What do you get when a group of amateur cold case investigators try to solve the mystery around the Carmichael massacre. You get some awesome bloody scares from Shudder.
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
Shudder never disappoints me when they send a film out for a review. Writer/director Stephen Cognetti’s Hell House LLC series began with a mysterious Halloween accident at the Abaddon hotel, followed by Hell House LLC: The Abaddon Hotel, and Hell House LLC: Lake of Fire. With the premier of Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor coming out this October, we will be witnessing the next chapter of the Hill House LLC films. And yes, those freaking clowns are back!
This film begins with three people, who are internet sleuths, traveling to the remote Carmichael Manor located in Rockland County, New York. Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta), Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown) and Margo’s brother Chase (James Liddell) are there to solve the cold case of the 1989 slaughter of the Carmichael family. What law enforcement and our sleuths know already about the case is that a year before the massacre, two of the Carmichael children, Margaret (Victoria Andrunik) and Patrick (Gideon Berger) were in a car crash (the other driver was drunk) and Margaret died on the spot, and Patrick lost the use of his left arm. A year later, the mother and remaining daughter, Catherine (Cayla Berejikian) were found viciously slaughtered in their beds. The father and brother were never found.
The entire film is shown as a documentary, but it has enough “jump out of your skin” frights to keep you watching. Margot doesn’t really believe in ghosts, but Rebecca and Chase start noticing strange goings on, immediately. The scares really begin after Margot unlocks a door to a storage room that holds three life-sized clown mannequins, an old carnival game, and other carnival memorabilia.
After a visit to an antique shop where Margot and Rebecca steal items from a clock that belonged to the Abaddon Hotel, that is when everything goes south for our poor, unprepared investigators.
Conclusion
Clowns are freaking scary, and writer/director Stephen Cognetti knows how to play off that childhood terror with great results (you can see our own Andy Burns’ interview with Cognetti here.) Plus, we learn more information on the clowns. You can watch Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor on Shudder on October 30th…keep the lights on.
