Hell House LLC (2015) Review – A Surprise Found Footage Hit

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We are at the halfway point of our 31 Days of Halloween 2026 marathon so let’s go for something with a proper Halloween vibe. For day 15, we are checking out the found footage horror film Hell House LLC (2015). Personally, I never loved this title nearly as much as a lot of people, but did a rewatch change my opinion? Well, kind of. Let’s take a look.

A Found Footage Horror Hit

Let’s be honest, found footage horror is far more miss than hit. I’m saying that as a huge fan, as well. Found footage is an enormous guilty pleasure of mine, and I am willing to give most movies from this little sub-genre a lot more leeway than they maybe deserve.

“When it comes to the found footage genre – the style is easy to copy, but realism is difficult to fake.”

After all, in recent years it’s gotten so much easier to pick up a camera and make your own movie. Found footage is becoming littered with stuff made by people who really have no love for the game. They are just crapping something out in the hopes that it goes viral or makes them a few dollars on Tubi.

When a movie comes along that is legitimately made with love and really tries to scare the viewer, it is like a breath of fresh air. Hell House LLC is one of those movies.

It arrived during a time period that can best be described as a bit frustrating for fans of found footage. The late 2000s, early 2010s goldrush was over and we had entered a period of serious oversaturation.

While there were some noteworthy releases, Creep, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Be My Cat, etc, there was also a hell of a lot of fluff aiming to cash in on the trend. Originality was majorly lacking and it felt as though movie after movie was simply following a basic template with little innovation to be found.

This entire era really underscored something for me when it comes to the found footage genre, as a whole – the style is easy to copy, but realism is difficult to fake.

A genuinely realistic movie

One thing that Hell House LLC has in spades is realism. This is a story that feels believable, is presented authentically, and features an uncomfortably intense finale that works because it feels like something that could really happen.

The story follows a group of friends who purchase an old upstate New York Hotel to transform into a Halloween haunt event. Little do they realise, the opening night will turn to disaster as something horrifying will cause the death of 15 tour-goers and staff.

This movie is somewhere between mockumentary and found footage while never fully committing to either style.

The events are presented in, essentially, unedited format and play out as standard recovered recordings relating the events that took place five years before. Every now and then, a documentary style interview will pop up to provide context.

Needless to say, it’s all taken extremely seriously and this method of relating a tragic story only adds to the realism and authenticity. That bleeds through to the visuals and scares, too. Where Hell House LLC really succeeds is in its unflinching commitment to believability.

The scares are very effective

Naturally, this is a movie that does fall foul of a lot of the usual found footage pitfalls. The cast aren’t particularly likeable, the script can be a bit grating, as can the relentless, often overly noisy dialogue. But despite those issues, it really works in the main places where it counts.

“You never quite know whether that creepy looking mannequin is actually staring right at you.”

The story is genuinely pretty compelling. Haunts have become big business in recent years and this is a movie that really captures the absolute lunacy needed to run one of these things. The cast are bonkers about scaring people and willing to sacrifice big time to do it.

They are living at the dingy location to reduce their costs and so they experience a ton of weird stuff first hand. This is actually a really nice plot device to explain away why there is so much footage. The cameras stay rolling to document the building of the haunt and the crew are ready to grab a camera whenever something strange happens.

Hell House LLC has some seriously effective scares, too. Director Stephen Cognetti has shown some fantastic restraint, here. Everything is quite subtle and he has a keen awareness of the fact that it is best to let the viewer’s mind fill in the blanks.

Even when the scares are more overt, they don’t fall foul of terrible CGI or unconvincing effects.

The normal pieces of furniture you would expect to see in a haunted house attraction (mannequins, clown dolls, etc) are used to great effect to, not only, create some seriously effective jumps, but also to keep you continuously unsettled. You never quite know whether that creepy looking mannequin is actually staring right at you.

It feels like a real haunted house attraction

Much of how effective the scares are can be attributed to the fantastic production values and set design. This feels like a real haunted house attraction. It’s grimy and dilapidated, and it has to stay that way to actually facilitate the scares come opening night.

“The tension and fear is palpable and the screams of the various patrons and staff feel legitimate and real.”

The house is absolutely littered with dark corners, creepy basements, and Halloween related accoutrement. There’s so many different little areas to hide scares that your eyes will be scanning the scenery mercilessly in every shot. It’s really effective stuff.

The cast do actually feel like a real group of friends attempt to put together something cool, too. Their reasoning, for the most part, makes sense and their reactions to the events feel genuine. Hell, it doesn’t even feel all that far fetched when they choose to stay there against their better judgement.

The finale is pretty damn intense, too. It plays out in a way that is thoroughly believable as a real tragedy in a crowded location. The tension and fear is palpable and the screams of the various patrons and staff feel legitimate and real. It’s one of the more impactful moments in found footage history, in fact.

There are some problems

There are some problems here. Many of them come as a product of the found footage medium, while others are simple horror issues.

Plot is pretty thin on the ground. That can leave a lot of the scenes feeling a bit padded. There are times where the characters are chatting away and nothing much is happening that can leave you feeling a bit wanting. There is a fair bit of dead air between the scares and the intro feels very drawn out.

Sound production is a bit of an issue. Recording quality is not good and things can get a bit chaotic when people are talking over each other. There’s a lot of echo and additional dubbing feels distinctly separated from the main track.

There’s some very dumb character logic scattered throughout. As mentioned earlier, these guys have hearty ambitions to make this event work so a lot can be explained away, but other moments will leave you scratching your head. They just don’t make sense.

There’s also a lot of horror movie logic used to fill in gaps in the story that might get a little frustrating. You may also feel a bit shortchanged if you expected that the five years between the tragedy taking place and the documentary being made would lead to explanations about what happened because it really doesn’t. Backstory is very lacking.

On the whole, however, I can really appreciate Hell House LLC. It does a lot right, it’s a decently compelling story, and the scares are very effective. It’s a great option for some October viewing.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.