Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel

Idk why so many hate I love the hell house series it not your crazy blood and gore but good old fashion scares and jumps. I thought all 3 movies were awesome and I'm a horror junkie I even bought all 3 on my Apple TV, it's creepy and with you deff have to watch all 3 in the dark for the best effect. This is why I'm a shudder subscriber and fan they put out some of the best underground horror films

First off, I have to say, I LOVED the first "Hell House LLC". I've watched it many, many times and still love it. The characters and character development was fantastic. There wasn't a member of the cast who let down the movie.

I was apprehensive about this one, though. And for good reason. This is the second Found Footage/Mockumentary style movie that from the off we were told it would be a trilogy (Creep 2015) being the other. The second "segment" as I'll put it, failed to live up to its predecessor and that has happened here as well. Don't get me wrong, this was good, but not great. And that is what the original is. Maybe because, without trying to be too harsh, it's a time filler that has to be good enough to keep you engrossed whilst keeping the (what you'd hope) best for last?

Anyway. Up until the first 20 minutes I honestly thought I was in for a dreadful sequel. The "Morning Mysteries" bit just didn't work. I get the payoff (which I won't give away) but it was far too cheesy and forced. The acting was unrealistic and the green-screen thing looked too bad to be true. I know the guys are on a tight budget, but they were on the first too but it wasn't noticeable. It flowed more and you got the feeling these guys were a team, each with their own quirks, but essentially good guys who you could imagine going for a pint with. There was nobody in this one. Not even Mitchell.

A HUGE problem in this one as well is there was no Paul. And I'm not meaning Gore Abrams himself as that's obviously not possible storyline wise, but nobody to take us through on cam who was fun. The girl who played Molly in this so overacted that I can't believe nobody pulled her up about it. She basically came across as fodder for The Abbadon and that was never the case with any characters in the first.

It did get considerably better once we were over the main "Morning Mysteries" segment, but it kept popping back to it now and again and it started to get annoying to be honest.

All in all, I promised myself I'd write a non biased review and here it is. I wasn't completely disappointed, but I just hope Stephen Cognetti has a good script for the 3rd and takes most of the criticism constructively.

It's not a bad effort, but the bar was set by the first and ultimately that can come back ironically and bite you in the ass.

The movie gets a 6 from me and I'll definitely be watching the concluding part.

At random, the announcement that Hell House LLC 2 was coming to Shudder just hours ago popped into my head and I decided to take a look as I enjoyed the very creepy atmosphere of the original.

This one goes on to reveal even more about the Abaddon Hotel, where the Hell House "event" opened during the first film and things get suitable creepy once again. There are a number of moments where I noticed myself tense and almost holding my breath, just as with the first one. But just like the first one, I felt the ending was weak, it feels messy and a bit too exposition heavy, and just not very scary.

That's not to say the film isn't scary as a whole, there are plenty of eerie scenes that really have the ability to just creep you right out. They're so simple too and I think that's why they work, it doesn't feel overdone or over produced (I'm looking at you, The Nun). They let the unnerving moments linger, and all feels like it could be real, which is what you want with found footage. This is a film where it's low budget actually helps in that department.

I think the weakest aspect of the film is the acting, which is noticeably worse the first, where I felt those actors did a fine job, I don't recall ever thinking about their acting skills and everything seems believable. In Hell House LLC 2 the acting gives the production a bit more of an amateur feel. However once things get going the tension takes over and the actors also seem to improve for the most part. Except for one person, who's physical acting and dialogue delivery was just subpar the whole way through.

This one also tends to jump around a lot more than the first and feels a tad messy, but really the tension in this makes up for most shortcomings. It's obvious that writer/director Stephen Cognetti is a talented guy. When he's in the zone with the scary aspects he pretty much nails it, both in the first film and in this one. For fans of the first I would definitely recommend it. It's more of the same really, but still manages to be very creepy when it tries to be. I'd really like to see what Cognetti could do with more resources and a larger budget.

'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.

My heart sank when I saw the trailer and heard the poor dialogue. The original had a great cast who delivered their lines in a natural fashion and seemed to really be friends/co-workers. I watched it many times and think it's terrific.

None of this really worked for me and I was bored about 30 minutes into it. And once they are in the hotel, you can't see much so when they run around screaming "WTF?" you have no idea what they are screaming about or running from.

If it's a trilogy, not sure why. When you explain too much, the fears tend to diminish and this film became a lot of talk, a lot of don't show, when it should really be show, don't tell. I sensed a lot of filler and then, no climax. And really, zero scares so jump cuts were added. If a third is made, I hope it mirrors the tone and acting of the first.