Stephen Cognetti has written and directed every entry in the Hell House LLC franchise, which began in 2015 and currently consists of Hell House LLC, Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel, Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, and the recently released Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor. While doing the press rounds for The Carmichael Manor, Cognetti talked to Bloody Disgusting about his hopes for future installments, saying he has ideas that would require higher budgets and that he would like to move away from the found footage style all of the films have been shot in so far.
Cognetti said, “I make references to this event in a few of the movies, including this one, but also the third one as well is what happened at the Rockland County Fair, back in the day. That’s something I always talk about, this event, and never really making it. … Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to make it, but I can’t, so I just keep on referencing it. I would love to know what happened there at the Rockland County Fair, why it closed down. … That’s where I would love to go with it. But once you bring in something with so many moving pieces and extras and moving parts like a fair, that’s where you get out of the low-budget found footage realm, and you better have a budget for that, which we don’t right now. If I make another Hell House, especially in this timeline where we’re going with this stuff, I want to venture away from found footage, too. I want to move into narrative. And again, that’s all about budget as well.“
I’m not usually a fan of the found footage style, I did think Hell House LLC was actually pretty good. I wasn’t so impressed by the 2018 sequel Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel, and still haven’t seen Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire or Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor. If the movies were to move away from the found footage style, I would be more likely to watch them sooner.
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is “the first chapter of what will become known as the Hell House LLC Origin Films”. This one is set in 2021 and will show what happens when a group of internet sleuths travel to the remote Carmichael Manor. Located deep in the woods of Rockland County, New York, the estate is the site of the infamous 1989 Carmichael family murders that have gone unsolved to this day. What they discover are secrets that have been hidden away for decades and a terror that has been lurking in the shadows long before Hell House.
The film stars Destiny Leilani Brown (12 to Midnight), James Liddell (Island Escape), Gideon Berger (The Tannery), Cayla Berejikian (Poundcake), Victoria Andrunik (Girls5eva), Darin F. Earl II (Ripples of Water), Searra Sawka (The Impact Factor), Joe Bandelli (Cabin Fear), Rocky Glen Park director Robert Savakinus, and newcomers Bridget Rose Perrotta, Thomas J. Cipriano, Michael Caprioli, Celeste Cicon, Marlene Williams, and Dayna Michelle Kurtz.
It was produced by Joe Bandelli, with Joe Dain and Jim Klock executive producing for Terror Films Releasing. The movie is available for anyone with a Shudder or AMC+ subscription to watch in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.
Are you a fan of the Hell House LLC movies, and would you like to see them move on with higher budgets and without the found footage approach? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.