N.Y. hotel dwarfs Amityville's hauntings

 HELL HOUSE LLC (2015)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Found footage horror movies are made by the boatload so a new one doesn't exactly entice me. A friend of mine told me to check out "Hell House LLC" so I did - I am glad I did! Just when you think you have seen enough docu-style horror movies (they grew steadily after "The Blair Witch Project" success and "Paranormal Activity"), here comes "Hell House LLC" which is terrifically nail-biting fun and has a few scares to keep us riveted. Yes, Virginia, (or in this case, New York), it is that good.

A crew known as the Hell House crew remodel an old hotel in a town 20 minutes away from New York City. It is certainly a haunted house and its twisted history includes the owner hanging himself and alleged Satanic ceremonies. The abandoned hotel is called the Abaddon Hotel and the crew is a group of twentysomethings who feel they can make a killing by turning a real haunted place into a decorated haunted house attraction on Halloween. Alex (Danny Bellini) is the CEO of this event and he does not reveal to the other crew members what had happened in this hotel. His girlfriend Sara (Ryan Jennifer Jones) is easily spooked as they discover bibles and a pentagram in the basement. The found footage is courtesy of horny Paul (Gore Abrams) who hopes they hire sexy female actresses for the attraction. As the film unfolds, creaky noises are heard, faint screams, and silhouettes of figures are captured in the background. 

As I am writing this, I realize that we have seen this sort of thing repetitiously (turning the haunted hotel into a haunted house attraction is the only novel touch). Truthfully, as the film started with a documentary crew arriving at his freaky hotel, my heart sank because I sensed this was another in the long line of films for a dead-on-arrival genre. When the documentary crew interview the sole survivor, Sarah, which frames the narrative of the film, my interest jumped 100 percent. There are a couple of more talking head interviews and then we see the footage of the crew's first day at the hotel and the subsequent weeks that follow. Once it gets around to the clown mannequins, the strobe light tests and some ghostly manifestation in Paul's room, I must say that my goosepimples started and I wanted to cover my eyes.

The spooky sound design works wonders, not to mention what we may or may not see in every room of this hotel. Of the characters, Sarah and Paul stand out the most and we feel for their safety and want them to get OUT! Though Alex got on my nerves after a while, nothing prepared me for what happened on the opening night of this hotel (that cavernous basement will leave you haunted by basements in general). Spine-tingling and often scary, "Hell House LLC" is one hell of a ride and the ending is haunting beyond belief. The moral seems to be that if a house is already haunted, don't turn it into an attraction for the public. You are just asking for trouble.