Good morning, House of Madness residents:
There's no mistaking my eternal love for the found footage genre, so franchises that dip their toes into the pool of shaky cams will always capture my attention, and most likely win me over a decimal point or two on the old Madness Meter. I'm not saying there will be biased scores simply because a film is shot in the manner I so deliciously covet over the traditional style, but I do admittedly have a soft spot for low budget hand cams if they're done properly and effectively. Hence my confusion when this fourth installment of the Hell House LLC franchise suddenly switched gears, and attempts to deliver its frights in the more traditional sense of filmmaking. Unfortunately, it would have taken a lot more than a not so steady hand behind the camera lens to save this ripe pile of steaming dreck.
Vanessa (Elizabeth Vermilyea) is back in Abaddon running her own business whilst trying to forget her past. Unfortunately, her past traumas were caused by the very place she's decided to return to and plant her roots, so talking with a therapist and leaning on friends will have to suffice as she attempts to navigate her way through everyday life. Nightmares plague her dreams and fuel her mistrust with reality, while strange deaths that have been happening for decades between the Abaddon Hotel and Carmichael Manor start to connect in her mind, as she tries to unravel the uncertainty manifesting in her head.
Again, I'm not suggesting that sticking with their found footage philosophy would have saved this film, because you can only pour so much perfume on a pig before the smell of shit seeps through, and you can only milk a cow so long before your time is better spent jacking off a bull. Bottom line, this film feels forced, completely unnecessary, and so far removed from the films that preceeded it, that I'd have probably looked at it differently had they tried to make it its own entity, rather than their attempt at tacking onto a story that didn't require more finishing with a lot less gore. "Hell House LLC: Lineage" is hopefully the final installment in a franchise that has aged about as well as Mickey Rourke after a botox binge barbecue weekend in the Hamptons.
Madness Meter: 3.3/10
NB
