The Horror Show
Hell House LLC
by Stephen Cognetti
People have some strong opinions on found footage movies. Some people don't even consider it true film making. They're the cheapest movies to make. You don't have to have expensive equipment. You can usually sucker your friends into being the “talent.” You can film around your town and usually get away with no permits. Most of the time the movies are shaky camera vomit fests but there are those rare occasions you find a gem. Hell House LLC is one of those movies that is a gem with a few flaws.
It starts off like most FF movies, black screen with white text explaining how this was the last known footage of a documentary crew. The funny thing is this actually found footage of found footage. That's right, they've double the footage you can find! There was an incident at this haunted attraction called Hell House. One person survived and brought the first set of found footage tapes to the documentary crew. It was basically the crew setting up the attractions for this haunt in an abandon hotel called The Hotel Abaddon. Now anyone worth their set of Time Life Occult book set knows that Abaddon is the name of a fallen angel whose name means “Destroyer” and setting up shop here would be a bad idea. As the documentary team views these tapes they see how much of a bad idea it was.
I loved the jump scares in this. We're usually watching from the point of view of Paul who has the task of recording the team setting everything up. He'll pass a camera past a doorway and there will be a shadowy figure. There is this whole deal with a clown mannequin that is so ridiculous it starts off kinda funny and gets creepy real quick. There are the normal “shaky cam run for your life but you better not stop filming moments” but only when it would feel natural to run or feel panicked. It really makes sense in this movie more than any other found footage mess. I'm looking at you “Paranormal Activity.”
The one big problem I did have was they glossed over the backstory. I would have loved to know more about this hotel named after a demon! Why is it called Abaddon? I would have loved to know more about the ghosts. It was kinda just thrown out there.
This is probably one of the better Found Footage movies I've seen. It's got decent scares and a cast that isn't just annoying death fodder. It's well acted and very well written. It was filmed in a real haunted attraction so it has an authentic feel. Take a chance and visit Hell House LLC tonight!
Robin Thompson, HMS
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