 Thanks for checking out this no spoilers movie review. This is for the 2015 film Hell House LLC And it's a pretty independent film from what I can gather when I'm doing this review It is available for streaming on the shutter streaming service Which is for horror and all that if you don't know about shutter check it out I don't have any real affiliation or anything like that. I just really like it. So just saying alright So let's talk about Hell House LLC I am gonna give you a little bit of a disclaimer before I really start getting into it though Keep in mind when I'm doing this review I'm not a person who really particularly likes found footage films. There are some I really do like like I think paranormal Activity is really good. I actually didn't really like the Blair Witch project I know some people hearing that are probably like oh my gosh But the problem with that is I didn't see the Blair Witch project when it originally came out I saw it many years later. So there I had already seen other found footage films So had I seen Blair Witch project when it came out initially then I probably would feel differently But I'm not big on found footage So know that and view it through that lens as you hear me doing this review So Hell House LLC was written and directed by Steven Cognetti There have been two sequels as well. So I think the third one just came out kind of recently Maybe this year. I think it was this year So from what I've heard a lot of people are like they really like the first Hell House They they like the second one and I'm not hearing very good things about the third one Some people are like, oh, I kind of liked it. So all right, you know You'd have to make up your own mind and I gotta be honest. I spoilers Spoilers as far as how I feel about the film. I don't think I'm gonna see the second or third Although if people really want me to put a comment down there and let me know then for the audience I would check out the second and third they They both are available on shutter right now. So I could I just you know found footage So this was originally released on a few video on-demand platforms, that's how it was done This isn't a theatrical Film or anything like that, you know, it's very low budget Which you know a lot of found footage films are low budget and to be honest It's smart to do found footage style if you are a low-budget operation or no budget really so It's just a really easy thing to do. Well, I guess I can't say easy film in general is not easy It is easier to do than trying to make it look very cinematic and Theatrical and stuff like that and it's much cheaper. So for people who are low-budget or no-budget it makes sense So I understand it So this was originally supposed to be in a house and an actual house But they couldn't actually find a suitable house for what they were looking for So in the end they ended up going with a location in Lehighton, Pennsylvania called the haunting at the Waldorf Hotel, so I believe it is actually a One of those like oh my god, why am I blanking on it right now? So terrible haunted house like one of the haunted house ordeals, which is what this whole film is centered around It's not a spoiler that's in there, you know little log line synopsis ordeal that it is Basically Something goes wrong at a haunted house attraction, you know so it's good that they were actually shooting at a haunted house attraction and I think it helped a lot with kind of set design because things were kind of already set up in an interesting way and To be honest, I like the premise of this I like the idea of doing a found footage film with a haunted attraction as the setting it gives a lot of Possibilities to it and it also is is a situation where it can really blur the lines of like what truly is Something real going on versus something that's staged that's part of the attraction itself and for that reason I think it is a good idea because You could see in real life that becoming a problem if there were actually a situation Where something terrible really did happen and and at one of these haunted attractions that it might be hard for people to decipher At the moment that it's happening if it's real or not because you're supposed to be seeing terrible things So something terrible actually happens. You might be like, oh, this is all a part of the ordeal So it works as a concept. I Just didn't particularly like how it was executed. Sorry It definitely looks creepy though the the location they chose was very very good I think it really really worked. It looked creepy. It looked like it was potentially scary I think they did a pretty good job with kind of dressing it up and making it look like the haunted attraction that they were Trying to make it look like but also even before they did that how they made it look just like old dilapidated and unused That just kind of added to the ambiance um So, okay, so this is where I'm gonna talk about one of my issues with found footage films in general and that's at play here So it's not necessarily like their fault. It's just one of the problems I have with found footage in general and it kind of happens with a lot of them That there's a lot of time wasting that ends up being built into this style of film Like you literally have to waste a lot of time because you have to have a lot of realistic dialogue between people You have to have kind of that downtime real life in between what's actually going on and It it feels like it drags a lot of the time because you have to do that in order to make it feel Realistic because the found footage the whole premise obviously is that it it's found footage It's real life. So you have to make it feel like it's real life. It has to be Right it has to feel right so in order to do that you're kind of Sacrificing pacing of the film and that's one of the things that really gets to me. I'm big on pacing with films I really don't like it when it feels like it's just really dragging And that's kind of one of the main things that found footage does like it literally will make a drag Like I cannot watch the Blair Witch project. I watched it once not super long ago And I was just like it just drags drags drags drags. Yes, there's a cool moment at the end But it's like I had to sit through how much in order to get there. I'm not doing this again. It's very historically important, but It doesn't hold up That's my opinion and found footage in general a lot of times does not hold up in my opinion So anyway, that's my issue with found footage in general So it also ends up being a lot of heavy breathing in a lot of these films, you know, because people were running from things and there's like That's something that bothers me a lot in films when it's just like heavy breathing and people running and When there's a lot of it like you get you can choose to cut some of that down or a lot of that down But if bothers me even more by the way when it's in films that are not found footage and a prime example of that Is the movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock? That movie is terrible. First of all, it's terrible second of all, I mean it looks amazing, but as an actual film it's terrible, but So much heavy breathing in that and it's not found footage totally Inexcusable sorry side tangent The setup with this with the text and the news coverage that they started with Whoops Sorry messed up my notes So the setup with the text and news coverage like that's the first thing they start with Actually is a really good way to kind of grab your attention. It makes you really want to know more It's kind of it makes it more intriguing as a start instead of starting with some of the found footage stuff and just being like Not knowing where things are going To kind of like have the aftermath in the beginning Really peaks interest and you're just like okay now. I'm very interested something terrible went down I really need to know so that kind of keeps your interest peaked, which I really I like that idea The found footage approach works for lower budget because of the POV Which doesn't have to show Super nice shots and it also doesn't have to show a lot of detail. That's another big thing so another one of these strengths for low budget with or no budget with with the found footage is that You can take props and you can take costumes that don't necessarily look that good and Put them in there and make them look good because you can just not show them for a lot of time or the lighting is bad and it's believable because it's a real-life situation and the lighting is not always going to be good and it's You know the shots aren't really going to be framed per se. So found footage works quite well for that and I think they did a pretty good job when they put things in there of Making that work to their advantage. So they pulled it off in that respect This does remind me a little bit of a movie. I watched not long ago long ago called the funhouse massacre Which actually came out the same year was also a 2015 film So nobody copied the other because they came out at the same time, but it was the same type of thing It's like this question of what happens when people go into a haunted house attraction And they think everything is staged and it's not necessarily staged that one's fun I like that. It's not a great film, but it's a fun film. I would recommend that the funhouse massacre And if you've seen it put a comment down there Let me know your thoughts because I know they're probably some people are like and some people are like, yeah The concept makes sense because in a haunted house, you'd be confused as to what's fake and real already covered that. Sorry Okay, here's a here's something I thought about that. I'm not sure a lot of people think about when they're watching this movie People know what an LLC is like people know Hell House LLC like they know an LLC means it's like a company But thinking about what it actually means spelled out limited liability company is Important to kind of give you in the title an idea that something's going to go wrong It's kind of a foreshadowing of a sort So think about that limited liability company It kind of says hey, we're not liable for Terrible things going down and that's what happens obviously otherwise it wouldn't be a movie The dialogue actually seems pretty realistic in this now I don't know if they went ahead and scripted a lot of the dialogue or all the dialogue or if they just went with a lot of improv I know with some of the found footage films They'll they'll kind of let people do a lot of improv if they really trust the actors I know Blair Witch actually was that way there was a ton of improv involved and it's good and it's bad because The improv is the improvisation can make the dialogue even more meandering But it also makes it seem more Realistic and it has a better flow to it as far as like real-life conversation. So there's kind of like a good and a bad It just gets like super super drawn out. I feel like when it's not scripted. So You know, it's a give or take like you got to figure out for your film If you're doing found footage like what do you want? Do you want it to move better or do you want it to be more realistic? So it's kind of a balancing act in my opinion, but I don't know what they did for this film But I felt like the dialogue felt pretty realistic. But like I also said, it felt like it was very long and drawn out and just pacing suffered a lot So I don't understand how they shot some of their interview portions Which by the way, though we're overwhelming majority of the film was shot at that location in Pennsylvania I was talking about but the interviews almost all the interviews were actually shot in New York and I don't understand why they chose to shoot some of the interviews the way they did Because a bunch a bunch of the interview portions look good Like they look normal like they're just showing a person kind of like from here up and they're talking to the camera But then they have these shots where they they go way in on the person's face We're actually like I'll see if I can like it'll be like an unit like Sorry if that gets like super loud, but like that, you know Like where they were the cutting the top of the person's head off Sometimes cutting the top and and like a portion of the bottom of the head off You're just like so close in on the face And I don't know when people started doing this because I see it from time to time now and Stylistically, I think it looks terrible. Whenever I see that it makes me like Subconsciously like move my head back because it's like dude. You're too close move back Come on like it's not a good idea. I don't I don't know why we're doing this anymore So it's a small thing in this film because there's not like a ton of those interview portions But it's just something that irks me when people do it. I just don't understand why you would it doesn't make sense There's something in this film that is ripped Basically straight out of the Blair witch project it and it's not in the end or anything like that So it but if you've seen the film, you know what I'm talking about If you haven't seen the film and you're going to see the film You will know what I'm talking about kind of it's it's something that's ripped straight from it But the context isn't exactly the same. So just think about that and you'll know what I'm talking about There are hints about the origin of what's actually going on within this film within the dialogue And I like that aspect about it I like that they're they don't kind of be like that they're not just like here's the origin of what's happening It's all explained in some text on the screen or in a news Interview or coverage or whatever that you have to piece it together a little bit through the dialogue Which makes sure you really have to pay attention To what people are saying which with a film like this like I was saying how like a lot of it can be improvised It's kind of like, you know, just small chit-chat people can tend to like not pay attention or just like gloss over it But in this case you have to pay attention because then you get those little tidbits You can kind of put that together and I like that about this and I think it's nice that You know, I can piece together the backstory on what's actually happening or like why what why it's happening. So so overall I Felt like I understand why people like this if you're into found footage films But for me, I was kind of about the movie and like I said, I don't have a desire to see the second one or the third one But I would if people really want me to review them. So let me know in the comments but You know, I mean, I think they did a good job for being low to no budget. It's fine. So All those things considered with my five star scale with half stars in play I'm gonna put it in a two and a half for me personally I want to put it at a two, but I feel like I should give it a two and a half to make it right in the middle because of my Distaste for the found footage style in general Just saying so Anyway, um, I do appreciate everyone checking this one out. We'll have to see what I end up reviewing next Please hit that subscribe. That's the way you can repay me. I don't make money on this is just something I'm doing for fun but I want to get it out there to the masses and I want to have Some chats with people about horror in general because I'm a horror nerd I don't get to talk about a lot of people or I don't get to talk about a lot of horror with people around where I live because I don't know that many people were super into it So that's why that's part of why I'm doing these videos because I want to get some conversations going. So let's talk Let's talk about this. Let's talk about other stuff Please hit that subscribe though because that's your the way you can repay me takes you like a second and Totally painless, but thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal