by For such a young genre it would seem that found footage horror films have pretty much bottomed out when it comes to originality. There’s not a lot you can do with it to be honest, and the whole ‘home security documenting ghostly activity’ angle is entirely played out by now. There are only so many different angles and scares you can do with this scenario, and so copycats are fairly commonplace. I will be the first to admit that I still love these films even if they tend to be a bit ‘samey.’ I don’t really expect much from new found footage films and that’s exactly how I felt about Hell House LLC when I saw it on Amazon. I had an hour and a half to spare and so I decided to give it a whirl. Not many have heard of this film which is a shame because in my opinion it’s one of the single best found footage films ever. That’s saying a lot for yet another found footage film, but read on to find out why.
Instead of being entirely based on found footage Hell House LLC instead is part documentary as well. It begins with a film crew going over information related to a tragedy that occurred at a haunted house on the opening night. This includes interviews with journalists, and even the one surviving member of the cast. We’re shown news footage covering the event, videos from an attendee supposedly uploaded to YouTube, and even a recording of a 911 call made that night. While interviewing Sarah Havel, who is the only surviving member of the staff, it is revealed that she hid footage the crew made from the moment they started working on the haunted house all the way to the end of opening night. We are then showed this footage.
The tapes begin with the five friends Sara, Alex, Mac, Tony and Paul as they arrive at the abandoned hotel called the Abbadon that they intend to turn into a popular haunted house. They have a limited amount of time to pull off this big change, and manage to document at least a little of every day. The property is run down and they discover some satanic writing on the walls of the dilapidated basement. They disregard it, and the local stories about the hotel being haunted, and get to work. As opening night approaches they begin to notice one of their clown mannequins out of place having seemingly moved by itself. Strange noises wake them up in the night, and one of the crew members goes missing only to return silent and shaken. The rest of the crew continues on despite tensions rising and things come together nicely for the tragic opening night.
Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the premise. A found footage film based around the creation of a haunted house is a great idea and allows for an incredible and fun ambiance. So many other found footage films suffer from bland scenery, but here we have a constant barrage of props to look at which makes this a surprisingly fun romp. The hotel itself is one of the best settings I’ve seen so far in a found footage film. The backstory behind it is a bit contrived, but it’s plenty creepy and helps maintain an oppressive and dirty ambiance that works quite well with the story. Furthermore the haunted house props are exceptionally well done, but in some of the creepier sequences it can be a bit difficult to tell what is and isn’t supposed to be there. It takes nothing away from the film, but serves to make this one worth repeated viewings to notice all of the details.
Found footage films live and die by the characters they follow, and I’m happy to say the cast is enjoyable to watch here. They frequently make quips at each other and their interactions as friends are pretty organic. What’s more is that their actions are fairly believable; Alex the CEO of Hell House is headstrong and bent on making the attraction a success and the manner by which he manages to keep everyone there despite the spooky occurrences requires no suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, the documentary style sequences with the interviews and fake archive footage is pretty well done. I’m sure it’s enough to fool most casual audiences into thinking this is real footage. This holds true until the ending which, while not as strong as the parts building up to it, is plenty scary but unfortunately shatters the illusions put into place up to this point.
In an age after the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity it’s tough for a found footage horror film to really surprise me. Before Hell House LLC I didn’t think it was possible. They’ve taken a fun and unique premise to a stale genre and managed to revitalize it. It’s difficult for a horror film to scare me these days, particularly a found footage entry, but here I was sitting on the edge of my seat, several scenes made me jump, and the whole thing managed to stick with me long after I turned the TV off. The characters are serviceable, the scares legitimate, and the documentary style interviews are oddly compelling. It’s a real shame this one is so obscure because it beats the pants off of every similar movie released in the past few years. This is all my opinion of course, but you absolutely need to watch this film.
Pros
- Genuinely scary
- The haunted house Halloween theme is fun
- Likable characters
Cons
- Bad twist ending
