Hell House beats my very low expectation for a found footage movie, but that doesn't mean it's a good movie. The acting is pretty good, but the script has the characters having, what I found to be, unrealistic reactions and I don't buy that these people are good friends; they have zero chemistry. I watched this film for the first time four years and one day ago and I had some vague memories of the movie, but not much. In hindsight, that probably didn't bode well for this viewing. He'll House LLC does create a creepy atmosphere, but most of the horror comes from imagining yourself in the characters positions as they experience the events. No spoilers, but it's a lot of "Hey, that wasn't there before!" and it becomes harder and harder to empathize when the characters have no survival instinct, memory, or common sense. They are awoken one night by the Meow Mix song being played on a piano. These dipshits are like "Where could that sound be coming from?" Mother fucker, there is one piano in the building, do you think the microwave could have made a piano song? Maybe it was the shower? Another character seems to turn on his video camera every time he wakes up. One time, he sees something spooky and instead of running, fighting, calling for help, or any reaction a real person would have, he pulls the covers over his head. There are some small issues that took me out of it, like some bad makeup, nonsensical blood splatter, and an extra that must have shown up in a t-shirt with a trademarked image on it, so they made him turn his shirt inside out, but then put his back right in front of the camera so that we can see the label on the back of his neck. My biggest issue is that although we now know this movie is the first of a trilogy, it doesn't feel like one. It feels self contained and there is no obvious dangling plot thread that needs to be picked up in a sequel, so what are we left with more questions than we started out with? We can make some guesses on a few answers based on what the incredibly blurry freeze frames they show us, but I don't know anything for sure. I must have watched the director's cut last time, because this version makes no sense. It's an okay surface level horror movie, but it doesn't really hold up to any criticism.
Hell House beats my very low expectation for a found footage movie, but that doesn't mean it's a good movie. The acting is pretty good, but the script has the characters having, what I found to be, unrealistic reactions and I don't buy that these people are good friends; they have zero chemistry. I watched this film for the first time four years and one day ago and I had some vague memories of the movie, but not much. In hindsight, that probably didn't bode well for this viewing. He'll House LLC does create a creepy atmosphere, but most of the horror comes from imagining yourself in the characters positions as they experience the events. No spoilers, but it's a lot of "Hey, that wasn't there before!" and it becomes harder and harder to empathize when the characters have no survival instinct, memory, or common sense. They are awoken one night by the Meow Mix song being played on a piano. These dipshits are like "Where could that sound be coming from?" Mother fucker, there is one piano in the building, do you think the microwave could have made a piano song? Maybe it was the shower? Another character seems to turn on his video camera every time he wakes up. One time, he sees something spooky and instead of running, fighting, calling for help, or any reaction a real person would have, he pulls the covers over his head. There are some small issues that took me out of it, like some bad makeup, nonsensical blood splatter, and an extra that must have shown up in a t-shirt with a trademarked image on it, so they made him turn his shirt inside out, but then put his back right in front of the camera so that we can see the label on the back of his neck. My biggest issue is that although we now know this movie is the first of a trilogy, it doesn't feel like one. It feels self contained and there is no obvious dangling plot thread that needs to be picked up in a sequel, so what are we left with more questions than we started out with? We can make some guesses on a few answers based on what the incredibly blurry freeze frames they show us, but I don't know anything for sure. I must have watched the director's cut last time, because this version makes no sense. It's an okay surface level horror movie, but it doesn't really hold up to any criticism.
