This week, writer/director Stephen Cognetti’s Hell House LLC franchise returns with a new prequel, Hell House LLC: Lineage. The fifth film in the popular found footage horror series aims to break the mold by ditching the lost tapes style for a more traditional narrative. We’ll soon find out if it can live up to the creepy thrills that fans have come to expect as the film is now haunting theaters nationwide.
Ever since Cognetti first opened the doors of Hell House back in 2015, the filmmaker has been scaring audiences’ skeletons out of their skin. Inside the Abaddon Hotel, you’ll find demonic ghosts, robed cultists, portals to Hell, and of course, those clown mannequins that enjoy a good stroll through our nightmares.
Below, you’ll find a list of what I’ve deemed to be the five scariest moments in the Hell House LLC franchise. The series contains all sorts of terrors, so I’m sure you’ll have some picks not listed here. After all, “scary” means something different for each of us. But that’s what has allowed Cognetti’s films some sense of immortality over the last decade. The Abaddon Hotel knows what scares you. One way or another, it always gets you in the end.
5. The Fate of Jackson Mallet – Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel
I can already hear the groans of disbelief that I’m starting with this. Sure, there are plenty of scenes from the Hell House LLC franchise that are more outright frightening than this one. Still, I consider the fate of Jackson Mallet (Tom Sibley) to be uniquely disturbing for one simple reason: the inevitability of fate.
Early on, we’re told the story of Jackson Mallet, who disappeared after entering Hell House. His mother has been receiving strange text messages and a video of an empty hotel room with Jackson screaming out of sight. That’s not the scariest part, though. What’s most disturbing is that Jackson’s mother recognizes Hell House’s iconic piano tune playing in the background…from a home movie when her son was just a boy. In it, young Jackson is caught playing the song before uttering, “The hotel opens in 2009. Tell everyone”. The Hell House franchise lives in the realm of fate, and this is the first taste we get of how far the Abaddon’s dark tendrils reach. Jackson was always destined to die in Hell House. Once the hotel has you in its sights, you’re stay there is all but guaranteed…
4. Paul’s Late-Night Visitor – Hell House LLC
Seeing a ghost would be scary. I’d need to change my sheets if I woke up and found one sitting in my room. Thus is the fate of Paul (Gore Abrams) in one of Hell House’s earliest and most frightening scares.
Sometime before Paul’s disappearance, he wakes up to a shadowy presence in his room, whom he believes to be Sara (Ryan Jennifer Jones). But we know better. After a few seconds of nervous sweats, the figure leaves. Nothing happens. So, when Paul again awakens to find a ghost girl across from his bed, a part of us believes he may make it out okay. Maybe holding the sheets over his head will work. That false hope makes it all the more shocking that Cognetti kills off a character we assumed would be with us the whole way. It also establishes that the Hell House franchise takes no prisoners. No one is safe. And, no, ghosts don’t just peace out because you look away.
3. Rebecca’s Zoom Meeting – Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
After an underwhelming third film, many fans seemed to agree that Cognetti’s prequel, The Carmichael Manor, was a return to form. The setting itself isn’t quite as scary as an old hotel littered with Halloween props, but it gets the job done. More importantly, the film features a fright that could jolt a corpse back to life.
Midway through, Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown) has a Zoom meeting with her boss. An important presentation over Zoom with spotty internet is already nerve-wracking. That’s before Rebecca’s slideshow begins displaying photos of the manor that she didn’t take. The more that appear, the closer the images get, until we’re right behind the poor woman, culminating in the horrific face of a ghost next to her own. Well-executed with a leap-out-of-your-seat payoff, this scene had me declaring that Hell House was back.
2. Jane’s Dare – Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire
Hell House LLC is that rare franchise where almost every fan has a consensus least favorite sequel…and that film is Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire. Every film in this series has at least one great scare, though. Part III is no exception.
The cast of “Insomnia” knows they’re not supposed to go inside Hell House alone after dark, but Jane (Bridgid Abrams) can’t resist a dare to do just that. By this point, we’re well aware of the dangers that lurk within the hotel. Cognetti weaponizes that awareness against us. He draws the sequence out as long as possible, letting Jane wander through the dark for what feels like an agonizing eternity (complimentary). She finally arrives in the basement where the trio of clowns sit…and decides to kiss one on the damn nose! Hell, no. Absolutely not. No amount of money could convince me to do that. I’m not saying Jane deserves to be chased through the hotel by the bleeding-eyes clown like she is after that, but, as the saying goes…fuck around and find out.
1. The Clown Moves – Hell House LLC
I’m sure there are plenty of you who won’t agree with this moment’s placement at number one. Nor will I disagree that, like the video of Jackson Mallet, there are plenty of more intense scenes throughout the franchise. But for me, this was the scene that hooked me on Hell House LLC, as I’m sure it did many fans.
When the Hell House team first comes across the trio of creepy clowns in the basement, they note that the stiff mannequins are incapable of turning their heads. This is another instance of Cognetti setting a foundation for scares to come. Sometime later, Paul comes across what might as well be the mascot of Hell House—the bleeding-eyes clown—standing at the bottom of the stairs. He believes he’s being punk’d. The camera looks away, and when it comes back, the clown’s head has turned to face us. I remember shouting, “Oh hell, no,” the first time I watched this. That same clown would go on to terrorize the rest of the Hell House films, but I have never felt more nervous than during that first iconic moment of horror.
What do you consider to be the scariest moments in the Hell House LLC franchise? Looking forward to Hell House LLC: Lineage? Let me know on Bluesky @werematt.
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