Well I’m not best pleased, new site, first review as a staffer, and they drop a found footage flick on me. Sure, thanks for the Shudder subscription, but really I couldn’t have got something else more promising! At least those were my thoughts going into this flick which bounds out of indie land in that ever reliably cheap to make mockumentary style. Now as opposed to previous experiences in found footage land, this one really was worth watching, the movie has scares, it builds a mythology, and it is respecting the viewer rather than rushing between jump scares like some demented bat out of hell. There’s a lot to like with Steve Cognetti’s first feature length, but it probably isn’t going to appeal to the low attention span of the mythical modern audience. Hell House knows what it is about, and isn’t afraid to take its time to get there. Let’s leap in and see what might lurk in deeper, darker waters.

Diane Graves and her team are making a documentary about events going down five years previously during Halloween at the legendary Hell House, located in Abaddon NY don’t you know. Seems during that faithful night something went wrong resulting in 15 deaths and the authorities being closed lipped about events. While Diane and team are making their documentary and in particular interviewing Sara Havel; was that the sound of ominous thunder? Things begin to get down right freaky. Thankfully Ms Havel provides a bag full of tapes that follow the rapidly escalating paranormal activity during the weeks leading to Halloween, including group tensions, and some background information. We learn that a team of Halloween haunted house creators have mistakenly decided the Abaddon Hotel would make a cool scary location. Naturally Diana Graves being a journalist, a chick, and an all round sticky beak can’t leave things alone and simply has to break into Hell house aka the Abaddon Hotel, and well things don’t go as well as expected. Ready for some spine chilling found footage, lets break it down folks.

Structally Hell House LLC is built like a brick house, the foundations are solid, the walls are straight, and the décor is well worth a visit. I was pleasantly surprised by the attention going down here. The movie is neatly bookmarked by the documentary Din Graves is making, the vast majority of the movie is straight down in the house of shocks, and we get some background from witnesses and those following what the heck actually went down in the Hotel. Nothing is wasted, director Cognetti knows what he is dealing with the horror elements, and builds from getting the audience behind his lead characters – in some cases that is a job of work, to gradually escalating his terror tactics as the situation gets steadily worse for our Halloween enthusiast.

Acting as expected is on the non-professional side of the script. Found footage is meant to be about everyday people encountering the supernatural to their detriement and the cast in this one are right across that requirement. I could regularly believe in the characters, with their own foibles, strengths, and differing reactions to the unhinged events going on around them. Coming across as your everyday person is for sure a hard sell, the audience knows they are watching a yarn here, but Cognetti gets the best out of his cast who seem dedicated to delivering on the premise. There was no single actor not delivering here, quite the achievement, and for sure something most people are going to miss.

Even with the first movie Stephen Cognetti is clearly aiming for a franchise for his idea, good news folks there’s a four movie boxset coming soon, with some serious mythology already being established. We learn that Abaddon, the name of the Hotel and the surrounding township, is the name of a demon that guards the Gateway to Hell. Now that’s swinging for the fences already, but hey I’ll go with it. We also learn that previously to our Halloween crew arriving there have been a series of disappearances of guests at the Hotel with suspicion falling on the then properter Andrew Tully. Said Hotel owner hanged himself in the Abaddon Hotel dining room back in 1989, so lock and load kids we have the skinny on the background, anyone else already thinking Andie Tully might have been dabbling in a bit of Satanism? Anyways, background mythology established quickly and you could almost miss it as the information is given in interviews, Cognetti once again proving he knows what he is doing.

Director Cognetti’s scare tactics are going to catch you out, this isn’t the movie to watch if you are a tourist in horror territory and are wanting a good night’s sleep after viewing. Right from the first scene we know something went down in a bad way at the Halloween house of terror, which was a good approach if you ask me, it is going to get freaky by the end of movie and this is what happened, so Cognetti asks, “how did we get there”. Watching through the tapes that Sara Havel delivered to Diane we see the group of friends arriving at the Abaddon Hotel and starting to setup as a Halloween attraction. We really don’t have those Downunder, but friends State side can tell me it’s a thing. So the team start setting up and start decorating the Hotel in anticipation of earning some serious folding money. The approach works, as we get the layout of the hotel on the quiet and are also introduced to the rooms where major paranormal activity is going to go down, all about that cellar. Cognetti is drumming up a beat as the tension is always on the rise with gradually escalating scares of the cheap as chips version. The piano is playing all by itself during the night, hey keep the lights down low and let’s go check it out. Props have a habit of moving to where they were placed originally. And let’s not even get into the weird behaviour of some of the team members. If you have checked out Paranormal Activity then you know exactly what I am talking about here.

There’s a couple of highlights that actually got under my skin. If you don’t like clowns then you are in the wrong movie, Cognetti really works hard at that phobia, and I have to say you aren’t dealing with Ronald McDonald here folks. One of my favourite scenes however was a dude lying in bed talking to camera, and the viewer becomes aware of some freaky looking chick in the background. Let’s just say hiding under the covers wouldn’t be my first approach, like I am no longer five kids. Cognetti uses the approach of moving the danger closer to the character while the audience aren’t watching, to excellent effect. You may well need a change of undies during this scene!

Long story short, I could go on and on about the scare tactics, Cognetti is restricted by his clearly low budget but delivers on the chills like it’s going out of fashion. Be warned, the movie starts slowly, gradually delivers the scares while really ramping up the tension, before finally going crazy on Halloween night. There is a final scare coming at you, and I’m saying that one works like a brought one, it certainly had me squirming while thinking through the setup, not ensure things entirely work that way, but let’s not split hairs.