HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR | ©2023 Shudder / Terror Releasing

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Bridget Rose Perrotta, Destiny Brown, James Liddell, Gideon Berger, Cayla Berejikian, Victoria Andrunik, Darren F. Earl II, Searra Sawka
Writer: Stephen Cognetti
Director: Stephen Cognetti
Distributor: Shudder/Terror Releasing
Release Date: October 31, 2023

HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR is the fourth film in writer/director Stephen Cognetti’s found-footage horror HELL HOUSE franchise.

For those (like this reviewer) coming into a HELL HOUSE for the first time (excluding the unrelated 1972 THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE), there are enough references to previous entries to suggest we’re missing some plot points. The good news is that CARMICHAEL MANOR is lively and done well enough to make us curious about its predecessors.

There are multiple layers in CARMICHAEL MANOR. We get a pair of reasonable-sounding experts, Net Sleuths co-founder Bradley Moynahan (Darren F. Earl II) and true crime writer Alicia Calavini (Searra Sawka), addressing us about the deaths of Bradley’s colleague Margot Bentley (Bridget Rose Perrotta) and her girlfriend/camera operator Rebecca Vickers (Destiny Brown).

Then we are given the found footage of Margot, Rebecca and Margot’s troubled brother Chase (James Liddell) as they go to spend several days and nights in the isolated Carmichael Manor. The mansion was the site of an unsolved double homicide thirty years earlier. Margot hopes to solve the crime, and perhaps get some footage proving the place is haunted.

Then Margot and company find yet more footage, shot on film. Perhaps surprisingly, this doesn’t feel too meta. There are clear delineations in the look and style of all three timelines. Bradley and Alicia’s segments are bright and indoors-sunny, Margot and Rebecca’s video is progressively bleaker and creepier, and the filmed material has a home-movies sheen.

The variety keeps us engaged, as does the ever-unraveling mystery. Cognetti has structured CARMICHAEL MANOR effectively, with enough going on everywhere to provide a sense of momentum, even though we know in the broad strokes what will happen.

Cognetti has also cast CARMICHAEL MANOR with refreshingly interesting performers instead of the usual suspects. Perrotta is especially compelling as the quirky Margot – we can believe that she hangs onto the camera when the going gets rough. Earl has a becoming honesty.

We can wish that CARMICHAEL MANOR made a bit more of some story details, but perhaps they’ll be addressed in more depth in the next HELL HOUSE venture. Meanwhile, HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR stands up as a decent example of both the haunted house and found footage subgenres.

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Article: Movie Review: HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR

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