Hell House LLC was a bit of a surprise for me. I’ve noticed the cover and read the synopsis a few times over the years. I think I’ve even started watching it at one point, but never have made it more than five minutes in.

But this is really a found-footage gem. It really has all the things I hate in life: haunted houses (the paid attraction kind) and clowns. Throw in some blood and subtle imagery and you have me DEAD.

The film is a mockumentary in some ways – mixing footage with interviews, YouTube videos and still photos. The documentary aims to find out one thing: what happened in the Abaddon Hotel on October 8, 2009?

A group of young entrepreneurs, who own and run Hell House, travel together to a small town in New York state.

Together they aim to put together a haunted house to top anything they’ve done in previous years. Though the group soon realise that the Abaddon Hotel is maybe a bit more than it appears.

As they set up throughout the weeks, tensions run high, and more and more strange and horrible things begin to happen.

Ultimately, it’s revealed what happened on the night of October 8th, using the footage the Hell House group filmed themselves. It takes all the fun out of it to give anything more away.

Like most contemporary horror films, Hell House LLC fails to stick the landing. After so much build-up, the ending is a tiny bit lame. I think that may be mostly to the fact that nothing is very well explained. Just over the line of leaving too much unexplained. Viewers like the fear of the unknown, but it is helpful to have a little bit of context.

But beyond it’s cliched third act, Hell House LLC is one of the first films in a long time that actually manage to terrify me.

Like a good found footage movie, it draws the views in by being believable. The cast all look like people you know, and their terror feels real.

I know I didn’t sleep very well the night after watching this, and that is what I like in a horror film.

If you’re looking for a very Halloween movie to watch building up to the 31st, I recommend this highly. It has the right vibes and will (hopefully) scare all of those bejesuses out of you.