Synopsis: The events from the first movie continue to haunt some of the characters as an investigative reporter goes with a group back to the Abbadon Hotel!
Director: Stephen Cognetti
Starring: Vasile Flutur, Jillian Geurts
Review: If you read my review of the first Hell House LLC movie, you’ll know I’m a fan of this haunted house so I was excited to see they’d made a sequel. I keep saying that I’m not a fan of found-footage movies, yet the original Hell House LLC some-what changed my mind and left me very scared – something that hasn’t happened in a while with most of my recent watches. How did Hell House LLC II fair? Well, I think I’ll stick to my original view that found-footage movies aren’t great.
The set-up for the movie is that the Abbadon Hotel is still a topic of conversation for many: a psychic wants to go and make contact with the spirits there, one of the original crew is defending his missing friends, and an investigative journalist wants answers after receiving a mysterious package. So they all wander off to visit the Abbadon with the expected carnage, screams and shaky camera shots.
There’s a number of throwbacks to the first movie but frankly, not much new in terms of storyline, character development or even effects. The characters are one dimensional and annoying, I was almost willing for them all to be killed off. This movie feels like it’s trying to tie up all the loose ends from the first Hell House and worse, they’re doing so to blatantly set up a third movie. This means there’s lots of filler story which does little to move the movie along or make you feel any sympathy for the characters. Even the ‘twist’ at the end was obvious from about 15minutes in.
I could go on about camera-work, lighting, directing etc but I wont as it’s a poor replica of the original. I know I’ll watch the third when it comes out, mostly to see how they finish the story (I hope they don’t decide to turn this into a longer franchise like Paranormal Activity!) and in the hope of a few scares but unlike Hell House LLC, I won’t bother returning to Hell House II: The Abbadon Hotel again.