On we go to another Shudder exclusive, the third movie in the Hell House saga, the first movie was good, and the second was good, though it got a little ridiculous at the end, so im hoping that this movie is good too. If they can shut up the overly preachy blabbermouth character who ruined the end of the second movie, they might really have something here.
So at the end of the second movie, before it turned into an overshare session from hell (literally) we learn that a traveling theatrical production run by Russell Wynn, a famous producer, is planning to set up a showing in the Abaddon hotel (oh yeah, great idea, let's open a show in a hotel where everyone always dies whenever people open a show there). There's a reporter shooting a documentary about the show, so she films interviews with the cast and crew in the hotel, and of course they all keep seeing strange things (because, you know, the hotel is evil and stuff). As things progress, the demonic activity gets worse and worse, until everyone is in danger of getting cast into hell. Way to go, geniuses.
I have a hard time believing anyone would be stupid enough to hold a theatrical show in a place like this, which not only is evil and haunted as fuck and kills everyone who tries to film anything there, but is an old, crumbling building that has to be a huge liability for people to get injured there, even if it weren't full of demons. I get that the characters in the movie have to be really stupid or the movie will be five minutes long, but this is a little ridiculous even for a horror movie. I'm going to have to put aside anything even remotely resembling common sense in order to enjoy this movie.
So as per usual with this kind of movie, everything starts and people are happy, working normally, taking selfies at work and posting them online, then people start seeing scary things in the shadows, people start noticing shadowy figures in the background of people's pictures online, someone wandering through the hotel at night sees something terrifying and quits the production. As the scary happenings escalate, the woman filming the documentary tries to convince Russell Wynn that something is wrong, but he dismisses her concerns. She mentions in an interview that she's afraid to quit the production and be labeled "difficult" or some other sexist bullshit, and that seems plausible, I guess, especially when the scary stuff she sees is unclear and could really be her imagination (we know it'snot, but if you didn'tbelieve in demons, I get not wanting to lose a steady paycheck over some unfounded fear). I would still quit though. Fuck you, call me difficult, at least I won't get eaten by demons.
As the movie goes on, it becomes clear that Russell knows more than what he's saying. He dismisses everyone's fears, but the documentary crew begin to suspect that there's something sinister behind the whole decision to hold the show at the old hotel. What motivated him to pull off this dangerous gamble? The documentary film crew try to shut the show down, but by now it's too late, it's opening day and if anything horrible is going to happen, it's too late to stop it. There's a sense of impending doom, but everyone decides to go on with the show anyway (those red flags are big enough to cover a multitude of sins, I guess).
This definitely has the biggest and most explosive conclusion of the series (which makes sense because it's the finale; go big or go home, right?) It loses some of the quiet horror of the first film, but at least it's less preachy than the second film. There's one shot in particular that twirls around a room as horrible things happen, and the spinning turned my stomach, but it's still a really great shot. For setting the whole movie up to be this big battle at the end, they kind of get it over with a little too quickly for my liking. It's a cool twist, though. Definitely not where I thought the movie was headed. Then they do their best to screw everything up with a preachy sequence at the end that tries hard to ruin everything good about the movie. I swear if I ever watch this movie again, I'm turning it off before that scene starts. I get what it's trying to do, but SHUT UP WE GOT THE POINT YOU DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO US LIKE WE'RE STUPID. This movie is pretty good, just turn it off ten minutes or so before the end and you'll be good.
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