As an indie horror fan who grew up in and around the haunted attraction industry, the Hell House LLC franchise has been near and dear to my heart. The first movie is entirely unsettling and fun as hell. Each sequel that followed stayed true to the bones of what made the first film work. At least, until now. Hell House LLC: Lineage is not the final boss it wants to be. 

 

Doing away with the series’ signature found footage aesthetic was far from the most egregious change that killed this franchise. Each previous entry at least pulled familiar beats from a previous film to help it stand on its own, but holy smokes, treat this one like an open note quiz. The plot is all over the place; cherry picking lore that it doesn’t even know what to do with. If you haven’t watched every previous film in the franchise going into Lineage, don’t expect to follow much of what’s going on.

 

Vanessa Shepard from Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, is plagued by dreams of her traumatic past with the Abaddon Hotel. She begins to spiral as her paranoia grows and her nightmares bleed into her reality. She has to string connections between the Abaddon and the Carmichael Manor to understand what's going on.
 

For me, the Hell House series has always been all about the gritty camp. But what we end up with in Lineage is just plain old despair. It plays out like a sad family drama that never seems to decide on a conclusion. It’s a poorly written Wattpad fanfic within the Hell House universe. A high school essay with ten pages of filler sentences to hit the word count. There’s nothing redeemable to set aside the weak story either. No good scares, no vibes, no thrills, just emptiness. I really wish they had packed it up after Hell House LLC Origins: Carmichael Manor while this story still had its dignity. 

It can be difficult to rate films as a critic. It's not always so much about grading a film as it is just talking about the things that grabbed me. Sometimes I really don’t have much to say, but no matter what, one of my main goals is to always mention something I do like about it. This is just not one of those times. The incredibly slow pacing, lack of truly scary moments, and the layering of too many ideas left me with a deep aversion to ever watching this again. I am going to simply act like it doesn’t exist. I so wish the team could have sent this series home, but now I guess we’ll have to watch it die a slow painful death.

It's really sad to see a franchise with such a dedicated fanbase and broad appeal to casual viewers get socked in the face like this. You can find the entire franchise on Shudder.