Hell House LLC

Review

The hype is real for this one, Hell House LLC is very scary. The movie stays away from traditional jumpscares, favoring slow scenes through dark areas where the scare is things changing while the characters aren’t watching. I think this movie is super effective with it’s horror and it definitely left me feeling unsettled by the dark.

Hell House LLC is about a haunted house that gets set up in an abandoned hotel which gets shut down on the first night due to something happening in the basement. The movie follows a documentary which seeks to uncover the truth about what happened that night. They are contacted by one of the people who helped organize the haunted house and she provides them with video that they filmed documenting the process of creating the haunt. The movie ends with the reveal that some demon(?) cultists appeared in the basement on opening night and started killing people and that Sara has been dead this whole time, attempting to lure the crew into the hotel to kill them too.

I think the use of an intentionally scary setting can really do a lot for a horror movie. Questions like why are you walking in to the obviously scary hotel are mitigated when the hotel is meant to be scary and is in fact dressed up to appear even scarier than it originally was. It makes the characters more on edge but less willing to believe that anything is actually happening due to their heightened emotions. I think it’s used really well here with Paul knowing something is going on but nobody else believing him even with video proof, because it’s just a scary place to be at night but it’s not actually haunted.

The set dressing throughout this movie was done so well. The clowns in the basement were actively ruining my life and seeing the black and white clown keep popping up around the haunt was literally the worst and I couldn’t handle it. I also liked how packed the whole haunt was because I swear those cult figures were sprinkled throughout the movie but there were so many mannequins and figures that it was hard to tell if there was a new figure or if it was all in your head.

As for the actual scares, I really like them. This movie did a really good job of mixing scare tactics and not relying too heavily on any one type of scare. Obviously, I thought the clowns were literally awful, but my favorite scare was when Paul woke up, the girl demon was in his room and he hides under the cover. I know a lot of people think that scare is corny or stupid but it really worked well for me because I think I would have done the same thing given the situation. Another honorable mention is after Paul disappears and the piano starts playing the same thing Paul played with Hector. It starts creepy but once you realize that it’s the same melody it’s like a confirmation that they’ve got Paul and that worked really well for me. Another standout moment is when they find Sara staring at the wall speaking in tongues, that was really freaky especially since it was happening in combination with another clown scare.

Another thing I loved was the twist reveal at the end. Lots of people say that it’s obvious and it’s so telegraphed and it definitely is but I’m stupid and so it shocked me. They probably could have hidden the fact that all of the main workers at the haunt died which would have made the reveal more shocking but I honestly just thought that the report was wrong, especially since the beginning of the movie emphasizes how this whole incident got covered up and there was a whole misinformation campaign around it.

The characters in this movie were fine, I think generally they’re pretty unlikable but Paul was funny enough to overlook him being a bit of a creep for me. I think all the actors did a really good job, especially Paul and Sara’s actors after they both get possessed. I wish we got more time with Mac because we know essentially nothing about him and I also wish there was more time with Tony for the first half of the film because he suddenly becomes relevant halfway through once the movie needs a new cameraman.

Overall, I think that this was a fun but very scary time. I think anyone who likes to watch found footage will get at least one scare out of this movie and hopefully a fully good experience.