Heller-Nicholas, A. (2019). Found Footage Horror Films: A Cognitive Approach . McFarland.
The true horror lies in . The manor “welcomes” guests only to digest them. The repeated image of a dinner table set for four—the original Carmichael family—suggests the house is perpetually waiting to complete its seating arrangement. When Margot and her friends arrive, they are not intruders; they are invited guests to a meal that never ends. This positions Origins closer to films like Kill List or The Wicker Man than to traditional haunted-attraction horror. Hell House LLC Origins - The Carmichael Manor
The original Hell House LLC (2015) achieved cult status through its effective use of documentary realism and slow-burn tension, centering on a tragic haunted-house attraction in a decommissioned hotel. However, its sequels suffered from diminishing returns, over-explaining the supernatural mechanics (the “Hell House” as a dimensional rift) while losing the intimate dread of the first film. The Carmichael Manor (2023) reboots the franchise’s narrative logic. By abandoning the Abaddon Hotel almost entirely, Cognetti pivots to a smaller, more personal setting: a vacant manor in rural New York, linked to a wealthy family’s dark history of murder, isolation, and occult practice. Heller-Nicholas, A
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023) Director: Stephen Cognetti Series: Hell House LLC (2015), Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018), Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019) McFarland
Critics have noted a distinct folk horror influence absent from prior entries. The Carmichael Manor is not just a building; it is situated on land described as “hungry.” Local legends (introduced via faux-newscasts) mention Native American burial grounds and colonial-era witch trials, but Cognetti subverts these clichés by grounding the evil in 20th-century familial atrocity.
This paper posits that the film’s title— Origins —is deliberately misleading. It does not show the “first” haunting of the franchise, but rather reveals the originating consciousness behind all subsequent hauntings. The Carmichael Manor is presented not as a haunted house, but as a for a parasitic entity that later migrates to the Abaddon Hotel.