‘Well, that is a bit tacky,’ you would say if touring a haunted house were to be the main setting for a horror movie, but ‘Hell House LLC’ will prove you wrong by a long shot. It is a curated mockumentary that alternates between found footage of the haunted house’s organizers and people investigating it after the haunting occurred.
While the film contains a few jump scares, it is the spookiness of the imagery that will make your skin crawl. While the concept of ‘found footage’ is not a new one in horror films, few have managed to handle it well. This film is recommended for fans of ‘The Blair Witch Project (1999)’ and ‘The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)’. Without further ado, let us talk about Stephen Cognetti’s film ‘Hell House LLC.’ TW- there is a lot of blood, murder, and suicide in the descriptions and dialogues.
Scariest Haunted House Tour – Hell House LLC (2015)
The film starts with Diane Graves interviewing different people about the events that took place at the Abbadon Hotel which is situated on the outskirts of New York City. On the opening night of ‘Hell House’ in 2009. We then see clips from the news of the aftermath where the police and ambulances had arrived to help the injured.
Numerous fatalities of the crew, as well as visitors, were reported. Diane interviews people who were keen enough to explore the incident unlike the majority of the township who wanted to bury it under a technical malfunction when it was evident something supernatural was at play. From one of the visitor’s footage at the start, we see how things in the haunted house took an ugly turn.
We begin hearing whispers of ‘this wasn’t supposed to happen’ coming from the crew as doors began shutting and things began to shatter. Lastly, the basement which harbored the ‘supposed’ exit for the visitors was where the worst incidents took place all those at the foot of the staircase struggled to get back up frantically through the crowd and this is where the camera cuts. This visitor footage was uploaded to YouTube initially but later taken down when the incident was buried.
The families of the victims were left in the dark and their cause of death was deemed due to a malfunction. The 911 call made by a visitor that day is played and the static noises along with the panicked screams can be heard. The girl says ‘…. into the wall’ in an attempt to explain what is happening before the call disconnects.
We will understand what she means later in the film. All this evidence, clearly showcases how these deaths were not due to a malfunction. Diane also interviews Martin Cliver who is a photographer who broke into Hell House after a while to take pictures of what’s left behind. He stated how the basement doors were blown off their hinges and there was blood everywhere on the floor.
However, he decided to not venture into the basement and left after taking pictures of the staircase. This detailing and hesitation in how people act in the film is what makes ‘Hell House LLC’ seem realistic. While, in other horror films it is a common trope for people to unabashedly walk towards danger, in ‘Hell House LLC’ you can see their hesitation.
The movie begins to pick up the pace when Sara Havel one of the surviving crew of Hell House agrees for Diane to interview her. Sara looks pale and grief-stricken when she sits down to get interviewed. Upon being asked why she agreed to this – did not speak up at the time, Sara simply stated that people would not accept the truth and chaos would break out.
She then retrieves a bag and places it on the table asking Diane to review all the tapes in the bag, as they contain everything. The crew as a ritual would film their setting up process entirely to improve in the future and rewatch it for themselves. Post this point the movie is primarily driven by Sara’s tapes.
Five friends namely Alex, Sara, Mac, Tony, and Paul are driving to Abbadon Hotel to set up the haunted house for Halloween on August 23rd. They joke and bicker like any group of friends. Upon reaching the dilapidated hotel that does not even have functional electricity we see how their dynamics blossoms and lead them to start setting up. Alex is the head of the operation and is in a romantic relationship with Sara.
While Paul mans the camera for the majority of the film only occasionally switching with Tony. They take a tour of the hotel and discover that the entire dining area has been smashed while the basement has clown and freak dummies, there are satanic star drawings on the wall. Alex calls all such things as ‘free production’ while all others especially Paul are skeptical.
They ask him what happened to the property that led them to shut the hotel and Alex brushed it off saying it was due to a lawsuit. They decide to use walkie-talkies to communicate with each other but they start malfunctioning and start producing high-pitched static noises.
Sara on the tape where Diane is interviewing her says that the real trouble only began when the friends started staying over at night after the electricity was fixed. Paul who is responsible for filming decides to film small updates at night from his bedroom. Here, he expresses how lonely he is but all the while he is talking in the darkness with only his face well lit due to the torch, we see a figure of a female looming at the exit of his room.
He turns and spots her and calls out for Sara thinking it’s her but the figure turns around and leaves wordlessly. Soon the actors for the ‘Hell House’ arrive. The prominently shown actors on tape are Joey and Melissa who are to be placed in the basement. Joey is a buff man who is both tasked with being a clown downstairs but also protecting Melissa from visitors.
This is because her act is being the scantily clad tied-up damsel in distress. Melissa asks how everyone is okay with being in a place that has such horrible rumors. This shocks Paul who is filming as Alex had not told them any history about the place. With this, the footage cuts back to people Diane was interviewing before Sara. Here, we learn about the local story of the previous owner – Andrew Tully.
Andrew Tully built the hotel in Abbadon as that is the name of a demon in the bible. Tully was also said to be a leader of a biblical cult. That explained the numerous bibles and symbols in the basement. In his hotel, a mother and daughter that came to stay had disappeared.
He avoided being arrested by producing false evidence of their departure but his hotel’s reputation had been tainted. Tully ended up hanging himself in the dining hall of the hotel. Moreover, in Diane’s documentary we are told that Joey had survived the night but in fact, had refused to talk about it and hung himself nine days later.
The crew experience numerous odd events which kept getting worse and worse. Initially, Paul was the one who was at the receiving end of all these hauntings. Since he was also the videographer, he was able to show evidence to the others later on. They however began dismissing it all as pranks Paul was pulling to get them all on edge.
The clown dummy whose head was fixed and unable to turn otherwise began appearing in different places outside the basement at night and even turning its head. Moreover, there is something the viewers can recognize and not the characters in the film just yet. Paul films Sara simply standing and staring at a statue of Jesus outside the hotel in the field. Her stance is exactly like the figure looming in Paul’s room at night.
One night, all four boys hear a loud strange noise. They all leave to investigate it and begin hearing Sara’s whispering voice coming from the basement. They find her standing facing the door speaking in an unrecognizable language. They call out to her and she begins crying once she’s out of the trance not knowing how she got here.
From the next day, tensions start running high as Alex is adamant to make a profit from this venture while the others are concerned about their well-being. Their loyalty to Alex holds them back. As the day of the opening nears, we see the preparations and decorations get completed. Paul is put to the task of filming a tour with the light effects.
This of course goes wrong where he ends up getting trapped in a dark room with flickering lights, where the number of dummies they had placed had increased and their positions had changed! Once, Paul manages to get out, he immediately throws up which is something the actor actually did and was not scripted.
A few days later, Paul experiences another haunting at night. He is filming another one of his updates while unbeknownst to him, a girl can be seen sitting on the floor to the left of his mattress. He notices her after a while and freaks out. She looks up, she has ginger hair and startling blue eyes. Paul covers himself with his bed covers and calms his breathing to look out again.
The girl has moved right next to his face and that is where the footage cuts. The others discover that Paul has disappeared the next day and Alex presumes he has quit. When others ask him to call Paul, he does so only to hear the same static noises of the walkie-talkie when the call is picked up.
In Paul’s absence, the hauntings continue and this time Tony is the one, who is doing the filming. The piano begins playing at night along with the striking of the grandfather clock. Mac and Tony both call out for Paul thinking he is again messing with them. They descend into the basement where Tony sees the head of the clown dummies turn and rush to meet Mac.
Mac puts this on Paul stating he does not believe in ghosts. They together find Paul sitting in a corner of the basement in a trace unable to speak. Paul remains like this for days leading up to the opening and is asleep on the opening night as well. At this point, even Tony wants to quit but stays for the sake of his friendship with Mac.
We get to see an extended cut of all that went wrong on the opening night from the crew’s perspective along with the visitors that were inside. The gates to ‘Hell House’ open at 8 pm. The crew, other than Paul who as we mentioned previously was asleep, can be seen working behind the scenes.
We now see everything through Mac’s go pro perspective and he is suddenly approached by Sara who tells him that she just saw Paul who simply stared at her. Then we see Joey, the clown in the basement, run past them. Mac understands that something is not right as Sara leaves and the doors shut behind her.
The walkie-talkies have completely malfunctioned and Mac can no longer communicate with Tony and Alex. The footage shifts to that of visitors in the basement where Melissa who is tied up is screaming ‘Please help me, this isn’t part of the show’ as all the dummies have come to life. The footage gets disturbed as people scream and try to leave but are trapped in the basement due to the crowd at the stairs. People are seen rushing out. We then hear the grandfather clock strike as the camera pans to an old portrait of a girl with ginger hair and striking blue eyes.
After this footage, we get back to Diane interviewing Sara. Diane who is shocked by all this information asks Sara if she was harmed on her way out. Sara denies being hurt in any way at all and this is unsettling considering the circumstances that day. Sara then states she is drained from the interview and requires a break. She tells Diane she is staying in room ‘2C’ in the hotel they are currently filming.
Before the camera cuts and Diane packs her equipment, Sara asks Diane to go visit ‘Hell House’ nearby. When Diane states it is barricaded and they don’t have permission, Sara insists that it is important she sees the place for herself. Diane convinces her cameraman Jonathan to come with her despite his hesitation.
When they are about to leave the enquire at the desk where room number ‘2C’ is and are informed there is no such room. Neither has ‘Sara Havel been registered as a guest. Brushing this aside, Diane leaves for ‘Hell House’ leaving behind her crewmate Mitchell to review the rest of the footage.
While Diane and Jonathan are filming at Hell House, we see the footage being reviewed. We see the gap from the time Sara met Paul on the opening night to when she is finally outside. Sara had stated she was not harmed but that was a lie. In this footage, we are shown how when she sees that Paul is awake, she rushes up to him but he stares at her.
Sara backs away from him but he grabs her and starts hitting her. He spots the camera and points it to the ceiling while he continues to hit Sara and we see blood splatter on the walls. The footage then gets disrupted. The next scene is of Sara’s bloodied face coughing more blood as she dies and only Paul’s legs are in the shot as he stands over her body. Someone off-screen drags Sara away as we see Paul walk out of frame.
Only for the footage does he get disturbed and he walks right back. Paul then as though in a trance, slides down to the wooden floor and is now in the frame. He then slits his own throat. This is where the footage ends. All the while Diane and Jonathan are out exploring ‘Hell House’ at Sara’s request who is the same girl we just saw die on tape. They both come across blood marks on the floor and see all the places they have seen on tape.
Diane is fascinated while Jonathan wants them to leave. They begin arguing when they see a room door with ‘2C’ written on it. They both stop in their tracks and Diane unlocks the door without heeding Jonathan. They see Sara sitting on the edge of the bed with her back facing the door. Diane approaches her gingerly as Sara abruptly gets up and turns. Her face is bloodied like in the tapes as she approaches Diane and Jonathan who are both screaming. The footage disrupts and stops here.
Why Should You Watch Hell House LLC?
‘Hell House LLC’ used the genre of ‘found footage’ in a manner in which the film does not seem choppy or lazily put together. Tiny details link to each other and are carefully considered in the film. One such example is Sara stating ‘I’m in a better place’ right at the start as a response to the question ‘How are you?’ but it is often a phrase used for the dead- which she turns out to be at the end! The pacing makes the viewer tense and the creepy scenes send shivers down your spine.
Moreover, the story of the crew’s friendship and how the haunting change their dynamics is one, that is very well done. They all begin to slowly fall apart. It is the classic case of the ‘Ouija Board’ where everyone begins to accuse each other of messing with them by moving the planchette. Yet here, there is an added layer of dread that the viewer can experience as they see the supernatural incidences unfold clearly and just wish for these friends to trust each other. This gap in their communication leads them to their doom.