Summerween is here, and horror fans are already queuing up their favorite horror films ahead of Halloween season. While blockbuster movies are always fun to rewatch, checking out lesser known cult classics can deliver solid scares, even without a massive budget. Found footage movies are especially adept at this, and there are some amazing options that won’t cost a penny to watch.
Hell House LLC is a found footage horror movie shot in a documentary format, and it’s currently streaming for free on Tubi. It was released in 2015, and over the last decade, it’s become a cult classic in the horror genre.
I’ve been a fan of found footage horror movies since the original Blair Witch Project way back in 1999. Since then, I’ve inhaled every flick in the genre I can get my hands on. Hell House LLC delivers a creepy, dread-filled descent that avoids the pitfalls of the genre and sends chills up my spine every time I watch it.
A haunt attraction goes terribly wrong in Hell House LLC.
The movie starts with mentions of a tragedy five years ago, when a haunt attraction, aptly named Hell House, went terribly wrong and left a trail of bodies behind. It uses a combination of interviews with witnesses and journalists and footage from the event itself to set the scene of the tragedy at the Abaddon Hotel, all through the lens of a local documentarian seeking the truth about what went wrong the night Hell House opened.
Hell House LLC starts with how things ended, which means that as you watch everything happening, you know it’s all going to end in tragedy. Before you meet the Hell House crew, you see the aftermath of the night that everything went wrong. From a panicked 911 call to a local videographer who sneaks into the abandoned hotel to take a look, the movie delivers plenty of questions to get into your head, but ultimately no answers.
When local documentarian Diane Graves manages to score an interview with missing crew member Sara Havel, things begin to get interesting. Sara has been out of sight since the night everything went wrong, but she agrees to sit down and explain what happened — not only on the night that Hell House opened its doors to guests but also in the weeks leading up to the tragedy.
The rising dread as things get worse inside of the Abaddon Hotel makes this movie worth a watch.
When Sara arrives at the interview, she brings tapes that have never been seen before. They detail the experiences of the Hell House crew, from finding the house to running into supernatural occurrences before opening night. While things are initially a little campy with a pack of 20-somethings exploring the hotel and discussing their plans, things quickly begin to go south. The Abaddon Hotel has plenty of problems, and the crew plans to sleep there until the show finishes its run.
The build-up to opening night makes the movie well worth its 90-minute runtime. Scenes are infused with dread as the audience anticipates something terrible coming that seems invisible to the characters. Doors open and slam, shadowy figures are caught on the edges of the camera, and as the tension rises, everything within the hotel becomes more unsettling. Sara and her friends aren’t immune either, as they each begin to be affected by the house.
It isn’t until the official curtain-raising that things come to a head, but the terror that infuses each scene as you get closer to the haunt’s kickoff will have you yelling at the characters on screen to just leave that place. Unfortunately for the Hell House staff, they proceed to opening night, which might be just what the scary things in the hotel have been waiting for.
I won’t spoil the third act when events ramp up from extremely creepy to blood-curdling. When things begin to go wrong, they go spectacularly wrong, resulting in the footage that the movie starts with. The interview between Sara and Diane ends with the truth of what happened that night, whether anyone will ever believe it or not.
Hell House LLC has reached cult classic status for good reason, and it’s one of those horror movies I play on repeat. The best part is that the story isn’t one-and-done. Instead, there are already three sequels, with a fifth installment arriving this October on Shudder.
