Hell House LLC 3: Lake of Fire

After watching the first Hell House LLC movie and discovering it was actually part of a trilogy, how could I not watch the two sequels? I found part 2 on YouTube, however part 3 recently debuted in September 2019 as an exclusive to Shudder.com. Thankfully I found a promo code on Shudder's Twitter account that gave me a two week trail to the horror movie streaming service. I signed up for the free trial just to watch the third and final (?) installment to the Hell House LLC franchise.

Lake of Fire continues the narrative that was hinted at in the original movie. However like part 2, this movie relies on re-using footage from the first two movies to help advance the story. I've read some reviews where decision was criticized, but it kind of makes sense in a way. This is yet another documentary style movie and it tells you that the footage has been assembled from various sources. If you've watched the first two movies you know there is a lot of filmed footage regarding people entering the Abaddon Hotel, whether it was the Hell House staff, people that broke into the Abbadon Hotel after the events of Hell House, or the Morning Mysteries staff that filmed their own journalistic investigation. So to set the record...the first movie was a journalistic investigation to what happened the night 15 people died at Hell House. The second movie was a journalistic investigation to what happened to the team that investigated the events in the first movie. Finally we have yet another journalistic investigation into what happened to the previous two events. Original, huh?

The premise of this movie really is to wrap up the story and put a bow on it. In the second movie it was eluded but not elaborated that the hotel was purchased by multi-millionaire and owner of Wynn Media Group, Russell Wynn, right before it was scheduled to be demolished. For reasons unknown, Russell decides to move his interactive drama show, Insomnia, out of New York and into the Abaddon Hotel. He invites the new host of Morning Mysteries, Vanessa Sheppard, behind the scenes all-access to Insomnia in the days leading up to opening night. From what I could gather this Insomnia show is a play that moves from room to room in the hotel. It has a Faustian basis...which I admit I had to Google. Basically the theme is good versus evil...which spills over into the movie's story.

Vanessa, being a reporter, has done her homework and is a little anxious about this assignment. You later find out she accepts the job (and stays) because 1) she's only been on the job a few months and 2) she doesn't want to be labeled or viewed in a weak way that sometimes women in the workforce can be. While she knows the history of what has happened at the infamous hotel, Russell claims he wasn't aware of what happened just a short time before he purchased the hotel...or was he?

In typical fashion, the camera catches all sorts of mysterious images and figures. The camera will drop or turn, only to go back to it's original point of view and you see something. Lights go out and come back on and you see something. It's the same tricks used in the previous two movies, just with a different cast. Speaking of the cast, most of the cast are "actors" in the Insomnia show so they lay it on thick. While I wouldn't call the acting outright bad, it wasn't good either. Elizabeth Vermilyea plays Vanessa Sheppard and her character comes across as pretty authentic. Gabriel Chytry's Russell Wynn character is supposed to be shrouded in mystery, but it just doesn't work. Much like the super fake looking scar he sports on his face. There are some scenes in the movie where I couldn't take my eye off the scar because it was so obviously fake.

Acting aside, this movie uses a little more special effects (i.e. CGI) than the previous two movies and it's not great. I assume the budget for each consecutive movie was increased, but I don't know about this one. The interior of the hotel has been changed, altered for this movie. This makes sense since the hotel was abandoned yet again after the events of Hell House. I like some of the changes made to the "set", but again this is more of the same. I've seen this before. Give me something different. Thankfully as the movie and the story progresses, more and more info is given to the viewer. I went into this movie spoiler free, but it didn't take long for me to start piecing everything together to figure out just what was going on. By the time the movie is over, the overall story is wrapped up. There is a conclusion...but for some it wasn't satisfying. I found it to be interesting and can say I honestly didn't see the movie ending this way.

In my opinion producer Stephen Cognelli could have let Hell House LLC be a stand alone film and it would have been fine. However I assume this was always meant to be a trilogy based on the third movie. While the first movie was great and I highly recommend it, the second movie was average. However if you've seen the first or second movie you might as well finish off the trifecta and watch this one. I believe the movie will lose it's Shudder exclusivity in early 2020 so if you don't want to use the free trial like I did to view the movie, give it time and I'm sure you'll be able to view it somewhere else online.

If you do decide to watch this movie, make sure you stick around through the credits as the real ending of the movie is told between said credits.



** SPOILERS **


I don't normally divulge too much about the movie to spoil things, however I have a few issues with this movie.

1) We know the Abaddon Hotel was sold to Russell Wynn in the 2nd movie, but who owned it before this sale? It almost sounds like it was owned by the city and if that was the case, why wasn't it demolished after the first movie?

2) Why are the clowns still in the house in the 3rd movie? If they were essentially gutting the haunted attraction for the Insomnia play, then why are there still so many Hell House props in the house?

3) Why do so many people keep going into the house...and the freakin' basement?!

4) What does the priest send Russell towards the beginning of the movie? Towards the end of the movie he can be seen doing something with the safe in the attic.

5) Similar to Sara Havel in the second movie, are we to believe that Russell isn't really Russell throughout the whole movie?

What I gathered from this movie is that Russell Wynn was "in the picture" before the group of friends transitioned the Abaddon Hotel into Hell House. We know from the previous movies that the original hotel owner, Andrew Tully, was searching for the literal gateway to Hell...which he found in the basement of the Abaddon Hotel. We know that the hotel was essentially using all of the various filmed footage to "invite" more and more people into the hotel so their souls could be claimed. The priest confirms that once the gate is opened, no man can close it...only an angel. We know that at some point Russell "died" in a car wreck is now said angel. This is who we see confront (the devil?) in the basement at the end of the movie.

Russell is successful in closing the gate to Hell and everyone that perished in the house has been restored...but they are trapped in the house. Does this mean they aren't dead? Are they spirits? The movie doesn't really say and this drives me crazy.

Basically the overarching story of this trilogy is good versus evil, or more or less Heaven versus Hell. I know Christianity and horror don't really go hand in hand, but I've seen several movies with a similar premise now and this is one of the better ones...despite some of my criticism.

Hell House LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel

I enjoyed the first movie so much that when I discovered it was actually a trilogy, I sought out the sequel. Luckily someone recently (at the time of this post) uploaded the entire movie to YouTube. I looks like this movie was exclusive to the movie service, Shudder, so I'm not sure if it'll stay on YouTube or not.

This movie is basically a re-tread of the first Hell House LLC. Some may think that is a good thing, but for me it wasn't. The movie isn't bad, but it's not as good as the first movie. In the original, the producer/writer, Stephen Cognetti, did a good job at leaving bread crumbs for the viewer to figure out what was going on in the movie. He didn't give too much away (well the ending did) which left me and I'm sure others scratching their head at the end of the movie. 

This sequel gives away a little too much for my tastes. While I like that it expands upon the story in regards to the original hotel owner, Andrew Tully, and what happened in the hotel before it became the Halloween haunt, there are other parts that just show too much. Like in the first movie however, you really have to pay attention to catch some of the more subtle details.

When I said this movie is more of the same it's because the premise of this movie is another documentary investigation. This time it's a group of people lead by Jessica Fox after she is mysteriously given information there is proof stored in the hotel of what really happened with Andrew Tully. Jessica recruits Mitchell, the guy who organized the documentary footage from the first movie. His co-worker and friend, Diane was the one seen entering the house after interviewing the sole survivor from the Hell House cast. It turns out Mitchell is just as curious as to what really happened to Diane as Jessica is to find this supposed proof in the house. They decide that they'll work together and enter the house to find the answers they seek. Oh yeah, the proof is stored in refrigerators and of course not in the kitchen but in the...you guessed it, the basement.

With just about every horror movie the viewer puts themselves in the shoes of one of the victims and starts yelling at the screen not to go upstairs, open the door or in this case go down into the basement. Through out the movie you see various clips from social media of young people entering the house to fulfil a bet or a dare, only for them to go missing afterwards. Combine that with all of the footage from the first movie and why on earth would anyone want to go inside that damned house?!

I know the first movie had a relatively low budget and I imagine the sequel had a bigger budget, but there were times where the movie felt cheaper. For the most part, I found the acting to be worse. Vasile Flutur who plays Mitchell did a good job, but Joy Shatz' character, Molly was so annoying. I was rooting for her to die just so I didn't have to hear her annoying voice!

After viewing the movie I found it to be entertaining, but not without it's flaws. If you've seen the first movie you might as well watch this one too. If nothing else it may confirm what you thought happened in the first movie...or it may leave you with more questions than answers. Your mileage may vary. As long as you can view the movie for free, I still give it my recommendation.

Hell House LLC

With October upon us I felt the desire to revisit the horror movie genre and seek out some new films. While my normal go to is either Netflix or Redbox, I recently stumbled upon Tubi TV and their massive library of free movies. I immediately started to browse their horror movies and added several to my que. The first one I fired up was Hell House LLC.

Directed by Stephen Cognetti and released in 2015, this horror "documentary" found footage movie caught my eye as I was browsing the listings. The movie's description reminded me of another well known documentary style movie called The Houses October Built. While I need to revisit that movie, what I remember from it I didn't particularly care for. While there may be similarities between these two movies, Hell House LLC I believe separates itself from the competition with it's story telling.

The movie revolves around a ground of friends that set out to create a haunted attraction inside an old abandoned hotel in upstate New York in 2009. As the team starts to create their venue inside the old Abaddon Hotel, things aren't what they seem as the group of friends become on edge as opening night gets closer and closer. On opening night, 15 people, including most of the crew are killed. But why are the police and the town essentially covering up what really happened?

I know the found footage type movies aren't for everyone, but the directer did a great job at using multiple camera view points to help set the stage and tell the story. In addition to the main story, you have a story happening in current time as well. The story is told via flashbacks of the footage from the group of friends, a leaked YouTube video, interviews with the media and even a 911 call. Most of the movie is done in a way where if you are sensitive to movement you shouldn't get motion sick. Towards the end of the movie however I can't say the same thing.

While I knew this was a movie, there were times while I was viewing it that I could have sworn this was real. The acting was good and the aforementioned uses of various media used to tell the story was great. While I personally don't care to attend haunted attractions, I love the idea of them and I've always wondered what kind of work goes into these type of things. Perhaps this is another reason why I enjoyed this movie because you get to see this group first visit the old hotel and then slowly have their vision come to life.

The setting of the hotel is creepy enough, but you really don't get a lot of history on the hotel itself and why it was closed. Not at first at least. Slowly but surely pieces of the story are revealed, leaving the viewer the opportunity to piece things together. The group stays in the hotel while they work on transitioning it into the haunted attraction and this is where things begin to pick up. While there are some jump scares, most of what makes this movie so spooky what you don't necessarily see. You see the effects of things, but not always what (or who?) is behind them. I know that may sound a little cliche, but the noises and weird things that occur are done in a way that aren't cheesy. Just like you get bits and pieces of the back story and are left putting what is happen together, the same thing can be said with what is happening.

Alfred Hitchcock did a great job at cutting the camera away as tragedy would strike, knowing what the viewer could and would imagine what was happening was more frightening than what he could actually show. While special effects have come a long way since then, I can't help but to agree with that mindset. The director must have had that on his mind at times as you never really see who is behind the murders.

Apparently there is an extended cut of this movie as well that delves into a little bit more of the story. I've seen a few still images and I've read reviews, but I've not actually viewed this extended cut. It appears the few extra minutes that were cut from the version I viewed contained some crucial info as it pertains to the story. I'm really puzzled as to why they cut it. Perhaps it gave away too much information and took away from the intentional gaps in the story?

The movie obviously had a low budget, but they did a great job at stretching their dollar. The hotel used in the movie was great, very creepy. The acting was pretty good and the special effects were equally as good. The one main gripe viewers tend to have with this movie is the ending. While I'm not going to spoil it because I highly recommend watching this movie, most people either love the ending or down right hate it. I'll just say I could take it either way.

Apparently there have been two additional sequels made, which caught me by surprise. I've yet to watch them, but I do intend on trying to track them down as I enjoyed Hell House LLC. Thankfully this one is easy to view (if you don't mind a few commercial interruptions) as you can stream it for free at TubiTV. Just use this link to jump straight to the fun.