Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Years after the original events, an investigative team attempts to break into the hotel and uncover evidence of the truth.

Review: I'm probably in the minority here, but I liked this movie as much as the first. I wasn't expecting much from this entry, yet, it was able to surprise me with the direction the filmmaker took. The idea was to craft a trilogy of films by filling in more backstory on the previous installment while setting up part 3 in the process. The scares were just as good as part 1--better even in some instances--and the material is spiced up a bit. Of course, there are more of those inherent flaws by still making this found-footage, but where part 2 falters most is with a lame twist ending that doesn't work for beans.

This time around, nearly a decade has passed since the unexplained events of the first movie unfolded. The documentary that we, as the audience, watched became a phenomenon inspiring amateur ghost hunters and internet jackasses to flock to the hotel; these people subsequently go missing despite ghostly footage being found. The heart of the story is that the guy that assembled the documentary is on a talk show discussing the hotel and the implications of an actual haunting. The other guests on the show are an alleged psychic and some guy that supposedly works for the town government of Abaddon. An outside crew of investigative journalists have inside information and want to recruit the main guy to help them bust into the hotel and uncover the truth; the psychic guy tags along for good measure. Big shock...they become trapped in the hotel as the evil spirits pick them off one by one. Much of this is handled quite well thankfully. Our clown friends make a return, but the scares are a little different this time around. There are still remnants of the haunt attraction since nothing was really cleaned up after part 1. This helped make the films seem more intertwined especially when trying to add more information to part 1's story.

I was a big fan of this creepy background ghost.

Upfront, you need to understand there will be many of the same low-budget flaws of part 1 so you will either tolerate them or not. What can sour an experience I believe is this ending where we find out the original owner of the hotel is like this mastermind ghost that was posing on the talk show with the main guy. This is unfathomably stupid. It's like...if he can do all of that then what can't he do?! Then there was this idea that people have been summoned to the house for decades which was a huge plot tangent left unexplored. Finally, the ambiguity on the blonde chick or the main guy living didn't make sense nor was it explained. If the main guy lived, why don't we see him again? If the blonde girl was let out instead then why do we see her as yet another apparition posing as alive? And don't think part 3 fills in these answers.

So if the ending is dumb why would I rate it as high as part 1? I think there were instances of better ideas and camerawork. Likewise, I thought the pacing and flow of events was better with less meandering. This makes it where part 1 is a better story and satisfying ending whereas part 2 is a better production overall but hindered by a weak ending. At the end of the day, neither film is going to blow you away, but I don't think fans give this entry enough credit for what it has to offer.

Notable Moment: When Melissa pops up randomly only to immediately transform into some kind of demon. Her makeup was kind of bland, but, I don't know, I liked the voice change and how casual it was. Plus, she's cute as hell.

Final Rating: 6/10