Displaying items by tag: Steve Cognetti

HELL HOUSE LLC II: THE ABADDON HOTEL

US, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.

Vas Eli, Jillian Geurts, Joy Shatz.

Directed by Stephen Cognetti.

“Found Footage” films were very popular in the first decades of the 21^st-century with the success of the Blair Witch project. They reported to have film material of mysterious events which were then gathered together and released as feature films.

The original Hell House LLC proved to be quite popular amongst the this afficionardos of found footage films. It focused on a disaster at the renovated hotel, looking at the various characters involved in opening up the hotel, the people involved in the disaster, the consequent media explorations, journalists, visits to the site, mysterious characters and happenings.

This film returns to the hotel after the previous events but goes back further into the history of the hotel, the owner, sinister accusations and implications.

And, once again, the film was introduced as a documentary, television interviewers, popular programs mysteries, visiting the site, suspicious behaviour, disappearances, violence, and a great deal of speculation.

Designed for those who enjoyed the first film – and a link to a sequel, not so well received but there were two further sequels.

HELL HOUSE LLC III: LAKE OF FIRE

US, 2019, 85 minutes, Colour.

Gabriel Chytry, Elizabeth Vermilyea, Sam Kazzi.

Directed by Stephen Cognetti.

Most bloggers were very critical of this film, complaining that it was is not exactly a “found footage” film and did not have the scares of the previous films. But, there was some praise for the film. Most of the bloggers decided that this was the end of the franchise – in fact, there were two more Hell House films, at least.

Once again, the film is presented as a documentary with some found footage, journalists coming to the house, discussions with a journalist, producers of the television show.

What is different is that a millionaire is putting on an interactive show, Insomnia, very much a Faustian story. And, there are quite a number of interviews with the various members of the cast.

But, there is an aura about the hotel, suggestions, once again, some supernatural interventions.

With members of the cast and the producer, some of the characters are clearer to appreciate than in the previous films, and with the journalists.

There is also a difference with the introduction of a priest, friend of the producer, and his being interviewed with quite some speculations about the supernatural and diabolical presence.

While there might not be quite the horror aspects and scares of the previous films, there is still an eerie atmosphere, the hotel itself and its history, some weird behaviour on the part of the producer, and implications of the story of Faust and the pact with the devil.

HELL HOUSE LLC

US, 2015, 93 minutes, Colour.

Ryan Jennifer Jones, Danny Bellini, Gore Abrahams, Jared Hacker.

Directed by Steve Cognetti.

“Found Footage” films were very popular in the first decades of the 21^st-century with the success of the Blair Witch project. They reported to have film material of mysterious events which were then gathered together and released as feature films.

And, this is the pattern here, although the film received much more favourable reviews than many other found footage features. It was so successful that there were quite a number of sequels.

It is introduced as a documentary, some media commentators giving their opinions, an investigator going to the location of the Hell House with her crew.

The media commentators then show some footage at the Hell House and its opening, as a tourist horror attraction, 2009, crowds arriving, then some panic, chaos and people fleeing, 15 dead.

The surviving member of the staff of the original planners and workers on Hell House comes forward for an interview with the journalist, and provides a bag full of taped material from the period of finding the venue, assessing it, cleaning it out, the plans for the Hell House attraction, the hiring of local artists as characters. But, as the audience gets to know the members of the planning group and stories about the haunting of the house itself, its being changed to Abaddon, the Demon at the gates of hell, indications of some kind of supernatural intervention begin to be revealed, story of the original owner being the leader of a cult, the disappearance of a mother and child, his eventually hanging himself.

There is a lot of handheld camera work showing the various members of the planning, interviews with them, their interactions, humorous, serious, and then the beginning of strange occurrences, clowns moving, attacks, artist, gradually becoming more intense, seeming possessions, further attacks, deaths.

And, the film ends in disbelief, indications that the room for the interview with the surviving member of the staff does not exist – and she has been dead for some time.

This intrigued public interest sufficiently so that the makers moved on to a sequel.