The Hell House LLC is one of my favourite discoveries (Picture: Shudder, Terror Films)
Not many films can paralyse me with fear, but Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor did just that.
I had been a huge fan of the Hell House LLC series since I stumbled across the first instalment on Shudder during a lazy weekend a few years ago. I often question whether I should cancel my subscription to the streaming platform that’s dedicated to horror and save a few pounds each month, but then there’s always one film that draws me back in.
The first Hell House LLC, released in 2015, was that rare gem and my only regret is that I didn’t discover it sooner.
It had everything I love watching in horror: A group of friends who make silly yet entertaining decisions; a seriously creepy venue like a haunted house; or, in this case, an abandoned hotel and clowns.
I actually have a genuine fear of clowns so the fact that I love films like Hell House and Terrifier will always be a mystery to me.
When I realised Hell House LLC was also found footage, I could not grab my snacks and press play fast enough. And just like that, I was gripped.
Filmed through self-shot footage, it follows a documentary crew as they visit the scene of a haunted house tour five years after 15 people were killed there, and try to investigate what really happened. Cue all the terrifying props, odd noises, dark basements and the most frightful clown I’ve ever seen.
It’s always a satisfying feeling when you accidentally stumble upon a good film but, especially for such a low budget, Hell House LLC was genuinely a solid movie.
I’ll always scream about how deliciously good the original film is so it was disappointing that the subsequent sequels, House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel and Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (a travesty), failed to recreate the sheer terror that their predecessor so expertly conjured up.
That all changed with the release of the fourth instalment Origins: The Carmichael Manor this time last year.
Seriously, is this not the most terrifying clown to exist (Picture: Shudder, Terror Films)
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is a well-executed found footage sequel (Picture: Shudder, Terror Films)
Naturally after a huge decline in quality and storytelling, I didn’t exactly have high hopes to watch a third sequel but I still felt obliged to now already invested in the franchise.
Well, thank the heavens I did because Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor completely restored my faith in the waning art of found footage. Despite taking place in a new and unfamiliar setting (this sequel moves to, well, a manor as the title suggests), Origins surprisingly felt so familiar to the original. The scares were just as harrowing and the story stripped back, allowing true fear to manifest organically.
It also gave a well-fleshed-out backstory to one of the main villains of the series (that darn clown), which so many sequels fail to do.
There’s a special place in my heart for found footage and so it’s disheartening when it’s executed poorly. Until Hell House LLC Origins, it felt as though the subgenre was massively struggling to reclaim the magic it had in the 00s and 10s.
We can’t talk about found footage without mentioning the films that walked so Hell House could run.
It’s never an easy time visiting Hell House (Picture: Shudder, Terror Films)
Clowns that will haunt your dreams (Picture: Shudder, Terror Films)
I still remember the glory days of gems like REC, Creep, Lake Mungo and The Visit, not to forget the forefathers of the genre: The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.
But it’s only fair to also acknowledge recent successes such as pandemic-centric Host (2020), Superhost (2021), Late Night With the Devil (2023) and Searching (2018). However, they have been too few and far between for my liking over the past few years.
The formula for a good found footage may look easy; find a creepy location, film selfie-style and press record, but it can be so poorly done as we have seen too many times in the past. It’s the really great ones that make it look easy and Hell House LLC Origins did just that.
These days, it feels like a flash in the pan to get it right when it comes to found footage.
The fourth instalment of Hell House shook things up for horror fans who simply weren’t expecting it to be that great, and it proved found footage still has steam in it yet as a subgenre.
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