Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019)

Directed by Stephen Cognetti [Other horror films: Hell House LLC (2015), Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)]

The third installment of the Hell House LLC trilogy wasn’t too far removed from the previous two, which is a problem the second film shared also. Is it still an enjoyable slice of found footage horror? For the most part, yes, but while I like elements of the conclusion, I sort of wonder if things got a bit away from them at the end.

We of course get some fun and somewhat memorable characters. He didn’t really add that much to the story, but Harvey (Scott Richey) was fun, as was Jeff (Sam Kazzi). The character of Russell Wynn (played by Gabriel Chytry) was an interesting additional, and adds a little lore, in a way, that further connects the three films. The main woman here, played by Elizabeth Vermilyea, was decent, though didn’t really do anything that previous others in her role had done.

Upon originally finishing this, I thought it was a bit even with the second film, but giving myself a few days helped clear my head a bit, and I’ll say that it’s probably not quite as decent. I do think the finale here was ultimately better than the exposition of the second film, but at the same time, seeing the carnage wrought by the demons sort of loses a bit of impact, and the ending of the film, while interesting, wasn’t necessarily amazing.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the first Hell House LLC was amazing. But did such a great found footage flick (and there aren’t really that many in the horror genre) really need two sequels? In some ways, it helped flesh out a few aspects that were left mysteriously unanswered in the first movie, but at the same time, I do think they went a tad overboard when it came to explanations. I appreciated what the conclusion of this one was going for, but I didn’t totally love it.

I’m not going to go as far as to say that the third installment of this series is bad – for found footage horror, it’s still decent. It’s just not that far removed from the first or second films, and with nothing to differentiate beyond that, I’m calling this movie around average.

7/10