'Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel' is my second Stephen Cognetti film, the first being 'Hell House LLC', and already I'm beginning to see some trends in his film-making - some positive, some not so. He seems to really struggle with the beginnings of his films and then tends to find his way as it goes along. Also he writes some terrible dialogue, especially in the non-horror scenes. But what saves all this and makes his films extremely watchable is that he seems to be a master at directing horror.
This house/hotel setting that he has created for these films is truly terrifying. Everything about it just works. The creatures moving about inside it, the maze-like feel it has and the feeling of overwhelming dread when a character is in there are just terrific. Not often do individual scare moments get me but this film has one that really caught me off-guard and had my heart leaping. I didn't see it coming and combine that with the imagery and I'm not afraid to say it got me.
If Cognetti can either fix his dialogue and the clunky non-horror scenes he writes, or get a script-doctor in to do it for him and just let him focus on the horror side of things, then he has a big future ahead of him. He has created something special with The Abandon Hotel and I very much look forward to checking out the third installment now.
