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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