I remember the first time I watched Stephen Cognetti’s 2015 found footage nightmare, Hell House LLC. Sitting on my couch, I acted like a teenager on a first date, crushing my body into my husband’s as I covered my face but watched between my fingers. From awful clowns to incredible uses of empty space, Cognetti crafted one of the scariest movies I’d seen in my adult life.
Now, ten years later, the series is coming to a close with its fifth entry, Hell House LLC: Lineage. But now, Cognetti veers into more traditional filmmaking techniques, with found footage taking on a supporting role instead of being the star. While such a change was alarming to fans of the series (myself included), I was pleasantly surprised to see that such an evolution was justified here as Cognetti opens up his lo-fi cult nightmare into more epic cosmic horror. However, if you’re new to the series or feel a bit rusty, definitely binge all four films before heading to the theater, because this is a film for fans, not the casual viewer.
Case in point, Hell House LLC: Lineage follows Vanessa Shepherd (Elizabeth Vermilyea), the sole survivor of the events in Hell House LLC III: The Lake of Fire. She’s living in Abaddon, New York, is struggling with alcoholism, and feels disconnected from the world around her after experiencing what she did. But then, people start to die around her, people who had connections to the Carmichael family and their nefarious dealings at the Abaddon Hotel. The deeper she digs into this ghostly conspiracy, the more she discovers about the decades of violence spurred on by the affluent family.
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While the film is supposed to connect everything and create a more holistic picture of just how sinister the Abaddon Hotel and Carmichael Manor are, it struggles under the weight of everything that came before it. Cognetti is trying to explain every little detail from the past, but that unfortunately creates more questions than answers in the seemingly final entry in a series. That’s not to say Cognetti’s approach is wrong; it is a breath of fresh air to see the disparate threads of the films start to connect. But the script tends to both veer into over-explaining and also be incredibly vague, so these connections aren’t as revelatory as expected.
While the story stumbles, Cognetti still proves his ability to craft mind-numbing scares and curate a rancid vibe that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. While Hell House LLC: Lineage is primarily filmed like a traditional horror film, Cognetti does rely on using found footage elements to craft some of the film’s best scares. There are still cell phone videos and handheld cameras, which help ground the film as familiar. Even when the story feels unmoored, the vibe is always deeply unsettling (which is supported by a spooky score reminiscent of Silent Hill), which keeps you invested.
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To make up for a lack of first-person POV scares, Cognetti opts to play with focus in crafting some of the film’s tensest moments. With a main character in focus, something terrifying will appear out of focus, not obvious at first, but slowly making itself known to the horrified viewer. One of the best parts of this film is watching Cognetti figure out how to still deliver the series’ signature scares in unexpected ways.
So is this truly the end of Hell House LLC? Only Stephen Cognetti knows the true answer there, but it seems that the door hasn’t fully closed. Whatever Cognetti has in store for the future, there’s no denying the effect that this series has had on contemporary horror. Plus, by delivering some truly chilling scares, the writer/director proves that no matter what format, he knows how to terrify. So send out the clowns and get ready to say farewell to a series that means so much to so many of us in this fitting send-off for Cognetti’s cinematic offspring.
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