, like, local people.

It was really cool because some of those people, they got signed to make movies for Shudder and stuff, and it made me realize that you don’t have to be someone super rich, important, or be associated with someone in California to make movies. You can make movies here. And they were really good movies, and I was blown away. I remember leaving that festival and being like, the only thing I want to do now is make movies because I have so many ideas. I could make movies. It’s actually possible. So I guess that’s how it started. 

How do you think the short films you’ve created in the past have shaped your voice or style as a filmmaker?

Well, it’s weird because, when I make concepts I like, I kind of do stuff I like at the time, things I’m watching. So like, I remember like one of the earliest short films I made was an homage to like, fifties Marilyn Monroe movies. I also watched Last Night in Soho around that time, and I made, like, a sixties space diner movie about, like, space lesbians. And it was awesome. I think I’ve kept that, like, my style has just only increased in quality, mainly just because with every short film, I try to learn something new, whether it’s color grading, whether it’s like a new form of VFX. 

I think if I want to define myself as a style, I’d say my style is just like really embracing whatever I do, whatever genre I do, and whatever tone I’m trying to set. So, obviously the visual style of my action anime movie is so different from my rom-com ones, one’s a little bit more static and less movement based, and then the other ones dynamic, a lot of visual effects, a lot of intense angles. So I guess what I learn each time is just to, like, really embrace genre and fiction. I guess just embracing what makes movies cool and what makes a genre really important. So then I can try to make a product like that. 

Having had your work shown at local film festivals, what did you take away from those experiences — both creatively and personally?

If you want the, like, safe network answer or like the family friendly answer of film festivals, creatively, it’s really fun. You get to meet a lot of new people. You get to see how other people perceive the art of film. You get to like, talk about film with people who are passionate about it. You love film and everyone else loves film around you, and you get to show your art to a world that isn’t digital. It’s very personal, it’s very cool. 

But personally, I come from a place where film festivals used to be really competitive. They were almost like their own form of Olympic sport. These were festivals with producers. These were festivals with people who worked for Netflix to get distribution rights. So there was always this sense of encouraging tension. And I feel like I don’t have that here. It’s weird, but it’s like I feel personally, every time I go to these festivals, there’s a little sense of competitive edge, even though it’s so subjective. There’s a sense of humbling too, of like, okay, how can I make this better? 

Whenever I watch my own movies up there, I’m not watching the movie. I’m watching everyone else’s reaction to it, because I want to know what makes the audience tick. It can be so frustrating sometimes, because we’ll go to one place like Greenfield, and they absolutely hated the movie. They laughed at it. They didn’t take it seriously. They didn’t get it. And then I’ll go somewhere like Boston and we’ll do a film festival there. And people sell it and it sells perfectly. And it’s just such a humbling experience to watch everyone else who, they don’t even know who you are. They’re not your friends. They’re not your family. They’re not anyone connected to you in any way, shape or form. Watching your movie and not knowing you’re right next to them. And that’s what I love about festivals. 

I know you mentioned earlier that a lot of the films you make are within a-hundred-dollar budget. Do you think budget is the biggest struggle of being a student filmmaker? What other struggles do you think come alongside that?

It’s definitely budget. It’s crazy. It’s like, I keep it to one hundred, mainly because I like the restriction. I think a lot of people, especially when they make movies, their perfectionist brain kicks in and you’re like, no, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the gear, I don’t have everything. And I grew up with my biggest inspiration being like, uh, Robert Rodriguez and his whole ethos of making movies is shut up, grab a camera, run out guerilla style film, make it, fix it in post, and you can make something great. So like, it doesn’t really concern me. 

I think the one that a lot of people don’t really expect, especially if you’re a really ambitious student filmmaker, is the people. Usually on a professional set, you have twenty people on set. Student films are shorter. Smaller. You know, you can have five to ten people. But let’s say you plan to film this weekend. You got your cast, crew and everything. Half your crew gets sick. Your main person just got broken up with and doesn’t want to do the movie anymore. And, uh, I don’t know, let’s say your camera guy just dips. He just doesn’t talk to you anymore. That’s the weird thing about being twenty and being creative in your twenties, is that everyone’s a flaky person, whether it’s intentional or not. And I think I have the hardest time with that because I have no means to pay them. Right. I don’t have the money to. So it’s they’re all they’re all coming on their own volition. So it’s hard to swallow that pride of like, you are the only person that really cares about your own art and working around everyone’s schedules to make something big. 

Following up on that, do you think there are any unique advantages to being a student filmmaker?

Unions. You don’t have to deal with unions. You also don’t have to deal with like, legitimate nine to five workers. You don’t have to deal with people living their lives with kids and everything. Uh, you can pay people in, like, food. You can pay people in, you know, rides and drinks. You can take pictures for a friend’s college thing and they’ll totally do that. 

Another big plus is a lot of people will give you favors because you’re young. Yeah. Like a thirty year old filmmaker, you’re gonna have to pay to use the location. I learned I can get away with so much stuff as a filmmaker. So we’ll go out and we’ll film somewhere. And if you’re not doing anything illegal like trespassing, people will see you and just be like, ‘that’s a college kid doing a college assignment,’ I’m not going to bother them. And that’s really nice. Um, I think that’s the nice plus of being a college kid. I can go on campus film and everyone will just be like, that’s that’s a college student. They’ll write you off, which is negative in some ways, but they’ll write you off when you’re trying to actually work. And that’s really nice. 

What inspired you to zone in on horror for your current project, and how are you approaching the genre in your own unique way?

That’s tough. I’ve always loved horror. I grew up watching horror movies. I got really into eighties horror especially. What compels me to do any genre is just watching a movie and then being like, I think I have a really good take on this. I think in my opinion, if you’re going into a genre expecting to subvert it, you’re already failing. You’re already setting up to fail. If you look at a genre and you embrace it, and you embrace even its faults and its stupid moments like horror, horror has a lot of big, cheesy elements, and if you lean into those elements, you really get a sense of why people love it and why people enjoy it. 

Anything that is like alternative fiction has always been rooted in horror, and I think that’s so special. And I think that’s so awesome. So that’s why I did that. It’s just really fun. I like to make movies that entertain. And I always call my, like, short films kind of like drive-in movies, like little drive-in shorts, because they’re movies you’re supposed to watch, like with your friends, you know, maybe on a date. It’s a fun fifteen minutes that you can really just enjoy. And horror is really good at that, especially the horror I’m making. It’s not, like, completely scary. It’s kind of fun. There’s funny moments. It’s whimsical in a way.

Do you have any plans for future projects? 

Next semester is my last semester in school. And my dream as a, you know, a cheery eyed seventeen year old was, I’m gonna get an Oscar by twenty-one,  and that’s really unrealistic. So I changed the goal to I’m gonna make a feature film by the time I’m twenty-one, twenty-two, and I’m fulfilling that dream with an independent study. I’m making a feature length movie. It’s probably going to be on no budget. 

I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do after that. I want to make more movies. I want to keep propelling my way up the industry. I want to climb up. Make as many movies as I can. I just want to make movies. I think this feature film next semester is really going to be the next step. I’ve done so many shorts. Let’s try, let’s try an hour and a half and let’s see if that style is still there. Let’s see if that whimsy is still there.

All of Riley Cosby’s short films can be accessed on his YouTube, Cabbage Boy. To stay up-to-date on Riley and his upcoming projects, his Instagram is @riley_is_cabbage