The Correct Order To Watch The Hell House LLC Movies

Summer is drawing to a close, which can mean only one thing: spooky season is almost upon us. It's the most wonderful time of the year! While some folks may limit their Halloween festivities to October, I'm a firm believer that September is the time to start getting into the spirit of the season. Look, if people can start celebrating Christmas in November, there's no reason we can't do some similar early acknowledgement of Halloween, that's all I'm saying. And while I think any time of year is the right time for scary movies, there's something extra special about watching scary movies in the midst of spooky season. And it's an added bonus if the movies in question are set on or around Halloween-time. 

Which is why whenever Halloween season rolls around, I like to revisit Stephen Cognetti's "Hell House LLC" franchise. Not all of these movies are good (in fact, I'd say one of them is downright bad!), but I still get a kick out of these films that (mostly) focus on a Halloween haunted house that turns out to really be haunted! While these found footage horror flicks are still on-going — a new installment, "Hell House LLC: Lineage," is due out next year — there are currently four films available in the franchise. If you've been meaning to get around to watching these creepshows and are determined to finally do so this Halloween season, we're here to help you figure out the correct order in which to view them. 

The correct order to watch the "Hell House LLC" series is, believe it or not, the release order. Even though the most recent entry in the series, "Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor," is both a sequel and a prequel, it doesn't really make sense unless you've seen the other movies. Kick things off with "Hell House LLC." This found footage film purports to contain the true story behind a tragedy at the Abaddon Hotel. A group of friends opened up a Halloween haunted house at the abandoned hotel, and, as we're told from the start, fifteen people, including members of the team who put together the haunted house, died on opening night. The footage we see shows the team setting the haunted house up in the weeks leading up to opening night, only to discover the place might be really haunted. This is arguably the best film in the franchise, and it creates a genuinely creepy atmosphere, aided by some legitimately scary life-sized clown dolls. 

Follow that up with the sequel, "Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel." This film follows a documentary crew digging deeper into the cursed hotel. It fills in some backstory and furthers the overall mythology of the series. Now, whether or not that's a good thing is up to you to determine. In my humble opinion, less is more — we don't need everything spelled out. But that's me. After "Hell House LLC II," we have "Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire." In this film, a billionaire purchases the hotel and saves it from being demolished, all so he can stage an interactive play within the building. As you might guess, things go terribly wrong. Sadly, this is the worst entry in the series, with much of the film devoted to showing clips from previous movies.

Finally, we have "Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor." This film changes things up a bit. As the title suggests, there's a whole new setting for this film. Instead of taking place in the Abaddon Hotel, "Origins" is set in the haunted Carmichael Manor, and follows an amature documentary filmmaker, her girlfriend, and her brother, as they try to capture footage of the supernatural. This film expands the mythology of the franchise as a whole, and it's a big step up after the disappointing "Lake of Fire." 

As I mentioned, "The Carmichael Manor" acts as a semi-prequel, but it genuinely works better if you watch it last — it breathes new life into the series, in a way. Also, since each subsequent film in the series adds more and more mythology to the overall story, it just makes sense to watch the movies in order. That said, the series as a whole is a little lopsided. The first film, "Hell House LLC," is the best entry — it's simple and effective, and makes great use of those damn clowns. The next best film in the saga is "Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor."

As for "Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel" and "Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire," well, they're both kind of disappointing — particularly "Lake of Fire," which is the least enjoyable movie here. If you wanted to go nuts and just watch  "Hell House LLC" and "Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor" and skip the other two films, I wouldn't hold that against you at all. I know that as we get closer to Halloween, I'll be revisiting those two movies for sure. If you would like to do the same, you can find all of the films currently streaming on horror streaming service Shudder. There's even a director's cut of the first film available there as well.