Hell House LLC 2 is a found footage horror film directed by Stephen Cognetti, it is a sequel to 2015’s Hell House LLC. The plot picks up 8 years after the events of the first film and shows that the Abaddon Hotel is still drawing people in especially after the documentary shown in the first film went viral. This time around a new group of characters venture into the oppressive depths of the hotel in search of answers and unexplored evidence.
This is very much a middle film, what I mean by that is that it doesn’t really exist as a film in it’s own right, it ties up the first films plot threads and sets things up for the big finale, but as a film taken away from the other two it can’t exist; it is in no way standalone.
However, the two things it sets out to do it does well, as someone who has seen the first film I was able to keep up with the plot as it ran back and forth between all the different characters and tied the first and second film together in many interesting ways. I thought it was interesting to see the characters from the first film come back in relation to the new mysteries as it added more depth to their characters and expanded the lore as a whole.
On the same note, a lot of this film sets up things for the third film, the big finale. It adds to the history of the house and its inhabitants and sets up huge stakes for the third; it teases the literal apocalypse. These new additions are cool and it is nice to see the lore thicken, however I do wish that this film had focused a bit more on itself rather than its predecessor and it’s then forthcoming next iteration, because the plot of this film just feels like an afterthought.
Story wise this is defiantly the worst of the 3 films as there is very little point to it, beyond what I have already explained, the characters aren’t really important, expect for the big bad introduced at the end. You don’t really care about them and their motivations for being at the house feel forced at best.
Overall, this film is crushed under the weight of the other two entries as it tries too hard to set up a wider mythology, however, it is still an entertaining found footage horror film, and it is interesting to see more about the house; definitely still worth a watch just not on the same level as the first film.
Pros.
Still has some good scares.
The wider mythology.
The big bad.
Cons.
Weak characters.
It feels unimportant.
3.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 