Project MKHEXE (2025) - Horror Film Review

It appears that the Gerald Waddell written and directed found footage mockumentary Project MKHEXE is so committed to trying to seem authentic that it doesn't even have an IMDB page. I have seen lots of found footage horror films so far this year, and this one is certainly the most polished one, but I don't think for all its atmosphere and vibe it manages to quite stick the landing.

The film is set out like a lost documentary with a screen of text at the start saying that back in 2014 it had been uploaded to the internet but mysteriously vanished a week later. Now (it states), the documentary has resurfaced and will be shown in its original unedited format. The rest of the film takes the form of this mockumentary as we follow Tim, the older brother of Shawn, a young man who unexpectedly killed himself after exploring the urban myth of 'Project MKHEXE', an internet legend about a government broadcast intended to hypnotise, but instead sends the people who see it dangerously insane.

I was immediately reminded of the excellent Butterfly Kisses, a horror mockumentary that played out in a similar fashion, though the core horror there was more interesting I felt. The key to the horror here comes from a signal, this was a similar idea to Haunted: The Audio Drama, which also used the idea of a unnatural signal that sent people homicidally mad. Due to this lingering feeling of familiarity, I never was able to fully immerse myself in this film as much as I would have liked. It was undoubtably masterfully edited, the fake doc feels like lots and lots of care was put into it to try and make it seem authentic. It contains a lot of content over the nearly hundred and ten minute runtime that includes interviews, stock footage, written evidence, its own collection of within universe found footage tapes and found audio recordings. These were all fascinating to see and meant that the focus wasn't solely on Tim (and later Nicole; a university friend of Shawn), instead giving a small selection of other stories. These include the recovered video tape of police interviewing a man suspected of murdering his friend, a blogger, a scientist performing strange research, and of course the tapes that Shawn left behind. All of this looked fantastic, the acting on the whole is decent enough, but outside of maybe one or two characters, no one seemed legitimately authentic. This was a shame as that was the one piece of the film that really needed to sell itself, but it was obvious the whole time that it was a film being watched and not something that could potentially be believed to be real.

The core idea was interesting, I really liked how this found documentary really tries to set itself up as one. There are dives into the protagonist brother's life, and a natural seeming explanation for how Tim decided to make a doc, due to not understanding how his brother could have taken his life. Relatively early on it is revealed what is going on, what the antagonist force actually is. It was fun enough and had some Lovecraftian feelings to it, but my main enjoyment came from the anticipation of where things would end up. By the time I got to about an hour and a half in, the film had began to drag a little and I was ready for the end. The final twenty minutes took a long while to travel a little distance, becoming a little tropey with elements such as unreliable scenes being shown, and ending on a sudden but underwhelming sequence. I will say that I loved that the QR code that briefly flashes up on screen at then end actually points to a website that has been designed as a companion piece to the mockumentary, keeping up the illusion of this being real and featuring links to other equally fake websites that continue the fabrication. It is impressive the dedication to the art of the film here.

For a good chunk of the runtime of Project MKHEXE I was enthralled. The fake format was really entertaining to watch, with perfect editing and plenty of mystery created. Camera glitches were used to great effect. This was one such film where the journey was better than the destination, as I didn't feel the payoff was that exciting. I still thought this was a wonderfully made found footage horror however. Project MKHEXE will be streaming exclusively on SCREAMBOX from April 29th.

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Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023) - Found Footage Horror Film Review

Once again directed and written by Stephen Cognetti, Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is the fourth entry in the Hell House LLC series of found footage horrors. Serving as both a prequel to the series, as well as a direct sequel to 2019's Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, this moves the action from the infamous Abaddon Hotel (the location of the previous three films) to a more remote location.

The format once again is set up as a mocumentary, mainly via interviews with Bradley Moynahan (Darin F. Earl II), the co-founder of an online net-sleuth website. The fake documentary revolves around Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta) - the other co-founder of that website, who had gone on assignment with girlfriend Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown) and brother Chase (James Liddell) to the remote titular Carmichael Manor. This was the site of a grisly family murder back in 1989, Margot is a bit of a ghost hunter and hopes to not only find out who was responsible for the murders there, but also to see if there is any evidence of the place being haunted. Most of the mockumentary is made up of footage recovered from the manor, that has been pieced together to show exactly what led to the three people being found dead there. Having gotten permission to stay at the manor for five nights, the trio had planned to film everything in order to put together an episode for an online show. Almost right away there is definite proof caught on camera that it seems very likely the place is legitimately haunted. Chase and especially Rebecca both want to leave at the earliest opportunity, but are convinced to stay by Margot, who is excited to be capturing this evidence. As stated, with the three's bodies eventually discovered there, this turns out to be a very bad idea.

It could easily be argued that this is yet more of the same, following a familiar format to the previous films. For me, the change of location did feel like a bit of fresh air, even if it has similar beats. The story takes place after Lake of Fire, with the burning down of the Abaddon Hotel referenced, but seemed only tangentially related to that place. The manor is said to be in the next town over and at first seemed unrelated. I don't know if I missed a bit of dialogue, but the protagonists seemed aware there was some link to the hotel, eventually they find evidence of this link, but I was never sure why the characters believed there to be a link before it was discovered. Without going into too much detail, the prologue part eventually all comes together. For those who have seen the previous films and enjoyed the creepy clown mannequins that frequently moved around off-camera in those ones, this actually mainly serves as an origin story for those clown mannequins, with them also appearing here for in-film reasons. It might have been a bit convenient, but I did like how this linked to a traumatic event Margot had at a town fair as a child, where she was nearly abducted by a man dressed up like a clown.

I thought the main cast were all great in their roles, this was a far cry from the often dodgy acting of second film, Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel. I loved Brown's portrayal as Rebecca of a woman getting increasingly freaked out over the course of the four or five days (the footage being split into title carded days), and I liked how they created reasons for why the trio don't just flee at the first, second, or even third sign of trouble. The remote location gave this a more fear inducing feel, before (from my memory), the hotel was near a main road, here, with the manor in the middle of a large forest miles from anywhere, you had the feeling of the characters really being isolated from the outside world.

The horror comes in a few different forms, and I enjoyed it all. I liked how the horror is introduced early on and the forms it takes. You get people filming themselves unaware of ghosts appearing on camera, there was a cool scene featuring a female figure wearing a porcelain mask, plenty moments of those clown mannequins moving around off camera (loved when Chase says "Clowns! Why did it have to be clowns!?" to paraphrase), and a great bit when Rebecca is attempting to show her estate agent boss photos of a house over an online call. Instead of photos taken from the house, the photos show the manor, with each subsequent photo getting closer to where Rebecca is doing the video call from. There were plenty of creepy moments to be found, and they were almost always effective.

I have enjoyed most of the Hell House series, this one no exception. It might follow a familiar format, but it was wonderfully put together with a great mix of the found footage, documentary moments, and the inclusion of old footage from 1989 spliced in that the protagonists in their plight were never able to see. Lore-wise, this might seem only vaguely related to the other films, but it does come together in the movie's third act, making this a worthwhile sequel/prequel. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor can currently be streamed on Shudder.

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