Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor

Atmospheric found footage inferno!!! I didn't think I'd ever be scared to go to the toilet after watching a horror movie, but here I was, like, super uncomfortable. I don't mind ghosts or demons, I don't mind heads and dicks being cut and guts flying around, but I downright hate mannequins and clowns and this combo is deadly to me. Also adding a lot to the atmosphere was the fact that I watched this film at 3am and when you are going back to your hotel at night it can sometimes be scary, I almost took out my torch and the walk up to the second floor was almost reminiscent of Silent Hill! Already in the first story you could sense that the filmmakers have talent despite the limited budget, but I was bothered by the chaotic camera and the distracting images, it was still kind of The Blair Witch Project style with an epileptic touch, where you can't see much and the camera shakes like pensioners in front of a supermarket at 7am, but here all these flaws are absent. The cinematography is beautifully polished, and visually it's immediately a more attractive film, and to me, more likeable. Plus the film has the potential to be an interesting crime mystery, based around the wealthy Carmichael family of the huge mansion I have a soft spot for. So here we have a group of three investigators who decide to spend five nights in this mansion, as they suspect it is haunted, and it is! From about 40 minutes onwards, it goes into full horror mode with the scariest clowns I've ever seen, and every shot of them gave me chills and uncomfortable anxiety. The camera work is downright masterful and I can say the same for the sound design, where some of the scares tingled with me properly, as they should. The atmosphere is bleak and very much evil, the pacing by the end is so intense that I wished it was already over, because I was afraid that I might not be able to physically handle any more revelations! I also praise the very innovative haunted attractions (for example the scene where we only watch a sequence of photos that start to get progressively more creepy was brilliant), here even James Wan would give a standing ovation! A found footage gem with proper creepy vibes. I'm bumping it up to full score because I haven't had a more intense horror experience since The Conjuring and The Host. An underrated masterpiece that is downright hell to watch. 9/10. (2024-05-20)