There are movies that come out and it’s almost like they surprise everyone at how good they are, even the filmmakers. Not that they thought their movie wouldn’t be good but that they hadn’t necessarily expected it to get the reception it does. When that movie blows up the first thought is…franchise.
FRANCHISE!
The thing is though that not every movie NEEDS a franchise.
Some movies are good on their own.
Ya know?
HELL HOUSE, LLC is one of those.
The first is creepy, is well made, and nails what it was trying to do. Alas, they franchised it and with each successive film the story got more convoluted and messy. By the third film it was fully off the rails and into the deep, deep weeds. You can say the same thing with GRAVE ENCOUNTERS, a film that was really tight and scary but which was unfortunately sequelized.
Oof.
The ‘trilogy’ that was the HELL HOUSE, LLC films has come and gone and seemingly the only place to go now is back.
PREQUEL, BABY!
And I cast no aspersions because the fact is that these are popular-ish movies and I have no idea what I’d do if I did anything that was popular. The thing is that they do keep finding some really interesting ideas to delve into, it’s just that they could have all gone into one movie.
ORIGINS gives us another examination of the horrors related to the Abaddon Hotel and the mysterious deaths that surround it. In this film we have two young women who have a website where they examine purportedly haunted properties and they are now at the Carmichael Manor to spend a week investigating it. It isn’t long before the mysteries of the manor begin to reveal themselves and it isn’t a matter of IF the home is haunted but IF they can escape its horror with their lives.
The clowns are back.
Let’s start there.
This is a rare movie/series that has legit creepy clowns. Part of it is how they are used and part is how they look.
Well done, man.
Phew.
This isn’t a bad movie.
At all.
It’s a mediocre one.
There are some great moments that are super creepy.
They do the ‘talking heads’ segments well.
The new bits of mythology to the series is really interesting (though it’s all getting a bit muddled now).
Here’s the thing though, is this even necessary?
It plays out like the other films in the series, ends up in the same place, and in the end we’re just watching these for the clowns and the new bits of mythos they offer.
That’s it.
What drove me crazy though is how the film – the FOURTH in the series – breaks not just the rules of a found footage film but of filmmaking in general.
We’re shown a film cannister that is HUGE that would presumably be for a Super 8 camera. Worse, it’s 1989…when someone, especially a RICH someone, would have used a VHS camcorder. Heck, I had one back then and we weren’t rich! But then they intercut scenes INTO that footage…which…isn’t…possible…unless someone literally spliced it by hand. WHICH WOULD BE CRFAZY! Then there’s a desk lamp in a room with a plug in its base. That’s modern hotel stuff man, not the sort of thing leftover in a murder house. Then they have musical stingers in the footage.
That doesn’t even get into the whole WHY AREN’T YOU LEAVING of it all.
I am not trying to pile on.
It’s well made, it has some fun scares, the actors are good, but the whole WHY of it all hangs heavy.
It reveals more background but isn’t any sort of groundbreaking revelation that makes you look at the series with new eyes. It’s just a spooky movie to add to the franchise.
Swell.
Supposedly they want to keep making these and I am sure they will.
Outside of the same curiousity one has at a car accident, I think I am good.
I’ve seen enough.
Man, those clowns are creepy though.
2.25 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 