Welcome Back to the Abaddon Hotel, Population: Poor Decisions
If there’s one thing horror sequels have taught us, it’s that no one ever learns anything. Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel is proof that curiosity doesn’t just kill the cat — it drags the entire journalism department down to hell with it.
Written and directed by Stephen Cognetti, this sequel to the surprisingly effective Hell House LLC tries to expand the mythology of the cursed Abaddon Hotel. Unfortunately, it ends up feeling like the cinematic equivalent of being trapped in a Zoom call with ghosts who don’t know how to mute themselves.
If the first movie was a cleverly executed found-footage gem — creepy, atmospheric, and unsettling — the second one is like watching your drunk uncle try to explain The Blair Witch Project using an iPhone 4 and a ring light.
Plot: Paranormal Activity Meets Paranormal Ineptitude
The movie opens with a panel discussion about whether the events of Hell House were real or just a publicity stunt — which is a bold choice, since by the time this sequel came out, no one had been discussing Hell House in years.
Enter our heroes: a ragtag team of journalists consisting of Molly, Jessica, Malcolm, and David — none of whom seem qualified to cover anything more complex than a bake sale. They decide to break into the now-abandoned Abaddon Hotel to prove it’s haunted. Because nothing says “responsible journalism” like illegally trespassing on a property where dozens of people have died.
Joining them is Brock Davies, a psychic so fake he makes Miss Cleo look like she’s working for NASA. Together, they venture into the hotel basement, which of course is where everything goes horribly wrong — mostly for the audience.
They discover some old files, attempt a séance, summon a ghost, and — surprise! — people start dying. Brock gets killed mid-séance, proving once again that talking to the dead is a poor career choice. Malcolm follows soon after, leaving the rest to bicker, panic, and make increasingly stupid choices.
By the time the survivors stumble onto Andrew Tully — the hotel’s satanic founder and apparent ghostly landlord — the plot has officially given up. Tully forces Mitchell, the lone survivor from the first movie, to pick someone to join him in eternal haunted servitude. Because apparently even in hell, you still need middle management.
The film ends with Jessica, now a ghost herself, being interrogated by police — which is impressive, considering ghosts don’t usually get booked for questioning. She tells them to “go to the Abaddon Hotel,” which would’ve been scary if I weren’t already desperate to leave.
The Cast: Paranormal Boredom
The acting in Hell House II ranges from “community theater after too many Red Bulls” to “college improv group that forgot the scene prompt.”
Vasile Flutur, as returning survivor Mitchell, spends most of the movie looking like he regrets coming back for this sequel — and honestly, who can blame him? His performance screams, “My agent promised me this was going to Shudder, not straight to Shudder.”
Jillian Geurts, as Jessica, delivers her lines with the kind of determination you usually reserve for someone trying to return a blender without a receipt. Meanwhile, Joy Shatz as Molly manages to make “possessed and terrified” look more like “mildly inconvenienced by a slow Wi-Fi connection.”
Then there’s Kyle Ingleman as Brock the psychic — who’s less “spirit medium” and more “guy who got lost on his way to a cosplay convention.” His séance scene is one of the film’s few moments of energy, but that’s mostly because he dies halfway through it.
Found Footage Fatigue: Now With 30% More Nausea
The found-footage format worked in the first Hell House because it felt raw and immersive. Here, it just feels lazy. The camera work is so shaky you’ll think the ghosts are haunting the cinematographer.
Every time the lights flicker, someone screams, and the camera turns 180 degrees, revealing either a shadow or nothing at all. Rinse, repeat, throw in some static — congratulations, you’ve seen Hell House II.
At one point, the film tries to get clever by mixing in “news footage,” YouTube clips, and fake TV interviews — but instead of world-building, it feels like flipping through cable channels at 3 a.m. during a migraine.
By the halfway mark, I stopped being scared and started rooting for the camera battery to die so we could all be free.
The Ghosts: Discount Demons R Us
One of the original film’s strengths was its subtlety. You didn’t always see the ghosts — you felt them. The tension built slowly until it crawled under your skin.
In Hell House II, the ghosts are everywhere, all the time. They pop up like cheap jump-scare whack-a-moles, accompanied by loud sound effects that scream, “WE PROMISE THIS IS SCARY!”
The infamous clown mannequins return, but now they’re about as menacing as party decorations at a sad office Halloween party. When one of them moves its head, it’s less “terrifying apparition” and more “someone accidentally bumped the prop.”
And Andrew Tully, the big bad cult leader from beyond the grave? He’s revealed so casually and explained so poorly that by the end, he feels less like the Prince of Darkness and more like a grumpy Airbnb host tired of uninvited guests.
Atmosphere: Haunted by Missed Potential
To the film’s credit, the Abaddon Hotel is still creepy. The peeling wallpaper, the flickering lights, the endless hallways — it all oozes Gothic dread. Unfortunately, the movie squanders it by constantly reminding you that you’ve seen this all before.
Instead of letting the environment build tension, Hell House II turns the hotel into a theme park ride — the kind where the animatronics malfunction and the operator doesn’t care.
What could have been a claustrophobic descent into madness ends up feeling like a dull guided tour through “Budget Horror Land.”
The Writing: Hell Is Other Dialogue
If you thought the scares were bad, wait until you hear the dialogue. Every line sounds like it was written by someone whose only exposure to journalism came from watching Buzzfeed Unsolved.
Jessica: “We have to go to the Abaddon Hotel.”
Mitchell: “That place is cursed!”
Jessica: “That’s why it’s newsworthy!”
It’s like watching a group of idiots debate their own demise — which, come to think of it, is the only believable part of the movie.
The script tries to expand the mythology of the Abaddon cult, but it never explains anything. Who was Andrew Tully? Why does he want sacrifices? How is the Wi-Fi still working in that building? These are questions the movie doesn’t care to answer.
Instead, it spends half its runtime rehashing footage from the first film — the cinematic equivalent of a friend showing you vacation photos you’ve already seen.
The Ending: Ghosts, Confusion, and Regret
By the end, it’s clear that Hell House II isn’t building toward a climax so much as limping toward a streaming deadline. The reveal that Arnold Tasselman is secretly Andrew Tully in disguise is treated like a shocking twist — but given that he’s the only person old and creepy enough to be the ghost, it lands with the impact of a deflated balloon.
Jessica becoming a spirit at the end could’ve been interesting — if it weren’t handled like a last-minute plot patch. The final shot, with her telling police to “go to the Abaddon Hotel,” is supposed to set up another sequel. Instead, it just feels like a threat.
Final Thoughts: Haunted by Mediocrity
Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel is the horror sequel equivalent of reheating last night’s leftovers — it’s familiar, soggy, and somehow worse than you remember.
It takes the eerie simplicity of the first film and buries it under bad acting, lazy writing, and enough jump scares to give your cat a heart attack.
By the time the credits roll, the only thing truly haunting you is the feeling that you’ve wasted 90 minutes watching people argue in a dark basement.
So if you’re thinking about checking into the Abaddon Hotel, don’t. The rooms are dusty, the ghosts are bored, and the Wi-Fi is cursed.
Final Rating: ★★☆☆☆
(Two out of five clown mannequins — one for effort, one for the building’s interior design, and zero for everything else.)
