‘Hell House LLC: Lineage’ Movie Review: Fifth Installment In Creepy Series Gets Too Tangled Up In Own Lore
Photo from Terror Films
From Jeremy Kibler
Indie filmmaker Stephen Cognetti has carved out quite the cottage industry with his frightful 2015 found-footage original, Hell House LLC. The next two follow-ups, 2018’s Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel and 2019’s Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, each offered stretches of hair-raising tension but were distinctly uneven on the whole. Luckily, 2023’s Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor made a quality rebound as the creepiest, most cleanly structured, and most well-acted, while expanding the mythology. After that win, it’s back to diminishing returns with the missable Hell House LLC: Lineage. For what is the fifth and allegedly final entry, it’s a real bummer note on which to end this effective little series.
If you recall the weakest in the series (Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire), you may remember survivor Vanessa (Elizabeth Vermilyea), who was a journalist documenting the reopening of the cursed Abaddon Hotel for an investor’s interactive show. Years later after surviving the fiery demise of the hotel, 37-year-old Vanessa has come back to Abaddon, New York. She’s now a bar owner in a depressive rut, constantly seeing things that may or may not actually be there (and having a lot of nightmares). After Vanessa’s estranged friend (who has also been seeing things or actually being stalked/haunted by the curse of the Abaddon) is found dead, true-crime writer Alicia (Searra Sawka) reaches out to Vanessa and begins her own investigation. Apparently, everyone around Vanessa is in danger, and all roads point back to the creaky Carmichael Manor.
With this fifth installment, writer-director Stephen Cognetti makes a stylistic departure for his series by shooting it all as a traditional narrative rather than purporting the footage to be found. It’s hard to fault Cognetti for wanting to try something different, but that choice completely misses the point when the power of the previous four films was in the verisimilitude of the aesthetic. Without that, Hell House LLC: Lineage becomes generic haunting stuff.
In the way he patiently paces and frames certain moments, Cognetti still gets mileage out of those damn clown “mannequins,” which don’t have to do anything but stand still at the end of a hallway to be the stuff of nightmares. There are a few clever setups for anticipatory chills and an actual sense of fear, particularly in an early scene where a drunk takes the bait in a county fair booth or a scare at a drive-in, although the payoffs become obvious after a while.
Elizabeth Vermilyea gives it her best shot, but she’s asked to play Vanessa in such a depressed, catatonic state that her delivery comes off pretty flat most of the time, broken up by emotional histrionics. Searra Sawka is much more dynamic as Alicia, but even her character motivations are written so flimsily that Alicia might as well be a dumb teenager entering a haunted house on a dare.
Ultimately, too much lore keeps getting explained and re-explained. Say you’ve forgotten about certain characters from previous entries, be prepared to cram before this final exam for any of it to matter (for what it’s worth, Wikipedia is just a click away). If this is really the end, too many questions are still left unanswered even after a major key plot point is introduced in the final moments.
Need more proof that the inferior Hell House LLC: Lineage fails in its goal to frighten? After watching any Hell House LLC movie, you should not be completely fine with walking into a pitch-dark room in your house. Alas, that time has come. It’s too bad we didn’t close out with the satisfying and genuinely scary previous entry.
Rating: 1.5/5
Hell House LLC: Lineage hits select theaters on August 20, 2025.
