Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor

Let me start off by saying this was a very scary movie. I've been a big fan of the Hell House franchise for a while especially the first movie, so I had to watch this. This movie does the Hell House LLC IP justice in terms of scares, but unfortunately falls flat in almost all other regards of an interesting and well rounded film.

The acting is bad. It is very very bad. At no point does it seem like the characters believe or feel what they are saying. Their facial expressions are exaggerated and their mannerisms/speech are simply not convincing. It feels less like the actors are trapped inside an evil, haunted mansion, and more like they are reading lines off a teleprompter. It Is so so so bad. The choices they make are also ridiculous, to the point where it completely detracts from the realism.

Now that that is out of the way... this is in fact a very scary movie. It does rely heavily on jump scares which is slightly disappointing, but they are done very well and the tension building is top notch. The atmosphere is super creepy and the camera work, lighting, music/sound, all contributes to the super eerie vibe of the film.

This easily could have been an 8/10 if the acting and writing had been on par with the first Hell House. Overall I would still suggest giving it a watch just because how creepy it is.

A lesbian couple and one of their siblings spend a few days in a mansion where a family was murdered right after the mass suicide at The Abaddon Hotel.

The original "Hell House LLC" is literally the only found-footage movie that I've ever liked. It felt realistic, the characters were compelling, and there were a few great scares. The first sequel made the mistake of trying to explain the history of the hotel, which the second pursued further (and with some of the most amateurish acting I've ever seen outside of '90s porn!).

Thankfully, this movie sort of went back to basics. The acting is generally natural, there are some decent creep-outs, and we're not bogged down with ridiculous details.

There are a couple of things that keep it from being truly great though. The first film, which centered on the opening of a house-of-horrors, had plenty of behind-the-scenes dramas among the characters. It felt like there was a full story there, where this feels like more of a Ghost Hunters sketch of a story. My other big problem is the clowns (and no, I don't have coulrophobia!). It made sense that the clowns were seen in a Halloween attraction, but the excuse for their appearance in this mansion seems pretty flimsy -- just like all of the other ties to The Abaddon Hotel.

Those gripes aside, it's well-made, a good popcorn flick, and recommended to anyone who liked the original. Also worth noting: a brief scene after the end credits teases another sequel.

The first hell house is enjoyable because it's kind of a hidden gem that's just recently gained more popularity. It had a lot of ambiguity in the story and left a pretty open ended story. The acting in part one is pretty good as well. Then we get to parts 2 and 3...

Those movies feel cheap. Much cheaper and just seemed to be feeding off the success of the first one. The acting is horrible in both, the news anchor is part 2 is laughably bad. Part 3 is more of the same. Neither one adds much to the story either.

This movie has much better acting and cinematography than the previous two. It feels like this one was made to actually further the story, not just as a cash grab. This movie does a much better going into the backstory than previous attempts. It's not perfect, but it does have some good scares and does a great job building tension. There are two seperate stories in this one and the way they connect works quite well. I'd recommend this for sure.

I was looking forward to this installment of the series but my God I couldn't even finish it since the actress who plays Margot is just horrendous: she's constantly screaming her dialogue; she has no chemistry with her costars (the girlfriend and the brother), who, in comparison, are actually pretty decent; she's not at all convincing in any of her interactions or actions. It feels like she's in a different movie or production altogether, like a bad high school play. There have been some bad performances in these movies but she definitely takes the cake as the worst. Wish they chose a different lead.

I loved the original Hell House: great scares, reasonable characters, great premise. The other sequels lacked all of that.

This one delivers on the great scares. Great tension, effective use of jumpscares. The premise and characters are okay here. Not great but not egregious. There's a couple eye-roll moments where they try too hard to tie it into the original (the music now has lyrics? What?).

It sounds like I'm really down on it when all I have good to say about it is the scares, but really, the directing is great at ratcheting up the tension and then hitting you with a solid moment of horror.

I'm knocking a half point off though for the very last scene before the credits, which felt like a weird retcon that didn't need to be in the movie at all.