It has been a while since I’ve seen a horror film that not only gave me a few good jump scares, but also unnerved me. To do it through what in other hands would merely be a cheap gimmick — the found footage style — is a particular achievement with me. Hell House LLC, released in 2015, accomplishes such scares, unnerving atmosphere, and a compelling story through the use of the found footage style because it commits completely to the bit and its “bit” is a smart one.
The film opens from the perspective of a documentary crew doing a story on what happened at Hell House LLC, a haunted house attraction, on its opening night five years prior. Tragedy struck with 15 dead, including all but one staff member, and more injured. But nobody seems to know precisely what occurred and the police aren’t releasing much information. Maybe it was a gas leak or a “malfunction” some speculate. A journalist, an author, and one of the tour-goers are interviewed for the documentary. Through the former’s investigation, some speculate something supernatural occurred.
Sara (played by Ryan Jennifer), the surviving staff member, has tapes and provides them to the documentarian. The tapes are from the staff, who came from New York City to bring their haunted house concept to an abandoned hotel with a murky past in Abaddon, New York. They decide to film everything from the get-go. As they’re setting up the haunted house attraction with a lower-third reminding us of how many days remain until “opening night,” mysterious happenings begin occurring, like one of the clown dolls meant to be situated in the basement appearing elsewhere in the house and moving its head — neither of which should be possible. Or the primary filmmaker, Tony (played by Jared Hacker), doing a monologue to the camera when a mystery black-clad figure appears in his doorframe. He’s perplexed. Sara also seems to be losing her mind because she’s found sleepwalking and talking to a statue.
Alex (played by Danny Bellini), who is the main person behind Hell House LLC, is a jerk, though, and despite clearly inexplicable events occurring, wants to proceed with opening night. Well, just prior to opening night, a woman appears in Tony’s room and attacks him and drags him off. He’s never the same again. They go ahead with opening night anyway, and when much of the tour-goers are in the basement, black-clad figures of some sort begin attacking. Everyone tries to flee. I say some sort because I don’t know if they’re ghosts or demons.
Alex is found hanging in the attic (similar to the prior owner), and then Sara is bludgeoned to death by Tony, who then slits his own threat. That’s right, Sara is dead. Not knowing this yet, two of the documentarians go to Hell House LLC to do their own investigation and come upon the room Sara said she was staying at, 2C, and find “Sara” there. They’re then attacked by those black-clad figures.
What’s left unsaid and unanswered is why the staff members stayed prior to opening night instead of leaving as some originally wanted to. I’m not sure, but my thought is the ghostly or demonic forces of the hotel were keeping them there.
Spooky stuff! I’m not doing it remote justice, but I was surprised by the believability and quality of the acting for a low-budget film, the unsettling atmosphere created, and the fear I felt with the unfurling doom coming to the haunted house staff. I genuinely thought this was one of the better horror films I’ve seen as of late. I’d have to dig into my brain to “rank” it in any regard, but I was thoroughly impressed by director and writer Stephen Cognetti’s outing here. At the very least, I would say it’s the best use of found footage I’ve seen since the initial few Paranormal Activity movies.
Milam's Musings 