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★★★★
Directed by: Stephen Cognetti
Written by: Stephen Cognetti
Starring: Danny Bellini, Adam Schneider, Gore Abrams and Brian David Tracey
Film Review by Rachel Pullen
Hell House LLC 3: Lake of Fire Film Review
Welcome back, how have you been? Repeated any past mistakes recently? Maybe you fell off the sobriety wagon, or you lost your temper again over something you swore you wouldn't, or maybe...just maybe, you visited a haunted hotel that seems to kill people time and time again, in order to open a Halloween haunt and cash in?
No? Good, you’re a lot smarter than everyone ever from the hell house trilogy then.
You guessed it gang, a fresh bunch of idiots can’t wait to take this haunted hotel of death, ignore the warning signs and jump straight into opening a haunted house for the Halloween season in Hell House LLC 3: Lake of Fire.
They are professional, they have CCTV everywhere, a buddy system so no one is alone in the house and rules that no one can stay in the hotel when work ends because we all know, if there's one thing that demons and hell beasts respect, it’s health and safety regulations.
But despite their obvious wet floor signs and box lifting training, it’s not long before the spooky goings-on begin to arise...mannequins are going crazy, shadow people linger in the background once more and one by one the staff begin to want to back out of the Halloween show...really, did you expect a murder hotel to be a pleasant place, jeez!
But wait, what's that on the horizon, a storyline that ties all the films together, awesome, because I was about to go bonkers if something didn't come from all the hotel action that I had sat through at this point, and also if you remember last week the hotel was reaching out to people, sliding into the DM's in order to get them to come over for some Netflix and kill time. What was that all about, where's my invite? So I was an eager beaver to get to the bottom of that situation!
Russell, our main leader of this year’s Halloween haunt, was the chap who had edited the footage that was found from the previous victims of the house who were in the second instalment of the films, his connection to the hotel had already begun before the film did. He is a shady dude, he has money issues, he works with a priest on the side, he gets packages that no one can be involved in, but hey he is a charismatic guy, he seems to care about his staff and has good procedures in place, so.. let’s just ignore the fact that he is clearly dealing beanie babies on the side. Oh yeah and he died for like two minutes in a car crash but now is ok.
It’s not long before the typical Hell House garbage ensures and everyone has a bad time on opening night, as a bunch of hell beasts jump out of the gates of hell in the basement and start slashing all the guests and staff up...but wait, who's that in the distance, it’s Russell of course! The man who has already survived death! He has come to save the day as he jumps into the hell portal, fighting the main ghost who has been behind controlling the hotel’s actions and trying to lure people in to join his undead army! Then a fire happens and the hotel is gone, well I would have done that straight away, but we got there in the end.
Now I’m not going to ruin too much, because the last 20 minutes of this film is insane, some could say silly, it’s a bit of a Marmite situation, some fans love its hammy and over the top final moments and some feel that it’s too cheesy and ruins the simplicity of horror that the series has, up to now, stuck to.
Me ...well it was classic bants, a bit of slapstick action in a horror does not phase me, but I agree if as a filmmaker you are following a certain style within a trilogy, and that style has paid off well with fans, don't chuck it out the window in the last moments of the tale because it seems like the easiest way to wrap up the loose ends, fans will flock to forums to call directors out on that shit...from the basements, the ones that lack portals to hell to be fair.
And as for my boyfriend...the clown, he is the cherry on the cake in this movie, providing the genuine chills that I loved this trilogy for...he is smooth, he is sexy, he has big shoes and says nothing, ah my dream man. One day I just hope he traps me in a basement that happens to have a portal to hell in it underneath a haunted hotel...pure romance.
With Hell House LLC 3: Lake of Fire, here we are at the end, and what have we learned...
Just burn the hotel down after the first killing.
People who survive car accidents have secrets.
And my unhealthy kink for serial killer clowns is ruining any future relationships of mine.
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