Horror Movie Review – Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is a 2023 American found footage horror film written and directed by Stephen Cognetti and produced by Joe Bandelli.

Hell House LLC Origins serves as both a sequel and a prequel to the original Hell House LLC (2015/2016) and is the fourth installment overall in the Hell House LLC franchise. I wasn’t actually aware that Hell House LLC had turned into a bit of a franchise having previously seen, and thoroughy enjoyed, the original film before then just happening across Hell House LLC Origins while browsing through Shudder, where this film was exclusively released. I will have to check out the other two in the franchise when I get a chance. They are Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel and Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire.

All of the Hell House movies are connected through a fictional hotel in a fictional town in the outskirts of New York, the Abaddon Hotel in the town of Abaddon. There are rumours that there may be some inspiration from a real hotel called the Abaddon Hotel which is an apparantly famously haunted building based in Pennsylvania but that may also just be internet gossip. Where the first three movies in this franchise are set in or around that hotel, Hell House Origins takes us somewhere different, to the Carmichael Manor where it’s connection to the Abaddon Hotel only comes to light as the movie progresses.

Hell House LLC Origins, like all found footage horrors, has a pretty small cast with lead roles given to Bridget Rose Perrotta who plays Margot Bentley, Destiny Leilani Brown who plays Rebecca Vickers and James Liddell who plays Chase Bentley, Margot’s troubled brother. As the story focuses on the Carmichael family, and drops in plenty of clippings from the Carmichaels of the past, their full family is also cast as Cayla Berejikian (Catherine), Victoria Andrunik (Margaret), Marlene Williams (Eleanor), Robert Savakinus (Arthur) and, the main Carmichael focus, Gideon Berger (Patrick).

The movie uses all of the expected found footage tricks and tropes to achieve it’s goals and try to explain events and make things seem realistic. The main one of these being that we are not watching the footage live, otherwise it would be footage, not found footage. Instead, through the use of commentators and interviews, we are looking back at videos filmed during Margot, Rebecca and Chase’ stay at the Carmichael Manor.

Margot Bentley is an internet sleuth, a cold case resurrector, running an internet show where she goes to places of paranormal activity or unsolved crimes to document and investigate goings on. Rebecca, Margot’s girlfriend, comes along for the ride but has little interest in Margot’s work, referring to it as a hobby and not a real job. This time, Margot drags Rebecca off for a weekend at the Carmichael manor. The site of a collection of grizzly murders that saw the family wiped out in 1989. Suspicion for these murders was raised against both Arthur and Patrick Carmichael but nothing was ever proven and both men then disappeared, never again to be seen. Upon arrival, and a quick tour by the manager of the Carmichael estate, Chase appears having been invited by Margot and at first, not appearing to be very welcome by Rebecca.

We don’t learn a lot about Chase, not massively detailed anyway. He seems nice but we do hear Rebecca and Margot discussing his troubles. It’s not 100% clear, unless I missed it, whether these troubles are drug, drink, mental or criminal, but we don’t really see many traces of them so it doesn’t really matter in the context of the story. Obviously we see all of this because Rebecca, Margot, and eventually, Chase, are all constantly filming everything with cameras. Cleverly, this constant filming is also explained as we regularly see Margot having a pop at the others if they put the camera down even for a second.

The Carmichael Manor is a big stately home. It’s quite modern, and very well kept which I like as it’s nice to see a “haunted mansion” of sorts that just looks like a nice, clean home. It’s not obviously haunted. Again, a lot of expected context is set out. We have a locked room, stated to be storage and that there is no need for anyone to go in there. We have an explantion of a slightly dodgy power connection so expect occasional interruptions in power and of course, they are so far off grid, surrounded by bleak and wintry woodland, there is very limited phone signal. So we are all set!

As Margot and her reluctant crew set to work on the investigative part of their plans, more and more of the story and connection to the Abaddon Hotel come to light. They get in to the locked storage room and find a couple of mannequins, dressed as clowns wearing latex masks. That’s creepy, they look real and you start to firmly expect them to move at any second. They don’t, and this level of patience is what really makes Hell House LLC Origins as good as it is. These clowns, and a trunk full of memorabilia are found to come from a theme park with connections to the infamous hotel.

Margot and Rebecca head to a nearby town to investigate an antique shop that they believe may have items from either the Carmichael Manor, or the Abaddon Hotel as Margot believes the two to be connected. They fnd a few things, including a Grandfather Clock when suddenly Rebecca becomes a clock expert and opens up a hidden chamber on the clock. They have found their connection through the items found within. Through footage filmed before the gruesome Carmichael tragedy because their youngest, Elenear, had a video camera and was obsessed with filming everything (that’s lucky) we see the Carmichaels happy and healthy but then through a terribly unfortunate accident we, see how they transform as this great wave of sadness and grief washed over them.

We learn that Patrick worked at the Abaddon Hotel, we learn of demonic creatures, a curse and cult like figures, we see Patrick dressed as a clown.

When the girls return from the antique shop, they find Chase is in a bit of state as events have taken place. We do see them, thankfuly, through the mockumentary style that allows us to review Chase’ own footage while the girls were away. Again, while none of this sounds too original, writing it down, I cannot emphasise enough how well shot, and patient everything is. Long shots down dark hallways were the camera just stays steady for what seems like ages as Chase thinks he sees something. We think we do too and kind of expect a sudden jump scare but it never comes, instead the time and delay and patience lead us to even better scares as suspense and nerves take hold. We have bangs, footsteps and a little red ball, from the trunk of carnival merch that starts getting thrown into hallways.

I’m really reluctant to go into some of the finer detail of the many, many wonderfully crafted scares in this movie. They deserve to be seen and experienced, not spoiled. I will say that one of my absolute favourites though, involves Rebecca trying to attend a Teams/Skype call for a new job she just started. She, with her camera on, starts to see things happening behind her but when she turns around and looks with her eyes, there is nothing there. I love this scene and Destiny Leilani Brown (Rebecca) pulls off the terrified, confused and hysterical look very well indeed.

Of course things progress over their time at the Carmichael Manor with plenty of genuinely frightening scenes and scares. Yep, I genuinely felt fear watching this movie and haven’t experienced that a whole lot in recent times. This is a scary film.

I think it is as close to perfection as you can get with found footage. The camera work is pretty stable and not constantly jumping around, explained easily by us regularly seeing the cast putting their cameras down on hard surfaces. When it is jumpy, it is because they are running, or moving, so it makes sense. The long, still shots add so much suspense to the film, I loved watching these shots, looking at the shadows, watching and predicting where the scare was coming from and almost always being wrong. The location is great, both the interior and exterior of the house lending themselves very well to upping the creepy factor.

I think the cast did very well across the board and I particularly enjoyed the different character styles of Margot, Rebecca and Chase. Chase is quite laid back, a little reluctant and while he doesn’t want to stay at the manor, he also doesn’t want to go against his sister so just backs her. Rebecca wants the fuck out of there, is more than a little hysterical (as she should be) and spends a fair bit of time sobbing, screaming and running. Margot is the bright and ambitious, run towards the sounds character. She also comes across as a bit cold and uncaring, predominantly worried about her footage over the safety of her partner and brother. Three very different characters with very different reactions to events giving us three very different opportunities to buy in to them and get scared with them.

Of course it is found footage, and it is that mockumentary style, so you will see things that are just par for the course with this style of movie. There are unavoidable tropes in this genre that have to happen to make the movie work but I did not find a single one of them irrittating.

Watching the characters split up – something that usually annoys the hell out of me because who does that –  didn’t annoy me here. Running towards the source of the noise/footsteps, choosing to still sleep in seperate roooms while they are being terrorised – I was okay with all of it because it turns out that these things can make sense or be overlooked when the film is packed with quality. When you believe the characters and you buy in to the irrational actions they may take because they are scared and you believe this because you are scared too.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is by far the best found footage horror movie I have seen since Paranormal Activity 1. Maybe even better than that,- and genuinely one of the best horror movies I have watched in years. A great cast, a team of dedicated actors all working their asses off to scare you and bring you on the journey. There is a great location, following a really interesting story linking to the other Hell House movies and intensely slow, suspenseful, patient frights. It’s a genuinely scary movie. And of course, if that’s not enough for you, well, there are also the clowns?