Where is the line between tacky, low-budget horror movies and auteur filmmaking? Is it possible for a movie series to be both? Let me introduce you to “Hell House LLC,” a five-movie series that is some of the best the found footage horror genre has to offer, but also contains scenes so cheesy you’ll seriously consider changing the channel.
Found footage is a horror sub-genre known for being easily shot on a shoestring budget, with mixed results. Frankly, it’s hard to find a good found footage movie. Nothing lives up to “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) that brought the genre to the mainstream, but the original 2015 “Hell House LLC” holds its own.
The first “Hell House LLC” film is structured like a documentary, seeking to explain a fictional tragedy at the Abbadon Hotel. It follows a group of young adults who run Hell House LLC, a haunted house company, as they move into the condemned hotel and work to turn it into a haunted Halloween attraction.
From there, it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. It’s the sole survivor of Hell House LCC that gives the documentary crew a set of tapes recorded during their time at the Abbadon.
The characters feel like realistic portrayals of people, recording mundane moments in their lives. But the shots are framed in delicious, eerie angles with doors and hallways behind them, perfect for a scare that only the viewer sees. The film builds up suspense, playing with the real horrors versus the creepy decor brought in for the haunted house event.
The lead-up to the tragedy and the series of brutal deaths of the Hell House team is fast-paced but disturbing. The final twist is a genuine shock. The ending alone makes this film worth watching.
This series had so much potential. Unlike other low-budget horror darlings like “Saw” or “Evil Dead,” “Hell House LCC” was never taken over by a big-budget studio, and it has kept the same writer-director for all five films — Stephen Cognetti. He based the original film on real abandoned houses near Rockland Lake, New York, and even shot the series in one.
“Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel” (2018), the second film, is the worst of the series. The acting is cringeworthy. The editing is unnecessarily over-the-top. The ending reveals more about the character Andrew Tully, the original owner of the hotel and main villain of the series, but it’s exhausting to watch. The second film’s one redeeming factor is that there are some decent scares. If you’re determined to watch the series and not miss any lore, you only need to watch the last 20 minutes of it.
The third entry in the series, “Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire” (2019), is an almost-amazing movie. It’s styled as a documentary about the mysterious Russel Wynn, an uber-wealthy entrepreneur putting on a Broadway-level retelling of “Faust” called “Insomnia” at the Abbadon Hotel. The set of the hotel is reimagined, giving the viewer new creepy visuals to eat up. The framing of doorways is taken to suspenseful extremes, and snippets of the first two films are cut in throughout, nodding at the bloody history of the hotel. And they do some really clever things with the camera to push the limits of what is possible with found footage, including setting the camera on a spinning lazy Susan.
The conclusion of “Lake of Fire” throws everything amazing about the movie away. Instead of being horrific and scary, it becomes a story about guardian angels, literal heaven and hell, and terrible CGI.
While watching these movies, you get the feeling that no one tells Cognetti no. There’s no restraint, nothing holding him back other than the budget itself. It’s not the clowns or the devil that haunt the “Hell House LCC” films — it’s Cognetti.
“Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor” is the fourth movie, and the first to take place at a different location. Fans and reviewers are confused if this film is a prequel or not. The main found footage sequence takes place after the first three movies, but the information and recordings the new characters find give a backstory that predates the other films.
“Carmichael Manor” is decent. It’s well shot. The acting is perfectly fine, and there are some good, scary moments. But it fails to recapture the original’s fear factor, and I am not a fan of the new lore about a creepy clown that pops up in every film. But compared to the second movie (and the third’s ending), “Carmichael Manor” is fantastic.
“Hell House LLC: Lineage,” the final installment of the franchise, comes out on Shudder on Oct. 30. It’s the first to leave behind the found footage format. It had a limited run in theaters and currently has a 4.8/10 on IMDb; however, the ratings for the series have never quite aligned well with the quality of each movie.
It remains to be seen whether Cognetti will be able to close the series with the same level of filmmaking that the first film was able to obtain. I just hope they don’t return to the angel-heaven subplot.
But in the end, “Hell House LCC” is an indie-horror series with a mini cult following and a damn good original movie. If you’re looking for a good scare this Halloween to enjoy with friends, check out the first “Hell House LCC” for free on Tubi.
