Hell House LLC

 

I finally got around to seeing this on Shudder and I guess Found Footage will remain a viable option for the horror genre, because even when you don't reinvent the wheel, the effect of what is around the corner -- an evil presence seemingly always there inside the Abaddon Hotel as long as visitors (or folks looking to kick off a haunted house there for the Halloween season) have the morbid curiosity to show up -- can always be depended on when done right. While I thought this 2015 moc-doc doesn't necessarily feature anything of great significance story-wise that hasn't been done before, does "Hell House LLC" really need to? The creep factor of full-bodied clown doll props showing up in places besides the basement with their heads turned despite no human assistance, or cloaked figures and pale-faced, off-color eyed ghouls emerging as strobe lights go one and off or when lights are turned on by a camera man named Paul, a bit of a goof who loves to annoy his boss, Alex's girlfriend with lens closeups or sneaking up on her and him while they flirt in their bedroom...Hell House has the location down and enough "they lurk around every corner just ready to show up" spooky shenanigans for sure. I had some horror fans tell me to see this on Shudder if I wanted a spooky good time on r/horror on Reddit and this is the kind of movie that seems perfect for a popular horror genre service looking to gain new fans. It isn't a Found Footage horror that really attempts to fix what isn't broken, and there is plenty of "I dare you to look away" provocation.

My Letterboxd review from Monday evening:

You know, this isn't too shabby. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, and the Blair Witch vibes are all over this found footage horror moc (one scene has Sara staring at a wall reciting a language she clearly doesn't know, lost in a trance when discovered late in the night), but there is some content I really thought was rather effective. The props of the fullbodied clowns in the basement popping up other places or caught with heads turned is right up my alley. The camera work is a well-worn critique, so I won't overemphasize some frustration with that. When you watch a found footage horror film, the bad/erratic camera work is par for the course. The use of Sara as a plot device might suffer some resistance since who or what is she considering when being interviewed this young woman is in the room, hands over lots of footage to a new film crew and journalist, actually looks like a human being without any scars or wounds. So I could see why some might question whether or not that works or doesn't. I get that she is used for effect to lure fresh victims to Abaddon Hotel.

The location and how it is dressed (the age of the building, the old pictures, look of abandonment, what is left inside is in disarray, disheveled, and left behind by various occupants, including the eerie basement with the chalk pentagram on the wall and old bibles) is great "relic porn"...for a horror fan like me, this is a thing of spooky beauty. I eat this shit up.

But we return to an obvious complaint that a lot of these films have: when there are warning signs of possible danger and presence of something seriously off and scary, why not GET THE FUCK OUT?! They put together Alex and his seeming stranglehold (I'm thinking financially, as a conversation between Mac and Tony would indicate they are tethered to Alex whether they want to be or not) on his crew as having to make the opening night of the haunted hotel work. I just screamed at Paul, "Dude, you have seen some creepy shit through your camera...what more evidence do you need?!" Tony was just about to get the hell out and Mac talked him back to the hotel...he was almost outta there!

I did really like the scene where Paul is in a room during a strobe light check, where a figure pops up here and there, and the room where Paul stays has a figure of a woman, blacked in the background of a room lit with some red light, walking in and out very methodically. And I am guessing Paul's final scene where his mind is "in one piece" under a sheet as a ghoul keeps getting closer to him could be considered the stuff of nightmares. It is one of the most blatant on screen scare attempts of the film. I prefer the more subtle moments, where you see flashes of figures. At 1:26:49, you briefly see a young man in the camera of a new inquisitive journalist's camera man before they reach "Room 2C" and Sara that I thought was quite intriguing. But any other outcome than what happens is not the least bit surprising...like, seriously, why are you going into that hotel, for chrissakes?!