Shudder Saturday: Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025)

I admit that I maybe didn't come into this with the best attitude. I was pretty annoyed when I heard that this film was even going to be made, considering I had spent a good bit of money on a lovely boxset that contained all of the four previous movies. Things had ended on a high with the previous movie, but now it was up to writer/director Stephen Cognetti to "land the plane" once again. Not only did he fail to land the plane, he barely managed to get it up in the air in the first place.

I truly don't want to even give a plot summary of this mess. Let's just say that Vanessa Shepherd (Elizabeth Vermilyea) is struggling to live a normal life after her near-death experience at the Abaddon Hotel. You might remember what she went through in the third movie in this series. Or, if you're a normal person with a normal schedule that doesn't allow you time for a full rewatch of every previous instalment, you might eventually connect the dots as the film begrudgingly drip-feeds you the information required to get the most out of the film. Other characters from the series appear here and there, but it's up to you to consider the context of their scenes, and what their presence may signify.

I wouldn't have minded Cognetti moving from the "found footage" style of the previous instalments to a more standard movie presentation if he had enough talented people around him to make it all work, but he doesn't. Particularly when it comes to the cast. With no major offence intended, a number of the main performers here are clearly more comfortable with the style of the earlier movies than they are with something a bit more structured and rigid. Not that the cast really matter though, and I wonder if they were directed with care or viewed as an inconvenience while Cognetti tried to layer every scene with unnecessary lore and connections that make the whole thing feel like a convoluted slog. I never thought I would be watching one of these movies with the need to use a pin board and multiple threads a la that image of Charlie Day working through his "Pepe Silvia" conspiracy theory in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

I don't have much more to say about this. Vermilyea is the focus of many scenes, and she struggles with a script that is frequently ridiculous in all the wrong ways, yet is played completely straight. The only other person who stands out is Mike Sutton, playing Father David, but I have yet to decide whether he does well with what he's given or not. Either way, it's clear that the cast are hung out to dry by Cognetti.

I'm very sad that this is SO bad, in a way, because I was happy to view the series as one of the most pleasingly consistent modern horror franchises of the past decade. That's no longer the case. On the plus side, however, I am no longer worried about having a boxset that will be missing the final chapter in the Hell House LLC story. Not only is this bad, it feels so unnecessary and insubstantial that, completist that I am, I can happily continue to view the series as a quality quartet. 

3/10

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Shudder Saturday: Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

I am not going to spend too much time here repeating myself, but it's important to remind everyone that I am a big fan of the Hell House LLC trilogy (and I think we can continue to view that as a trilogy, considering how this film bases itself elsewhere, despite strong connections to the events that unfolded at the Abbadon Hotel). Found footage horror done right, I was equally excited and apprehensive when I heard about writer-director Stephen Cognetti making another trip back to that well. 

Set in the titular Carmichael Manor, this is all about potential supernatural happenings being investigated by Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta), her partner, Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown), and Margot's brother, Chase (James Liddell). Having investigated a number of places over the years for her website, Margot quickly comes around to the idea that the Carmichael Manor might actually be the one genuinely haunted location that she has investigated. There are random noises heard, figures glimpsed, and horrible bloody clown mannequins that start developing a very bad habit of turning up in unexpected places.

I'm actually quite easy to make nervous when it comes to the right kind of horror. Anything to do with ghosts, or hauntings, has a chance to get me on edge, and keep me there for the duration. Throw in some creepy clowns and you have a perfect storm of factors to keep me wanting to watch events unfold from between my fingers. "The Carmichael Manor" continues to serve up the thrills and chills as consistently as the other Hell House LLC movies, and I view the whole series as a great example of how to do this kind of movie. Whether or not you end up enjoying these as much as I do, they really help to highlight the chasm that exists between the very worst and very best of found footage horror movies. Some people still think that you can make a movie by getting some friends together over a weekend spent wandering around an old building while filming a load of inactivity on your smartphone. That's not how you make an effective horror movie. This is.

Although there's the standard problem of having characters continually filming long after they would have bumped it down the list of priorities (with "staying safe and alive" being moved to the top of the list), the cast do a very good job here of maintaining their fluctuating group dynamic, delivering the required exposition, and becoming more and more afraid as the situation gets more serious. Liddell may have to play his character with a bit more emotional turbulence (he's brought along to help, but also to keep him busy after a recent "episode" that had people worried about him), but he does well enough with what he's given to work with. Perrotta and Brown do even better though, less hampered by the script, and both moving further and further into the "eye of the storm" as everything builds toward a foregone conclusion. 

Although absolutely fantastic when it comes to building tension and presenting scary set-pieces, the film does falter when it comes to the unnecessary spiderwebbing plot. With the found footage framed by segments in which people talk about how events unfolded (hence the foregone conclusion, another mis-step in the script), Cognetti takes the opportunity to bring in more of the Abbadon Hotel lore. That's a real shame, particularly when the backstory of the Carmichael Manor is interesting enough as it is. I would have rather had less explanation, despite how nicely it does tie things together, and more ambiguity, and I rolled my eyes at a last-minute "reveal" that was signposted from very early on in the movie. It didn't stop me being a fan though.

Four films in, the Hell House LLC series has a chance at becoming one of my favourite ever horror brands, and I look forward to whatever comes next from Cognetti, whether he moves into new territory or finds other ways to tell more stories in this movie universe.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: Hell House LLC III: Lake Of Fire (2019)

The third film in what is, to me, one of the best set of found footage movies around, Hell House LLC III: Lake Of Fire may also prove to be the best point at which to end the series (although I am sure that others think that should have happened after the first film).

Once again written and directed by Stephen Cognetti, the Abaddon Hotel is open for business yet again, this time due to be the setting of a theatrical riff on Faust, put on by the rich and successful Russell Wynn (Gabriel Chytry). The preparation for the experience, which will take audiences on a journey through the hotel, is recorded by a local reporter, Vanessa Shepherd (Elizabeth Vermilyea) and her small team. And it's not long until strange things begin happening.

Not quite as good as the second film, but still a step ahead of the first, "Lake Of Fire" works best when it's being nothing more than a series of brilliant, and creepy, scare moments. I can absolutely understand why people may prefer the slightly more subtle approach of the first film, but things have improved for me ever since that first story was out of the way, allowing Cognetti to push onwards and upwards with tales of the hotel and recurring nightmare imagery.

Okay, this is not going to win any awards for the writing or the acting, or anything else really. I didn't really enjoy the performance from Chytry, who doesn't bring enough to the role to make up for the fact that the script gives him almost no depth at all, but Vermilyea at least did better, and was someone worth rooting for. The only other person to mention is Sam Kazzi, as a producer trying to hide away the worst things that happen on the way to opening night. Kazzi does alright, and is at least more memorable than some of the others onscreen. This is a film that adds more characters to the main storyline without giving them anything to do beyond being targeted in main scare scenes.

Here's the thing though, I am not too bothered by that. When the scares are as well done as they are here (e.g. an initial chilling encounter with some clown figures that provided plenty of chills in the last two movies) then it helps to forgive all manner of failings.

Cognetti definitely tries, but he can't do enough to flesh out the cast while setting up all of the plot points that he wants in place by the grand finale, all in between the spine-chilling set-pieces. Ideally, a slightly longer runtime could have been used effectively to spend more time with different characters, although he's also constrained by the "found footage" format. His biggest mis-step comes towards the end of the whole thing, where he decides to make a few decisions that a) feel out of character for this series, and b) feel far too contrived as he attempts to tie everything up in a way that connects all three movies and provides an all-too-neat ending to the whole tale.

Ending aside, which is still good enough, if not what I personally wanted, this is an excellent little horror movie, and I hope they leave the Hell House movies alone now that we have a damn fine trilogy. I'll definitely be keen to see what Cognetti gets up to next.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)

A lot of people REALLY liked Hell House LLC when it appeared a few years ago. It's not hard to see why. It was a found footage movie that smartly built up tension and supplied scares with good structuring of the tale and many unsettling details scattered throughout almost every scene. I liked it. Just liked it. The acting was so-so, it didn't do enough to provide the all-important reason for anyone to keep filming, and it felt a bit slight. But it was still a lot better than dozens of other found footage movies I have endured over the years.

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel is a better film. It compares to the first film as Grave Encounters 2 compares to Grave Encounters. Basically, everything is elevated, making it far less believable but also far more entertaining. There are some truly bonkers moments here. More importantly, there are some scares that had me swearing at my TV screen as I waited for my heartbeat to calm down a bit.

The plot follows on from the events of the first film. People are still curious about just what happened at the opening night of Hell House, LLC, and a TV show featuring the man who made the documentary about it (Mitchell, played by Vasile Flutur) eventually leads to a return trip to the location. The brave souls heading back in there are an investigative journalist (Jessica Fox, played by Jillian Guerts), her colleagues (Molly, played by Joy Shatz, and cameraman David, played by David Austen), a psychic (Kyle Ingleman), his main colleague (didn't get his name, never mind), and the only one who knows what danger they might be getting themselves into - Mitchell. Once inside, it starts to become clear that the site of the Hell House, the Abaddon Hotel, doesn't want them to leave.

Once again written and directed by Stephen Cognetti, this is a sequel that seems to have been made by someone given a chance to have more fun and cut loose with his sophomore feature. As well as the main narrative strand, there are a number of sequences that show how others have fared when they have decided to bravely enter the hotel on their own. All of those sequences have at least one great scare, making it easier to forgive the fact that Cognetti has decided to use the found footage format in a very loose way. There's no cohesive "end product" here, and no real rhyme or reason to the editing of various clips, aside from making things easier for Cognetti to have fun with viewers and save some decent reveals for the final act.

The acting is serviceable from everyone involved. Nobody really excels (although Ingleman stands out as the showbiz psychic) but they all do a good enough job of looking suitably petrified and running away from scary figures that have no right to be moving around in the building.

For me, this is a film all about the scares. Some may enjoy the way the plot unfolds, I could take or leave the way Cognetti expands things from the first film, but it's the effectiveness of the scares that make this a film I can see a lot of horror fans taking a shine to. There are jump scares, yes, but they're not used as often as the more effective, subtle until they become blatant, scares. I'm on about the scares that are there, almost front and centre, but it takes your mind a moment to realise that something is very off with the image you're looking at. Or scares that happen while the main characters are oblivious, some making you reach for the rewind function even as the iciness of you rblood in your veins is already convincing you that you did indeed just see what you think you saw.

I HIGHLY recommend Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel. October (which is a whole month of Halloween treats for us horror fans) is just over a week away. This should definitely be on your list of potential viewings.

8/10

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