| Hell House LLC | |
| Director: | Stephen Cognetti |
| Producer: | Joe Bandelli |
| Starring: | Ryan Jennifer Jones Danny Bellini Gore Abrams Jared Hacker Adam Schneider Alice Bahlke |
| Cinematography: | Brian C. Harnick |
| Runtime: | 83 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Hell House LLC is a 2015 American found-footage supernatural horror film written and directed by Stephen Cognetti and produced by Joe Bandelli. It is the first installment in the Hell House LLC franchise. The film, shot as a documentary, follows a group of Halloween haunted house creators as they prepare for the 2009 opening of their popular haunted attraction, Hell House. Tragedy strikes on opening night when an unknown "malfunction" causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff. The film reveals the lead-up to the tragedy and what really went wrong that night, the details of which have remained a mystery to the public. The film was released on a number of video on-demand platforms, including Amazon Video, Shudder, YouTube, Vudu, and iTunes, on November 1, 2016.[1]
A sequel, , was released on September 20, 2018.[2] A second sequel, Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire was released in September 2019, and a fourth, was released in October 2023. All were released exclusively on Shudder. A fifth film, Hell House LLC: Lineage is set to release in October 2025.[3]
The film is presented as a documentary investigating an unexplained accident at an abandoned hotel in the town of Abaddon in Rockland County, New York that was set up as a haunted house.
Fifteen people, including the first group of attendees and the members of the Hell House company that opened the attraction, died in what authorities decreed as an "unknown malfunction".
The documentary crew, led by producer Diane Graves, interview people familiar with the case and find rumors of something supernatural behind the tragedy. The crew tracks down the sole surviving member of the Hell House staff, Sara Havel, who provides them with footage shot in the lead up to the tragedy.
Havel's tapes document the company's arrival at the Abaddon Hotel as they set it up for Halloween. Each employee experiences unexplainable events but Alex, the CEO of the company, is determined to open the attraction. The footage suggests the hotel may have been the site of a Satanic cult. Despite the disturbances, the Hell House group dismisses the activity and opens the attraction. All of the guests and company crew are attacked by supernatural beings and 15 people are killed.
Sara, who is interviewed by the documentary crew in a nearby hotel, asks for a break from filming. She tells Diane she will be in her hotel room - room 2C - if the team has questions. She also suggests the crew should break into the Abaddon to see for themselves what happened inside. Soon after, Diane attempts to leave a message at the hotel reception desk for Sara, but reception informs her that no one under Sara’s name is registered as a guest and there is no room 2C at that hotel.
Diane and her cameraman decide to visit the Abaddon Hotel site. Mitchell, a member of the documentary film crew, stays behind to catalogue Sara's footage. He sees something that deeply disturbs him, but is hidden from the audience, and tries to call Diane but cannot get through.
Diane and her cameraman break in and see the aftermath of what unfolded that night. They go to the second floor, where they see a room labeled '2C', the same room Sara said she was staying in. When they enter the room, they find Sara sitting with her back to them. Diane and her cameraman try to flee but are attacked by a ghoulish Sara and other ghostly figures.
It is revealed that what Mitchell saw was a possessed member of Hell House killing Sara; she has been dead the whole time they had been speaking to her, and there were, in fact, no survivors.
In 2011, the film's executive producers asked for a script revolving around a haunted attraction gone wrong. After many rewrites, the script was locked by late 2013. Casting took place in New York City in February 2014, and production took place shortly after, in May. Initially, the filmmakers were in search of an abandoned house to shoot the film in, as the original script had the events taking place in a house. As early as 2012, the director had been visiting many abandoned buildings and homes, including two in the New York county where the story takes place, Rockland County, New York. After not finding anything suitable, they instead began searching for real haunted house attractions to shoot in. They found the haunted attraction called the Haunting at the Waldorf Hotel in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, run by Angie Moyer, who served as the film's set designer. The script had to be changed in a few areas to reflect the change in setting.
After filming wrapped within Lehighton in May, the production then moved to New York City, where most of the interviews were filmed. In mid-June, filming was complete, and the movie went to post-production, where it would be edited for the next five months, before the first private screening of a rough cut would be seen in the Rose Studio at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
After a few more rounds of re-cuts, the film was locked just before its first public screening at the Telluride Horror Show in October 2015. The film would also screen at Fear Fete Film Festival the same week, where it won the best paranormal film award. The worldwide distribution rights for Hell House LLC were acquired by Terror Films, with a North American VOD release date of November 1, 2016.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives Hell House LLC a 73% positive rating based on eleven critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.50/10.[4] Dread Central gave the film a positive review, awarding it a score of 3.4/5.[5] Found Footage Critic praised the cast, premise, and cinematography, giving the film a rating of 7.8 of 10.[6] The Horror Society gave a score of 8.75 out of 10 and saying the mystery and suspense works for this film.[7] SlashFilm also gave the film a positive review writing that "Stephen Cognetti's Halloween chiller marries found footage with haunted attractions, channeling a popular and rational fear."[8] Luke Rodriguez of Modern Horror was more critical of the film, saying that "it doesn't quite stick the landing", but otherwise enjoyed the film.[9]
In an interview with Geeks of Doom, Cognetti has stated that he sees the Hell House LLC trilogy as "one movie just divided into three acts and each movie is its own act". He further commented that he found it easy to write the second and third parts, as he knew "where I wanted to go with it from the get-go".[10]
See main article: Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel. Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel was released on Shudder on September 20, 2018.[11] [12] The film's plot centers around a group of journalists who have gathered to explore the Abaddon Hotel, which has once again been abandoned following the events of the prior film. The movie further fleshes out the character of Andrew Tully, a character introduced in the first film, and his goal of opening a gate to hell. None of the journalists leave the abandoned hotel alive. The sole survivor found by the police is revealed to have been dead all along and sent out to intrigue people into visiting the hotel.
Bloody Disgusting reviewed the film, criticizing it as a "well-intentioned misstep".[13]
See main article: Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire. Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire was released as a Shudder exclusive on September 19, 2019.[14] The film is the third and final installment of the original trilogy. The film is styled as a documentary following Russell Wynn, a wealthy and mysterious entrepreneur who wants the Abaddon Hotel to serve as the location for an immersive theater experience called "Insomnia" based on Faust. Although aware of the location's history, he is keen to proceed with the venture despite others warning him of ongoing and frightening supernatural events. This prompts the documentary team to investigate Russell's past and the prior two events, uncovering new footage that implies Russell was involved with or was monitoring events. When opening night arrives chaos ensues. However, Russell manages to wrestle Tully and overcome him before he can kill or take any other innocent lives. The following day one of the documentary crew muses that Russell was likely an angel sent back to defeat Tully and bring an end to his evil plans. Before the film ends, Russell manages to bring back the spirits of the original crew who died in the house, telling them that they are free from the evil but that the house still holds them captive. The song "Running Away" by the Pittsburgh based band "Post Traumatik" was used during the bar scene.
Film School Rejects was critical of the movie, stating that it was "an ambitious stab at closing out a horror trilogy, but as much as that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating the end result is an unfortunate disappointment. Still, fans of the first two — or even the first one — might find some worthwhile closure in the final swan song of the Abaddon Hotel."[15] The film holds a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews.[16]