One Star Classics : Hell House LLC: The Director’s Cut

Hell House LLC: The Director’s Cut

Jan 11, 2021 / Found Footage Film

At heart, I am a completionist, and as the heart wants what the heart wants, I felt the need to do a short write-up on Hell House LLC: The Director’s Cut. For added context, here’s my previous coverage of the trilogy:

The original duology – Hell House LLC and Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel.
Hell House LLC: Lake of Fire

This first movie remains the best of the three, with its relatively grounded gates-to-hell story. Good as the other two are – Lake of Fire is the better one – they lose much of its believability, with characters that are more forgettable than this film’s likable bunch. But I digress.

In the director’s cut, we get additional scenes, as well as a reshuffle of original ones; both make for a more coherent story. Often I’m not big on removing fill-in-the-blanks elements of films, but Hell House, LLC benefits from it.

It’s not that there is a lot of new material in the cut, but what’s there makes a difference. Exactly what happens during the beginning and end of the movie becomes a lot clearer, as does key character Paul’s fate. Small details about the Abaddon’s history shed some light on the grander lore, too. None of it is necessarily major, but it’s enough to make for a fuller package.

The director’s cut won’t change anyone’s minds about the Hell House LLC franchise, but it’s a good holdover for fans until the promised The Abaddon Tapes TV series makes its way to some streaming service. From my perspective, the changes and additions are enough to make an already good movie excellent.

Extras!

Actual movie aside, there are also about thirty minutes of included extras. (Remember those?) Highlights include rehearsals – which are unexpectedly illuminating – and location scouting. The latter provides a surprising amount of added context to the film.

By Remi, Jan 11, 2021

Letterboxd summary: Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened.