‘Hell House LLC: A Retrospective

TV & Film

Mar 1

Found footage horror has always been a mixed bag. For every Blair Witch Project, there’s an Apollo 18. For every As Above, So Below, there’s a V/H/S: Viral. Even with the positive films that I’ve mentioned, there are a ton of people that think they’re overrated trash. The genre as a whole isn’t for everybody. However, there are still some diamonds in the rough if you’re willing to look, and to me, one of those is Hell House LLC.

The first installment of this ongoing series came out in 2015, and received generally positive reviews. It follows a group of people who are using an abandoned hotel with a shady history to set up one of their Halloween haunted houses. The titular business has seen some rough times, and the leader, Alex Taylor, as put everything into making sure that this house is successful.

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To solve the “why are they always filming?” problem that shows up in pretty much every found footage film, it’s stated that Alex wants everything religiously documented for further improvements for subsequent years. Naturally, things start going wrong, and spooky things start happening, culminating in a disastrous opening night.

The film is split into two plots: the modern plot and the flashbacks portraying the actual events regarding Hell House. The film does a really good job in making the event feel real. The paranormal events in the film aren’t so over-the-top that they get silly, and there are some genuinely effective scares in the film.

The found footage style serves the final madness very well, and really makes you feel like you’re involved in the situation. It also does a great job with not revealing too much about what’s going on. It also nails the atmosphere of the place, which is a must for a film like this, and adds to the scare factor. Basements as a general rule are pretty creepy. The basement in the Abaddon Hotel is one that I’d never get near. Overall, it’s a very solid film that I’d highly recommend to anybody who likes found footage. Also, once you see it, you’ll be humming the creepy piano tune to yourself for days on end.

The second film in the series, The Abaddon Hotel, picks up seven years after the events of the first film. The town leadership tries to downplay the events of Hell House’s opening night, and attempts to prevent anyone from entering the hotel.

The strongest parts of this film are in the beginning when we get stories of people that entered the hotel for one reason or another, usually to livestream their attempts to social media for followers. The story is once again split into two parts. The first is an interview that one of the protagonists is giving to a panel of guests, including a local psychic, a cameraman from the first film, and a town official who is there to debunk the rumors about the Abaddon. The second follows that same cameraman as he takes some internet reporters into the hotel to look for information about what happened in the first film.

The film is definitely weaker than the first one. The most effective moments are the ones showing the unwitting people entering the Abaddon. Once the cameraman and the reporters go in, there are some good moments, but a lot of it is kind of predictable, mixed with a little “same old, same old.” There’s a twist that was done in the first film as well, so it’s both predictable and not that shocking. It does add a bit to the lore, which is always fun.

We learn more about the history of the hotel, and why it’s such an evil place. And we get more of the piano tune, and the clown mannequin that has become something of a mascot of the series. The film is overall enjoyable, but it doesn’t quite work as well as the first film.

In the third film, Lake of Fire, we get some payoffs to previous events. The name Russel Wynn has been seen before in the previous films, and now we actually get to find out who that is. He takes ownership of the hotel and, bizarrely, decides to use it as the setting of a version of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Faust, here called Insomnia. As usual, things go nuts.

This is probably the weakest entry in the series. At this point we’ve spent so much time in the Abaddon that we pretty much know the layout at this point. A lot of the mainstay scares of the series fall kind of flat. How many times can you hear the piano tune before it stops being creepy? It also meanders a little bit at times. It still has its moments, and the ending is pretty neat, but it’s not the strongest film. I still enjoyed it. It also has moments where the cracks are starting to show when it comes to the film’s budget, which has been low throughout the series.

The moment where the cultists open a portal to Hell and start attacking the guests is more humorous than horrifying, because it’s clearly just a group of people in Spirit Halloween outfits grabbing people and dragging them off camera, in a way that wouldn’t look out of place in a real haunted house. It’s not a good look for a horror film when the scene that’s supposed to be the most effective is just funny. Still, it’s enjoyable for what it is.

The fourth and so far final film in the series, The Carmichael Manor, is a refreshing return to form for the series. It follows a paranormal investigator (one of those in a found footage movie?! No way!) her girlfriend, and her brother as they stay in a house that has connections to the Abaddon. As usual, things don’t quite go the way that they had hoped. It’s a prequel to the first film, and does pretty much everything right.

There are still “why are they recording this?” moments, and the cultist costumes don’t look any better, but on the whole, it goes back to the subtle scares that made the original film effective. Plus, it makes the piano tune disturbing again by adding some pretty creepy lyrics. It answers several things about the first film, but not so much that a lot of the impact is taken away. The mascot clown once again makes an appearance, but he hasn’t been this creepy since the first film.

So far the fourth film has been the last, but a fifth film, Lineage, is due to come out on Shudder in October of this year. Hopefully it keeps the upward trajectory going, and we get another solid film in the series for the finale. I’d hate for it to fizzle out at the finish line. Until then, we have four found footage films that range from really good to “entertaining for what they are.” They won’t be to everyone’s taste, just like all found footage, but if you’re looking for something in that sub-genre, Hell House LLC is a solid start.

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