Stephen Cognetti is back with the fourth Hell House LLC franchise installment. Not quite sure what to call this film. It’s a sequel because it takes place after the events of the third Hell House film (Hell House LLC: Lake of Fire).

It’s also a prequel because it takes place at the Carmichael Manor and the gruesome events of this manor took place well before the first film in Cognetti’s quadrilogoy.

Margot Bentley is a cold case investigator. She learned about the murder of the Carmichael family at their manor. As well as the paranormal happenings that have been reported there.

So Margot wants to make a documentary to figure out what happened. So Margot, her girlfriend Rebecca, and her brother Chase stay at the manor for a week and record their findings.

No spoiler alert, things do not end well.

Stephen Cognetti really found lightning in a bottle with Hell House LLC. It’s a small-found footage film that on the surface looks like streaming service schlock.

But, it’s one of the best-found footage films, possibly ever. Its scares are so good, relying on creating an atmosphere rather than overusing jump scares. I will defend this film forever.

Then his two sequels become lazy, streaming service schlock. He has a bigger budget, which means leaning into CGI to help with the scares. They do not work and in fact, in the third film, the CGI is really bad.

Stephen must’ve been told this or realized it, either way, he went back to the roots of the first one and what makes that one good.

This has a few genuinely terrifying scares, and some of the best since the first film. Unfortunately, because the first film exists many of these feel like a retread of that film. If it works don’t fix it.

There are two things that keep this sequel from being a great sequel. First, the audience can clearly see where this story is headed. When that payoff happens it falls flat, but the film acts like it is the revelation of the century.

Secondly, if you’ve never seen the Patton Oswalt bit about the Star Wars prequels, I’m not going to write it out here. But it applies to this film. Do we really need to know the origins of the clown from the Abbadon Hotel?

Is there anyone who needed his backstory fleshed out? Not sure if this is to be blamed on the MCU or George Lucas, my gut says the latter. But why does every movie need a spin-off and every character need a backstory?

Not that this ruins anything from the first film, but it feels unnecessary and Stephen needed to relate this to his trilogy about the Abbadon Hotel rather than making its own horror story.

Fans of the original will probably enjoy this one. Even though it’s better than the other sequels it’s still a far cry from the original.

3.5/5 Stars