Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire

I liked the first (7/10), made peace with the second (5/10) and was frustrated by the third (4/10). I think it's awesome that there is such a trilogy, but it only got exponentially worse. I really wanted for that not to be the case.

The third part of "Hell House LLC" feels like more of the same with the same being much more amateur hour. Cheap is a fitting word here. It's hard to separate the positive things for there are so few of them, but in the bits and pieces was a good, short scare sequence, some ambitious concepts (with poor execution) and maybe something else. Shamefully, it's easy to point out the acute flaws, like the one that disappointed me the most, which was acting. At times there was on-the-nose, cringe-inducing performance materials, obvious and whacky (weakly) scripted dialogue citations & characters sometimes didn't make a lot of sense. At the start I was trying to be intrigued by the story, but the plot, with all its twists and turns, seems like a far fetch, a rushed script awkwardly executed. The amount of scares is smaller, somehow even the visual & technical aspects of the movie feel cheaper, showing off boring cinematography, very little new props/locations etc. in the game & an choppy, unintentionally funny climax with a shot that's seasoned with grade c cgi. Both video and audio editing doesn't excel with anything as well. One little thing I hated was the constant, repatitive flashbacks with the footage from the first two parts, it felt like anything but necessary.

Comparing it to its two predecessors, the third part feels undeservedly underdone and uninspiring. I don't know what happened, maybe it was financial issues or time issues, we-don't-have-any-good-ideas issues, but something went wrong, leaving us with a found-footage / mockumentary horror flick that rests below average and comes with a bonus disappointment, being the 3rd part of a franchise and all. I really wanted to like it more, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Wishing the filmmakers of "Hell House LLC" trilogy great future success, I give this one a 4/10.

Agreeing to film a documentary, a filmmaker joins an entrepreneur setting up an interactive fear-conquering show at a rumored haunted hotel, but while doing the behind-the-scenes work for the show come to realize that darker secrets are at play within the building and must stop it from happening.

This one wasn't all that bad conclusion to the franchise. When this one works, it's due to the enjoyable atmosphere created here that's quite eerie and creepy. As expected, the location of the hotel is used to fantastic effect with the notion of using the premise of a fear-based haunt opening at the location to bring out some creepy and chilling moments in the various walk-throughs of the darkened corridors. The sharp corners and pitch-black hallways are once again put to good use with several fine jump-scares, especially with the utterly creepy clown props strewn around used as the basis for the scenes, and combined with the slow-moving scenes that build up to something potentially happening before it does. That comes into play with the finale as the chaos of the demons coming free and running wild slaughtering anyone and everyone they come across throughout the building and even outside creates a fun, over-the-top action scene which has a lot to like about it. These here are the films' best aspects that hold it up overall. The film does have some pretty big flaws featured here. The main issue is the complete stupidity featured throughout the film that makes for a pretty jarring and discordant offering. The fact that the previous incidents that took place at the hotel are ignored in favor of bringing an interactive experience designed to take participants into their darkest fears at that location is an utterly lame way of ensuring the hauntings continue there. The stupidity to do that doesn't endear any sympathy to anyone involved here in the proposed show, especially when the film flip-flops between the past experiences both as a warning not to stay there or as motivation to keep the show at the hotel by way of beating the past incidents into the narrative through flashbacks clumsily inserted into the storyline to make the connection. Complete with the usual notion of being completely unwilling to turn the camera off when they're lives are at stake for no real reason, it's all apart of the general stupidity on display in the film. The other problem with this one is that the finale to this one is a completely underwhelming and overall mess that arises here. The attempt to bring together the various plotlines of the previous inhabitants to the hotel grounds in a satisfactory manner keeps this one going through several odd and jarring dialog pieces to try to tie everything together. With the mixture of on-set found-footage shot during the incidents in the past mixed with talking-head interviews of various people attempting to explain what went wrong just like the others at the location, this sets you up to know something's gone wrong even before it happens. The attempted explanations featured here due to that come off so ham-fisted and illogical that despite the use of closing off the storyline the final moments featured here just make no sense whatsoever and have no purpose for being shown, really taking this one down quite heavily.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

I really liked the first one. The second one was not as good as the first, but I didn't think it was terrible. The third one, I mean, it is part 3, how much truly new ground could they cover? A bad horror sequel is Blair Witch 2, and this film is certainly better then that one. I think people get a tad judgmental, and troll just to troll. This film, imo, is a decent conclusion. It was a fun, jump scare flick that is a decent way to spend about 90 minutes. Shudder is a cool channel that gives fans of horror, thriller, and suspense a place to go and find a bit of popcorn fun.

If you dig the genre, like honestly, dig the genre, there are films that are far worse. Let the trilogy tell its story and move on. This is not life changing material, but who said it was supposed to be?

A summation of my reviews for the first two entries in the 'Hell House LLC' trilogy would be that writer/director Stephen Cognetti wasn't getting the regular scenes in his movie right, but that his horror scenes were world class. Interestingly 'Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire' serves to prove that the opposite of that is a much worse thing. This film has far better acting than the first two and also the dialogue is much better written, and yet it is the weakest of all three by a significant margin. Why? Because he forgot about the horror this time around.

The film has a tremendous amount of over-lapping shots from the first two films, mostly to show what happened in a certain part of the hotel/house or who a certain character was. At first this is helpful, but then it happens far too often from there on out and becomes very annoying and distracting. I think you just have to have faith that the audience has seen the first two films, and if they haven't then the information they are missing out on isn't hugely critical to the enjoyment of this one.

I think Cognetti was so intent on wrapping everything up into a nice little bundle storywise that he forgot what made the first two films so good, which was the epic horror sequences they featured. This one has little moments here and there, but there is never that big payoff that the first two films achieved. 'Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire' was a little bit of a disappointing way to end an otherwise very good horror trilogy. It's not unwatchable, but it is a big step in the wrong direction.

Loved the first Hell House (7/10) and the 2nd was serviceable (5/10). I was expecting more from this one. The story was convoluted and the writing was weak. You've got a location where dozens of people have died or gone missing and everybody just flocks back likes its no big deal, even when similar unexplained things begin to happen again. Sure. Sad way to end the story.