Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel
Official release poster
Directed by	Stephen Cognetti
Written by	Stephen Cognetti
Produced by	Joe Bandelli
Starring	Vasile Flutur Jillian Geurts Joy Shatz Dustin Austen Brian David Tracey
Cinematography	Joe Schufreider
Edited by	Jon Shearburn
Production companies	Terror Films Cognetti Films
Distributed by	Shudder
Release date	September 20, 2018 (2018-09-20)
Running time	89 Minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel is a 2018 American found-footage Horror mystery film written and directed by Stephen Cognetti. A sequel to the 2015 film Hell House LLC. its plot centers around a group of journalists who have gathered to explore the Abaddon Hotel, which has once again been abandoned following the events of the prior film.

The film was released on Shudder on September 20, 2018^[1] and it received mixed reviews from critics.^[2][3]

Plot[]

The film begins with Wendy Mallet recounting her tragedy when her son, Jackson Mallet, broke into the abandoned Abaddon Hotel and never came out more than a year ago. A video is then showed in which Jackson runs frantically around the hotel begging for help, before having a mental breakdown at the kitchen area. While he sobs, a cult follower is seen getting up and slowly approaching Jackson.

On October 6th, 2017, Suzy McCombs is presenting a Hell House LLC special program, with Arnold Tasselman, Mitchell Cavanaugh (Diane Graves' coworker from the first film) and Brock Davies as guests. They start discussing the veracity of the Hell House documentary. Arnold points out that he tried to take down Mitchell's documentary, arguing that it is a well elaborated hoax that is causing a great damage to the town's reputation, while Mitchell reiterates that Diane and her cameraman died inside the hotel, and that it isn't a safe place to go. Meanwhile, a journalism team from an online blog is watching the program. Its presenter, Jessica Fox, claims that with the help of Mitchell they can break into the Abaddon in hopes of a great spike of popularity for their website.

They then meet with Mitchell just outside the Abaddon hotel, who says that breaking in won't be easy as the police is patrolling around the hotel to prevent any more break-ins and disappearances, such as the one of a teenager who broke into the hotel and eventually disappeared while livestreaming his adventure. On another video we see a couple picking up a strange looking woman asking to be dropped off at the Abaddon hotel, only to be revealed as the ghost of one of the tour-goers that died back in 2009.

Four days later of their break-in, a distressed Jessica Fox is seen been questioned by the Rockland County police. She can't remember what happened the previous days and has a panic attack.

Mitchell, Jessica, Molly and David as the cameraman of the group intend to break into the hotel, joined by Brock Davies and his cameraman Malcolm, who intends to enter the hotel with them too who will instead investigate the hotel in a paranormal focused style. However, Molly can't bring herself to enter the hotel and is told to stay outside. Mitchell, Jessica and David head for the basement, while Brock and his cameraman go into the dining room of the hotel in which Andrew Tully, the hotel owner, committed suicide along with several cult followers of his satanic cult. When they try to communicate with Tully via a makeshift Ouija board, they see the ghost of a woman standing up in front of them. While they try to leave in a panic, they are confronted by the same ghostly woman in the corridor on their way out.

While Mitchell and the journalism crew are in the basement going through some old archives, Molly enters the hotel at David's request. Meanwhile, the group finds out that Alex from the original Hell House team went to the Abaddon in April 2009, way before the Hell House disaster. He is seen making a deal with an unseen man. When the group reunites with Molly and find out that David never asked her for help, they try to rush out of the hotel, only to be trapped inside. They begin to experience paranormal events including the ghost of Melissa, a Hell House actress that died in 2009, and the hanged bodies of Brock and his cameraman, in a twisted nod to the suicides of Tully and his cult followers. They are then captured and sent to the Abaddon's dining room.

Back at the Morning Mysteries tv show, Mitchell claims that the hotel lures people inside in order to kill them and trap their souls there. It is also hinted that he had feelings for Diane and he needs a closure, but he still won't go inside the hotel. Once the show ends, a tv crew member of Morning Mysteries tells Suzy that Arnold Tasselman called to apologize as he couldn't make it to the interview. Suzy is left shocked as "Tasselman" just left after the show ended.

At the hotel, when Mitchell wakes up, he finds Jessica and Molly tied up, along with the ghostly figures of Mac and Alex, two of the original Hell House staff, sitting in the dining room table. Suddenly, Tully himself shows up, taunting Mitchell about how he lured him into the hotel in the tv show despite saying he would never enter it, revealing that "Tasselman" was Tully all along. Then, he sees the ghost of Diane playing the piano. Tully then tells him that, in order for the dominoes to keep falling, he must choose one of them to walk out of the hotel to lure more people into it. Molly gets killed and Mitchell, having a breakdown after seeing Diane's ghost and Molly being killed, gets up. We then hear the desperate cries for help of Jessica.

In the present, Jessica is again seen in the police station. When the officer questioning her turns around it is revealed that she died inside the Abaddon as we can see her ghost staring menacingly at the camera.

Cast[]

• Vasile Flutur as Mitchell Cavanaugh
• Jillian Geurts as Jessica Fox
• Joy Shatz as Molly Reynolds
• Dustin Austen as David Morris
• Brian David Tracey as Arnold Tasselman / Andrew Tully
• Kyle Ingleman as Brock Davies
• Amanda K. Morales as Suzy McCombs
• Laura Frenzer as Wendy Mallet
• Danny Bellini as Alex Taylor
• Tom Sibley as Jackson Mallet
• Lauren A. Kennedy as Melissa
• Adam Schneider as Andrew McNamara
• Alice Bahlke as Diane Graves
• Bailey Moyer as Hotel Guest
• Sean Hall as Amateur Videographer
• Matthew Binder as Amateur Videographer
• Gore Abrams as Paul O'keefe (archive footage)
• Alex Beechko as Andrea
• Jared Hacker as Tony Prescott (archive footage)
• Ryan Jennifer Jones as Sara Havel (archive footage)
• Joe Bandelli as Malcolm (uncredited)

Reception[]

Bloody Disgusting reviewed the film, criticizing it as a "well-intentioned misstep".^[4] On Culture Crypt the film has a review score of 35 out of 100 indicating "unfavorable reviews".^[5]

Sequel[]

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Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire was released as a Shudder exclusive on September 19, 2019.^[6] The film is styled as a documentary following Russell Wynn, a wealthy and mysterious entrepreneur who wants the Abaddon Hotel to serve as the location for an immersive theater experience called "Insomnia" based on Faust. Although aware of the location's history, he is keen to proceed with the venture despite others warning him of ongoing and frightening supernatural events. This prompts the documentary team to investigate Russell's past and the prior two events, uncovering new footage that implies Russell was involved with or was monitoring events. When opening night arrives chaos ensues, however Russell manages to wrestle Tully and overcome him before he can kill or take any other innocent lives. The following day one of the documentary crew muses that Russell was likely an angel sent back to defeat Tully and bring an end to his evil plans. Before the film ends, Russell manages to bring back the spirits of the original crew who died in the house, telling them that they are free from the evil but that the house still holds them captive.

Film School Rejects was critical of the movie, stating that it was "an ambitious stab at closing out a horror trilogy, but as much as that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating the end result is an unfortunate disappointment. Still, fans of the first two — or even the first one — might find some worthwhile closure in the final swan song of the Abaddon Hotel."^[7] The film currently holds a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on seven reviews.^[8]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel at IMDb