Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor

I was looking forward to this installment of the series but my God I couldn't even finish it since the actress who plays Margot is just horrendous: she's constantly screaming her dialogue; she has no chemistry with her costars (the girlfriend and the brother), who, in comparison, are actually pretty decent; she's not at all convincing in any of her interactions or actions. It feels like she's in a different movie or production altogether, like a bad high school play. There have been some bad performances in these movies but she definitely takes the cake as the worst. Wish they chose a different lead.

I enjoyed this instalment. Even though the story model remains more or less the same as the others, the tension and unnerving feelings managed to be effectively executed. I only have one gripe which was the main character was insufferable from beginning to end. I don't know why the screenwriter felt the need to make Margot obnoxious, arrogant, pig-headed, fundamentally unlikable and self-interested, especially seen as how we are supposed to be empathising with her the most, but it created a real divide between my willingness to root for her and my contempt towards her. The girlfriend and brother were likeable enough and I was on their sides when they were faced with conflict. But the lead was painful for me (the character not the actress). If they had written her differently I think I would've enjoyed this so much more. Regardless, as horror goes, this film produced enough sufficient scares to justify its existence.

I'd put this and the first film in the same league, as in, they're both watchable for the crafting of scares in a minimal but impressive way. But the origin story and lore expansion did little for me, as I didn't think even the first film necessarily had a lot going for it. Also, I haven't watched parts two and three, so I'm unsure if I missed anything significant. Found footage can become extremely monotonous and repetitive, and here I could witness that in parts. The protagonists are still fairly uninteresting and lacking any real motives (other than the quest for fame and adventure), and they continue to make questionable decisions throughout.

Director Stephen Cognetti also fails to capitalize on the outdoors of the manor for more atmospheric fights. While this comes into the picture fairly into the final act, the underutilization of the magnificent outdoors (with all those incredible-looking trees) is evident. The indoor scares are reminiscent of the ones from the original film, and I could see them coming at those critical junctures. One particular scare, during a video call, was quite nicely executed. The clowns are less scary this time, and some of it has to be attributed to what we've already seen. I don't exactly know what to make of those long-running lore connections, but it sure didn't make the experience substantially more riveting.

Its a decent horror movie but really the lead actress killed the whole experience for me , the way she acted the dialogues .. and the choices they make ..! I mean why wont they just leave !!!

Red flags all over the place .., and yet margo insist on staying there . And the funny part is shes just scared as they are .. bad writing terrible acting Really ruined this movie I really wanted margo to die .. and thats a bad factor in horror movie that you want the main character to die Hope the director learned his lesson never to work with this writer and actress again A lot of money wasted on this movie ...

The first hell house is enjoyable because it's kind of a hidden gem that's just recently gained more popularity. It had a lot of ambiguity in the story and left a pretty open ended story. The acting in part one is pretty good as well. Then we get to parts 2 and 3...

Those movies feel cheap. Much cheaper and just seemed to be feeding off the success of the first one. The acting is horrible in both, the news anchor is part 2 is laughably bad. Part 3 is more of the same. Neither one adds much to the story either.

This movie has much better acting and cinematography than the previous two. It feels like this one was made to actually further the story, not just as a cash grab. This movie does a much better going into the backstory than previous attempts. It's not perfect, but it does have some good scares and does a great job building tension. There are two seperate stories in this one and the way they connect works quite well. I'd recommend this for sure.