Summary:
A documentary crew sets out to explain what happened the opening night at a Haunted House attraction where fifteen people died mysteriously.
My Thoughts:
REVIEWER’S NOTE: This film was one of those movies that sort of fell between a 3.5/5 Star rating and 4/5 Star- it’s better than a C- but not quite a B-, but as we only do half star increments I just decided to round up.
“Hell House LLC” was recommended to me a year or so ago. I watched it and I remember enjoying it, but for whatever reason I didn’t write a review for TMM. After stumbling across this again on Amazon Prime and realizing I hadn’t reviewed it, I figured I could revisit it, and I’m glad I did.
I think I actually got more out of this film the second time because there are quite a few subtle/hidden scares in this movie that I didn’t quite catch the first time. However, I also noticed there were one or two plot points that were sort of brushed over in an unsatisfactory way, some characters behave rather stupidly (why doesn’t anyone ever turn on the lights in horror movies?), and, as this is (mostly) a found footage, the question of why certain things are being filmed hangs over some of the footage. But, if you can get passed a few more schmaltzy moments, I actually think this film delivers the thrills in droves, and it’s certainly one of the better found footage horror flicks I’ve seen post-”Paranormal Activity”.
“What Happened that Night at the Abaddon Hotel?”
Five years after a mysterious and horrific incident that left fifteen people dead at a haunted house attraction in the abandoned Abaddon Hotel (rebranded for the attraction as “Hell House”), a documentary crew sets out to figure out what actually happened. As the crew searches for answers, they interview various people- local historians who knew about the history of the Abaddon before the incident, patrons who were at “Hell House” the night of the incident, and finally the only surviving crew member, Sara Havel (Ryan Jennifer Jones, “Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire”), whom gives them a collection of footage shot by members of Hell House’s crew during the weeks prior to the opening night. As the documentary crew goes through the footage, they discover a horrible secret.
I feel like any found footage horror movie is going to draw comparisons to “Blair Witch Project”, and in a way, I understand that: “Blair Witch Project” made found footage flicks popular. But at the same time, I sort of feel bad for those filmmakers who make inventive found footage films, like this one. It’s sort of like fantasy writers always being compared to Tolkien, or mobster movies always being compared to “The Godfather”; not every work of fiction will be a masterpiece, and while “Hell House LLC” isn’t necessarily as good as “Blair Witch Project” in terms of quality, I’d argue it is just as creepy.
I think one of the things I liked the most about this film was the way it was structured, and, yes, it does borrow a leaf from “Blair Witch’s” book: the film is shot as if documentarians are interested in events in the past and are trying to uncover what exactly happened, which is exactly how Blair Witch starts. However, almost immediately this film incorporates ‘news’ footage and footage from patron’s cameras- the first twenty minutes feel more like we’re watching an early cut of a documentary than it does watching uncut, untrimmed footage. When we meet Sara, and she then gives the documentary crew the bag full of footage, the film sort of flashes back to when the Haunted House crew was first entering the hotel and beginning to prep it for opening night, and it’s there that film becomes a found footage movie in earnest.
Once we get back to the creators of Hell House, the actual creation of the attraction takes up a fair amount of the runtime, and, of course as the crew assembles the home, increasingly creepy phenomena begin to happen around them- props start to move, things go bump in the night, people start behaving strangely. The crew continues to prepare their house with obstinate determination, believing that all will be well once they start to turn a profit. It’s in this section that the film really excels, both because the actors are almost always able to make things feel natural and because the world building surrounding the hotel also feels very naturalistic (this was shot in an actual abandoned hotel that has actually been refurbished into a haunted house). There are very few scenes where the acting doesn’t feel as if the actors are giving it their all; in fact I even read that one of the actors threw up (unscripted) because he worked himself up so much during one of the filming, and I believe it- this movie gets pretty intense. Likewise, characters behave in (mostly) believable ways, other than forgetting to turn on the lights whenever they go to go investigate things, and one major plot point that gets brushed over, which I’ll touch on below.
As this is a found footage movie, there’s always the question of “Why is this being filmed?” and many found footage flicks just explain away that question by saying they’re making a documentary (like this movie sort of does in the beginning) or the shooter explains they just got their camera and they like playing around with it. Regardless of the explanation for why people initially started filming, there’s always the question of why are they still filming when sh*t gets f*cking intense? Most of the time, I felt “Hell House LLC” was able to explain why the camera was on, and I really appreciated that extra layer of reality given to the movie. The filmmakers even included scenes where characters meet up immediately after they heard something, but we the viewers were not witness to it because the camera was not yet on; it provides even more thrills because we’re not privy to the sounds they heard, so we don’t even know what to listen for as they creep through the house looking for whatever made the noise. However, towards the end, I was pretty sure anyone who’d been holding their cameras and witnessing what we witness would’ve just dropped their camera and gotten the hell out of there.
One of my biggest problems with the film was that, just before opening night, many of the workers experience things that freak them out, and some of the workers are intent on leaving. One of the characters goes after the main person leaving and says, “wait, you cant leave because-“ static- camera cuts to footage of Sara wandering through the fields- cut back to the main characters sitting in a different field, looking peaceful, and they agree to go back and help out with Hell House. These characters witnessed absolutely horrific events, and I’d venture to guess that anything someone said to get me back inside that house wouldn’t work. I think the filmmakers knew this too, so, in order to keep the film moving towards the climax, they simply removed the reason for why everyone stayed. I know that, for the film to happen, the workers have to stay, but since the majority of this film was pretty planned out, even so far as to answer questions about why the camera was on (at certain times), I just wished they would’ve given me a little explanation as to why these relatively smart characters all decided to do something incredibly stupid. (SPOILER: Given the ending, I suppose you could take this glossing over of footage as a hint that Sara edited the footage before she handed it over, to remove the reason why they were there, to then lure the documentarians back to the house, but even that explanation isn’t wholly satisfying to me.)
Still, in the land of movies, Horrortown is populated with idiotic characters, so these characters sort of fit right in.
Verdict:
Aside from a few minor flaws with brushing over plot points, a few not so great actors in minor roles (the patron who first goes through the house is annoying, but she’s not in it much), and a few moments where the camera was on inexplicably, I actually thought this film was remarkably clever, creepy, inventive, and pretty darn fun too. I’ve watched this film twice, and I honestly wouldn’t mind watching it a third time. It’s certainly better than I expected it to be, and if you’re willing to forgive it a few flaws, I wouldn’t be surprised if you like it as much as I.
I’m sure I’ll check out the sequels before 31 Nights of Thrills comes around, so if you liked this film, be sure to check out my reviews for “Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel” and “Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire”.
Review Written By: