Episode 260 - Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled program. Salutations! Welcome to Podmortem. I'm Renee Hunter-Vosquez, joined as always by my co-host, my husband and my brother. Hi, I'm John Paul Vasquez. Hi, I'm Travis Hunter-Syappan. This week, we're recording live from the Abaddon Hotel discussing the 2019 found footage horror film Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire. This film was written and directed by Stephen Cognetti.

Just one year after our last stay at the Abaddon Hotel, we return in this third installment. While generally considered the weakest film of the original trilogy, Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire balances new and... familiar characters showcases the style of scares that the franchise is known for and brings a dramatic conclusion to this haunting tale. This film was requested to us by friends of the show, Kate Lamp, Beth Bauer, Johnny Blaze 666, Robin, and Morgan Novello.

We want to thank them all so much for their support as well as the suggestion. This film was also one of the winners of our March Patreon poll. So thank you to all of our patrons who participated and voted. If you want to help us pick an episode, join us on Patreon at Patreon. patreon.com slash thepodmortem. So what did you guys think of Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire the first time you saw it?

I don't really remember the very first time that I watched this, but I know I've seen this two other times on my own before watching it for the show. I'll say up top, I'm an apologist for this series and I really like, I'll go back and watch them over and over. I do like them. I do know that this one is, you know what I mean? It's not as hell house-y, but it's...

I still enjoy it. I know there's a lot of things that I didn't enjoy, and I know we'll get into that. But I remember the first time when I watched it, I was, again, I was like, Hell House, this is great. This is whatever. And then I remember... getting through the movie being like that wasn't as good as the other two and then watching it again i think what because when i do watch them it's it's

one two or two three or one two three and then it's like oh okay so you get the full experience but watching them watching this on its own was just kind of like oh you need the other two to make this one better right um And T, I know this is a good line of yours, movies are miracles in there, you know. And I do still appreciate everything they do here, but this one did, it's a little... You know, you physically get that. Some things not right. I still like it though. Yeah.

I will say I feel the same way as far as the opinion on this film in particular. I unfortunately was never really a big fan of the Hell House series. Right. But... I will say, and this is three weeks in a row that this has happened, watching Paranormal Activity 2 gave me an appreciation for Paranormal Activity 1. Yeah. And I know watching Saw 4 gave us all an appreciation for the original trilogy, so to speak. Oh, yeah.

Watching Hell House 3, it feels like that. Where it's like, we don't know what we had, boy. Because it was a thing that I was like, you know, when I'm looking back at the first and second one, I'm like, you know, there were a lot of moments that... actually were pretty unsettling. Yeah. Or moments that you could point to and be like, you know what? I would go back just to watch that sequence play out again. Right. Talk about the hitchhiker in number two. Talk about the first clown situation.

yeah there's so much for me in that first one that is really creepy and successful i felt like this one there just wasn't that moment to point to right i feel like this was more There's a lot of puzzling creative decisions in number three. Yeah. I want to start with something nice. I love... Any attempt to expand on the lore in a franchise? Yeah. To kind of bring the story and give it a wider scope, I guess. I just, one of my biggest pet peeves ever in any film, period.

is when it doesn't seem like the filmmaker trusts their audience. Yes. And they make such an odd choice with so many weird staticky cutaways. where moments that should feel rewarding for having watched one and two, they take that reward away by being like, hey, this is, you remember that? Remember? And then they show it to you. Yeah. And it's so weird because... We'll get into it, of course.

But you pick up an object that it's like, oh, hey, I remember that. Yeah. And then they show you the object being used in number two or number one. Yeah. And it's like you're taking away the cool Easter egg factor of this moment. Yeah. By having a cutaway that doesn't even really make any logical sense.

If you're watching the third one, you need to expect that we've all seen one and two. Yeah. And at that point, to me, it feels like one of those. Remember whenever we would watch The Simpsons growing up? I can't point to a specific time because it happened all the time. Right. But when the new episode was a clip show episode.

Yeah. And we were like, well, we know all this. Yeah. And it kind of just kind of and even going back now, if you look on IMDb for The Simpsons, all those clip show episodes were the lowest rated. Right. Because you're like, well, you know, we kind of would like something new. And I felt I felt that so much with this where it's just like.

It almost feels like the cap to the trilogy, almost like a wrap party video to show to be like, hey, remember how far we've come and all the things that we've done? Okay. But it doesn't really feel like something befitting of a film that we're watching or that I would want to. watch because it's like i know all this let me feel rewarded for having watched all of it yeah and it was like we talked about on saw four uh so many flashbacks they were tedious as hell yeah

And it got to the point that we're just like, this is ridiculous. Flashbacks within flashbacks. I'm like, we're like four flashbacks deep, dude. But at least on that, we were seeing or learning something new. Yeah. Seeing something from a different perspective, maybe. On this. it's just literally the exact shots from those films and so it's just like this is just annoying yeah there is a line in the movie that I wish

If we're doing that, like you're saying with these flashbacks, I would have appreciated that. Either expand on what we know or show us something completely new that links it to another event that happened in the other movies to where... we can put it together ourselves and be like oh that caused a b or this was the result of this dude walking through that door whatever and we could have put it together ourselves yeah no y'all make some really good points um

I had never seen this one before this, before working on it. Okay. And it's... It's very difficult for me because I know that this franchise isn't necessarily your favorite tea. I know it is one of your favorites, John Paul. I really, really enjoy it. And so there are aspects of this. It's like pizza where it's like, yeah.

It's a $3 pizza that I threw in the oven. It's not amazing, but it's fucking pizza. It's good. You know what I mean? There are aspects of this that are going to be satisfying for me solely because. These are characters that I know. This is a story that I know. The hotel. I.

Love this hotel. I'm just happy to be back. I and I do like returning to this location. Yeah, it is very cool. There are parts of it where it's like, yeah, it's like pizza. This is not the best pizza I've ever had. It's not even the best pizza I've had this week, but it's pizza and I'm. It's fine, you know what I mean? Having said that, there are aspects of this that, and I was ranting about it this morning before we sat down to record. It feels like, and I...

I am fully aware in saying this that this could be an intentional okey-doke, like this could be a red herring situation, whatever. But it doesn't feel that way to me. It feels like we were going somewhere. yeah and then at the last moment it was like oh no wait what if we do it this way what if we do this yeah and i don't like the do this i don't like what they ended up doing if that's what happened this is all in my head um

But for this to be the conclusion, because I know there is more, but it's before. It's prequel. For this to be the conclusion of the story that we have been watching over the course of three videos now. the fucking audacity of the second one when this dude was sitting up on morning mysteries like we sat through so much we've accepted so much and so for this to be the end of this tale

It was very disappointing to me. I think that even in the original, even the Morning Mysteries crew in the second one, the Hell House crew in the first one. These feel like real people, and some of them are cool, some of them are fucking annoying, some of them whatever, but it feels like they are actual people that, no, we don't necessarily need a backstory, but you can get their vibe just because the camera's rolling on them all the time.

the Hell House crew felt like friends. You know what I mean? Like they feel like real people, at least to a point. I don't feel that way with most of the people in the third one. There's like a couple of... tropey characters there's a couple and the motivations of them I feel like change from scene to scene at times there are people who were like taking a stand and this is what I'm doing and then they're in the next scene doing something else and it's just for this story

And I'm not going to lie, if you go back and boom, boom, boom, watch all three of them, there are Easter eggs. There are names mentioned. The second film was put out by the Russell Wynn's... company yes yeah that is fucking cool i love that because we don't even know who the hell that is until this one yeah i'm not saying that no thought was put into it i'm saying that i feel like maybe

the story got convoluted maybe it changed maybe i don't know what the hell happened here i don't i i just want to say you saying that it makes me think you could even probably watch two three and then one you could You could. And I honestly, I feel like because I rewatched one and two before watching three to take my notes. Right, right. For this episode.

After seeing all those cutaways, it's like, I didn't even really need to do that. Which is wild. But I was thinking as well, we're talking about memorable moments and everything. The scares that are in this film feel few and far between. Oh, yeah. Comparatively. But they're good when we get them. They're all right. But I feel like they're kind of rehashes of better scares in the first two. Well, we are in the same place. We got limited clowns.

That's funny. But yeah, I just think that for this to be the conclusion of this original trilogy, I guess. You had to do something big. You had to do something dramatic. And I'm not saying that they didn't. What they did is a swing. It just did not connect for me. And it feels like such a tonal shift. the very end feels like such a tonal shift from what you, what I expect and want from a Hell House movie. I understand going big. Or going home. But did we have to go so big?

Because that's a bold thing they're talking about here. Yeah. I'll be quite honest and we'll get to it. I don't like it. No, I don't. Yeah, I just I think that that's because I'm pretty forgiving with this. franchise right right and i do agree that watching this one and then not not even in a way where it's like this one sucks so bad it makes the other ones look at seeing how many because there are nods there are

And some of them, like you said, T, are really fucking spoon fed in a way that I don't like. And maybe it is extra grating on me because I am the one that had to script this. But those fucking glitchy cutaways were the bane of my existence for this entire week. But.

You do get an appreciation for the first and second one watching this as a trilogy. When I rewatch the Hell House movies, this is not a skip for me. I will watch all three. I'm not saying that this is a waste of time, that I would never watch it again. Any of that. It's just, I think that I enjoy these so much that this ending, this conclusion falling flat for me, it, it hurt. Oh yeah.

And to add with any frustration I might have already had with scripting these moments in the film that I didn't love, there was fucking nothing for me to find on production. No. or trivia or trivia i was yeah i was fighting for my goddamn life i know t you had looked for like because you like to do production design and and all things like that yeah yeah uh

It was a big, big struggle. So we're going to go into perhaps the briefest production section that we've ever had. Since maybe 2020. When we didn't do production sections. It's the same way with the cast. If we didn't... know a couple of them everybody else is really yeah they did this yeah yeah but what i can say Watching interviews and I did get information from an interview that Cognetti did on Geeks of Doom.

He said that he felt constrained by the found footage format as a whole because it doesn't lead much to backstory or a lot of detail because you're in the moment filming with the camera. Okay. So he knew when they were doing the first one that he wanted to make more.

He said that the story for the next two movies, two and three came to him very quickly. He wanted the first one to feed into the second one, the second one to feed into the third and for the third to be the climax of the entire story. So for Lake of Fire, he wrote a 90 page script. They went back to New York and filmed it in 11 days. Wow. Yeah. It released on Shudder in 2019 where we watched it and now we are going to talk about it.

Now, before we document this film, we would like to issue a warning for spoilers. Podmortem is a very in-depth podcast and in thoroughly discussing horror films, we have no choice but to spoil a thing or two. If you don't wish to be spoiled, please go watch the film, then come back and enjoy the show. If you've already seen the film or don't care about spoilers, then let's check in.

Now, this film relies heavily on having already seen Hell House LLC and Hell House LLC to the Abaddon Hotel. If you haven't, go watch them or listen to episodes 82 and 184 of our show as a reference. The film begins with white text against a black background. Nine years have passed since the mysterious deaths of the entire Hell House LLC team.

One year following the unexplained disappearance of an investigative team, the Abaddon Hotel was scheduled to be demolished. Before it was set to be torn down, the Abaddon Hotel was purchased. I forgot because I know the first film came out in 2015. I forgot that it was set in 2009. Yeah. And then I remembered in number two with that little kid that he's like, the Abaddon Hotel will open in 2009. And I was like, that was interesting. That was awesome.

We cut to Robert Lyons, played by Theodore Belucos, being miked, admitting that he had a feeling they would call him after what happened with Russell. Calculon's back. Yes. I was really excited to see him back. Oh, yeah. Take it back to the beginning. Exactly. That's what good trilogies do. Yeah. He did. Didn't he sit out the second one? Yeah, I don't think he was in the second one. And I did miss his presence. Yeah. After a bemused sigh, he asks where they're going to start.

More text reads, the following documentary is an attempt to retrace the events that occurred at the Abaddon Hotel on the night of October 1st, 2018. We cut back to Robert as he's interviewed, sharing that after Hell House, he thought that that would be the end of it and they'd tear the hotel down. We see news footage of the hotel, police lights flashing in the distance as firefighters stand pensively outside its boarded windows.

A hell house sign proudly presides over it, all while a breaking news banner alerts us from the bottom of the screen. Halloween tour chaos. We return to Robert Lyons, who was finally credited on the bottom of the screen with the distinction, author, The Abaddon Tapes. He reveals that not only did they not demolish it, but nearly 10 years later, one of the richest men in the country is planning to open it back up.

Am I wrong in remembering the Abaddon tapes being like either like a working title or a plan for a title for a future film? OK. Yeah. No, I saw that multiple times when I was looking through articles and stuff. I don't know if that. Maybe it was a working title and it got changed. Maybe it's something that... Maybe it's the Carmichael one? Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. But it's a cool title. Oh, yeah.

Outside of the Abaddon Hotel, a gathered crowd waits as Russell Wynn, played by Gabriel Chitri, walks out underneath the awning. He throws his hands out in celebration, pumping them to draw more enthusiasm from the group. The camera follows him into the hotel where he pulls on a mask and gives a thumbs up as he walks down a hallway, atmospherically bathed in a red light. Already. technically making Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire 2019 a Giallo film.

You're breaking my heart. There's red light later too. There is. No, they're like, this is who we are at heart. This is a Giallo film, and they do not let us forget. Do not besmirch. I'm going to pivot very quickly. Let's ignore that. Completely. I just want to say that this is the third film in a row. Where they are filming once again at the Waldorf Estate of Fear.

So it's the same location and we get to revisit it, which is very cool. Love it. And that concludes my trivia for this episode. Well, all right. It was great. Yeah. Good job, T. Back at the interview, Robert is asked if he had heard of the show Insomnia before it opened at the hotel. And with the shrug, Robert says that he knew it was a hit in New York, but that's about it.

Our view of Robert fades to black and more text informs us. The goal is to try and explain what happened in the town of Abaddon on opening night of insomnia. In the interview, Robert is letting us in on the situation. Vanessa Shepard took over for Susie McCombs on Morning Mysteries and got invited to film an all-access behind-the-scenes episode of Insomnia. It is really cool, too. Like I said, if you go back after watching this and watch the second one.

at the very end of the broadcast before she wraps up and we find out that what the fuck was his name templeton or something it was at yes which is also which gave me so much glee that andrew tully being on that was great he's like i can't believe this is working because he's like no not so fast let's not it was it's really funny but once they wrap all that up right before she

that the guest that Andrew Tully was purporting to be was not there. In her outro, she talks about Russell Wynn. She talks about him opening up Insomnia, about the play Insomnia. You can tell. when things are planned out before we see them. And that is something that this franchise I think does really well and him saying that he kind of had ideas in mind. This is where you see it.

And I thought it was really cool because I gasped when I rewatched because you don't know what the hell any of that means. Yeah. It honestly just sounds like she's throwing to another segment. Exactly. It was really, really cool. But we cut to another interview where Gregory Sandvik, played by Leo DeFriend, sits his back to a grandfather clock cast in a red glow.

His subtitle reads Insomnia Cast Member, and he introduces himself to the camera with a smile, boasting that he plays Faust, the lead, obviously. Ego aside, I will say this is one thing I do want to commend the film for because you're having this play be a play on Faust. Yeah. And this entire thing being... the result of a faustian bargain that's pretty good but it's like okay it's like when uh

They're teaching what's going on in the movie. It feels like that. I like that. Or like in Life is Strange, the other one that we didn't love when they're doing The Tempest or whatever. Yeah. It's like it's a little aminellis. Before the storm.

When asked by the offscreen Vanessa Shepard, played by Elizabeth Vermilier, what is his favorite thing about doing the show here at the infamous Abaddon Hotel? Gregory has to admit that honestly, there's nothing that he likes about being here in this hotel. let alone there being something that he likes the most. He confides that the conditions at the hotel aren't even suitable for high school theater, let alone insomnia.

We see cuts of Gregory being prepped before the show and standing outside in the grass as he concedes that he's not going to complain to the union or anything because Russell is paying them pretty well. We cut to an interview with Jane Maloney, another Insomnia cast member played by Bridget Abrams. She shares her respect for Russell, who she calls a complete visionary. He's taken a classic like Faust and put a modern twist on it.

making it relatable for millennials. Now we do see a piece of this play and I don't feel... close to this at all. I didn't see the avocado toast. Social media. But she explains that the play is God and the devil playing a game with Faust caught in the middle. And Faust could be anyone. even her maybe the deal is to own a home oh yeah that's not gonna happen yeah but he'd get me with that yeah it's about the only way that we'll get to do that

I'll be honest. I'm like kind of primed for foreshadowing. Yeah. And so her saying that Faust could be anyone, even me. I thought that that might be more like of a prevalent. something yeah it ends up being but anyway Gregory says that he doesn't know what Russell's plan is to get an audience here because the people in this town don't exactly strike him as the theater type

He holds up his hands, reminding himself with an air of arrogance not to judge a book by its cover, unless that cover is in upstate New York. All right. He's having a lot of fun with himself. I think the other thing, I don't... really know the tastes of this town. regarding theater but i also do know they were about to tear this building down because it's killed like 50 people yeah and they're like come to our show i think it's more of that it's not about cultured

The footage crackles as it dissolves to the opening night of Hell House before everything went horribly wrong. An attendee turns to the camera, sharing excitedly that she thinks they're next. And this is a clip from the first film. Yeah. With another crackling dissolve, we join Max Stubbs, another Insomnia cast member played by Jordan Kaplan.

He stands behind the decorated bar, telling the camera that he plays Mephistopheles. He chuckles, setting a shaker down on the Lazy Susan in front of him, introducing the Lazy Susan as his partner in crime. It whines loudly as it spins, and behind the camera, Vanessa asks if they could turn it off for the interview because the sound is messing with the audio. Max's smile drops, but he does shut it off.

Max was real hurt about that. It's his partner in crime. But it's making noise. It was really loud. You can't do that. The cool thing, though, is introduction of this. Yes. And this is. is one of those things that i think does pan out in a pretty cool way he shares that the last time this bar was featured in a tale was when hell house had their celebratory drinks right here 10 years ago in this room

And in case you didn't see the original film, we cut to that celebration. Mac, played by Adam Schneider, reminds the group of the time they did a show where the guy from Queens played Lucifer, beckoning to the audience with his... thick New York accent. Behind the bar, Alex Taylor and Sarah Havel, played by Danny Bellini and Ryan Jennifer Jones, laugh. It's already at this point where it's like, oh, we're just going to keep doing this. Yeah.

Well, it's because it was back to back. Right. And I think that that's my issue. I don't know. Maybe part of it is like the crackling dissolves as well, because if this is supposed to be presented as a documentary and you do.

as an editorial choice for this documentary if you're choosing to input these scenes these parallels i think it would just be like a seamless cut right um i don't it's like we're under the impression that the camera that Vanessa's cameraman is holding is picking up these moments the tape in there is right is it the hotel that we're supposed to be thinking I don't know that's that's what I take it as only because of something we hear later

And it's like, so for me, it works better if I like, there was no editor. Because that really is funny to think that you're going to put in those effects and those splices in with it. I feel like you can't have both. Right. If this was an editing.

decision you wouldn't have the crackling and if this were a documentary you you would be like look at this fucking shit like the text would cut away and be like moments of our you know production was interrupted with blah blah blah like they don't even draw attention to it so that's what makes me think that somebody is like doing this and I it's too often and it gets to the point where it is a bit annoying I think literally it is just that choice changing that would change my entire

appraisal of these segments yeah if say you cut away and it's black and white and you say archive footage yes yes yes from 2009 right or from the hell house crew or something like that it would still be maybe a bit too often it would i wouldn't even be it's like okay Fine. Like you're trying to show.

Yeah, this did happen right here. You know what I mean? I don't know. Something about the execution of it was getting on my fucking nerves. It's a lot. It is. It's a lot. And it is kind of funny if it is the house. They're like, well, we are at the bar. Yeah. So let's. Look at this. Well, Tully told me that these were the original tapes. So I'll believe them. So we'll go with that. But now Max excitedly likens this performance to doing Julius Caesar at the theater of Pompeii ruins.

Gregory is asked if he watched the Hell House documentary, and he frowns that he's seen bits and pieces. And so are we. Something else I realized, it almost feels like what they could have done for the trailer for Hell House 3. these cutaways yes oh okay like that this feels more like a trail trailers editing yeah yeah to kind of piece it all together and be like this is the culmination of this story yeah of the whole thing

Vanessa asks if anything that was on there disturbed him. And he asks, like what? I was like, oh, you really haven't seen anything. We get a quick flash of the horrors of that night through glitching static, the frantic movement of the camera and the shouts of terror. Vanessa ventures unexplained things happening to the crew. Vanessa continues.

People disappearing here? With another glitchy jump, we see the teens that accepted the challenges to enter the Abaddon Hotel, boasting to the camera before they head inside, never to be seen again. Gregory nods along as Vanessa goes on, inanimate objects moving on their own. With another jump, we are in the Abaddon Hotel, where the iconic Hell House clown, played by Joe Bandeli, stands motionless in its black and white garb and makeup.

The camera focuses down toward the basement stairs. And when it lifts back up to the clown, it's staring right at us. It's disturbing mask streaked in red. But Gregory just nods along with the skeptical expression. See, this was, I was like, come on, dude, because even before the other people said that they heard, but it still sounded like nobody was saying no. So you guys do know something, except Gregory didn't seem like you.

But you're still volunteering to do this or taking it. Apparently. Yeah. And I will say I love seeing this clown again. This clown is one of the really, really effective. scares of Hell House for me.

the way that i mean it's yeah frightening to look at whatever i will say it's my favorite black and white clown that we've covered yeah yeah i was gonna say what year was he introduced yeah i'm not even a big fan of these yes absolutely But the way that he's used in these kind of quiet scares is it's it's something I really do appreciate.

As for Jane, she's never seen the movie. It seemed like one of those silly found footage films and that's not her thing. She chuckles that she won't be watching it while she's here. Vanessa offers that at least they don't have to stay the night here, and Jane is surprised. They stayed overnight?

We hop into another filmed flashback where in her interview, Melissa, played by Laura A. Kennedy, shrugs that it's supposed to be haunted, but they would know better than her. Have they heard any bumps in the night? The footage gives way to a sleepy Tony, played by Jared Hacker, who asks if anyone heard that. It sounded like a scream. We cut to Sarah screaming as the clock strikes and the camera rounds the corner to find the dinner table set and ready, adorned with lit candles at its center.

And for me, like this was very egregious because let's have the Insomnia cast be surprised that they spent the night. But you have to be like, actually, both crews spend their night and show clips from one and two. Don't forget. But at the bar now Max laughs when he's asked if he's seen the movie. He owns it. He adds that some pretty messed up shit happened to those people here.

And we get a quick shot of Paul, played by Gore Abrams, screaming as he bangs against a locked door, begging for Tony to let him out. Gore Abrams.

I did not know until I looked and then you... confirmed it and told me um he's in the substance yeah yeah he's the neighbor my jaw dropped yeah i was like how fucking cool though that movie was great we should definitely cover it sometime yeah And I was trying to find, because Gore Abrams and the actress that plays Jane, I think her name is Bridget Abrams. I was like, is there a relation there? I could not find anything. Huh. All right. All right. That's on theme with the episode, I think.

Now though, Vanessa asks Max if it really doesn't bother him that people died here while they were putting on a show, just like they are now. Max just assures her that he knows where every exit is. We cut to footage where a door is slammed in the face of the person holding the camera. Similarly, we cut to Mitchell Cavanaugh, played by Vaz Eli, desperately trying to open the door and alerting with astonishment that there's no...

knob. Now, Vanessa shares with Gregory that there are several reports of people having gone missing with their last known location being the Abaddon Hotel. She cites the most recent ones, the guests of Morning Mysteries last year, Mitchell Cavanaugh and Brock Davies. A moment for Brock Davis. That dude was a character. He was. When Gregory's expression remains blank, she asks if he's heard of any of this, and Gregory slowly shakes his head.

With a static glitch, we cut to the past where Brock Davies, played by Kyle Engelman, stands outside of the Abaddon Hotel. He shares with the camera dramatically that the hotel just wants to be heard. Behind him, Mitchell stands with Jessica Fox, played by Jillian Gertz, and they eye Brock with disdain.

We immediately cut to Brock declaring that they need to get the fuck out of here as the group peers into the dining room. But as they turn to run, they run straight into an undead hotel guest played by Bailey Moyer staring out at them with a mottled face.

and undead white eyes we freeze on this as the group screams i will say as well it's not the wisest choice as the third film in the trilogy to be like hey remember these scares from the other films yeah that were kind of better than yeah you know i it's just maybe not the best i did seeing our lovely goal

Because that was a good scare in the movie. But yeah, here it is weird just to be like, remember that? He was talking earlier about how successful that scare was when he's doing the planchette at the table. And then the camera pans over. and it's just dummies, and then it pans over again, and she's sitting at the table looking at them. Shit like that. No music, no nothing, which shouldn't be in found footage anyway. Thank you. Let's be clear. It's one of the rules. It's one of the rules.

That shit like that is why I just keep coming back for more. It's just good. But finally, it cuts to black and white text reads. This documentary pulls together footage from several sources. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, no, we noticed. But that's what makes me think that this is a choice in editing.

This is, don't, don't, don't put the crackles and the static and the glitching. Because when it is glitching, when the cameras are glitching, when shit starts happening later, it undercuts it because we've seen that so many times by then. But that's what I'm saying. I don't even that it's like, no, we're just watching the tapes as is because if somebody is putting this in.

That's a problem. You're fired. Because without it, what does that mean then? Are we just watching something else that's not really happening? Are you editing this to make it look scarier? Yes. Like something's happening. You are, I guess. Yeah, when you say that you're...

pulling footage from various sources. You're taking stuff from the footage from the second film and the hell house crew. And yeah. And then you're adding it to this. Something else I think I would have been a little more forgiving is if they were doing that. at the beginning with those cutaways just to kind of almost like be an intro.

for this documentary. And then they give you this little title card. They're like, this is what we're going to do. And then from then on, it is a little more structured. Well, it's a documentary. That's the thing. This is not a collection of raw footage. This is a documentary that was... made that I think that that's what and I'm I love found footage so I am a little more forgiving of

a lot of the sins of found footage. But I think that that's what I think that is one that bothers me is the, I guess the medium with which we're allegedly being presented this footage. Okay. if this is a documentary it should feel like a documentary i think that it's and so it's like i'll give you that it's like this is a shitty documentary also if this is a documentary that's completed and everything we do get a moment later where

she's attempting a stand-up and she's like well let's run it again it's like why is this here but see that's what i'm saying i take it that it's just this is raw footage yeah period that's the thing is you can't have both yeah and i think that when you include moments like that because there was a moment like that in The second film with Susie McCombs, when they're setting up to do the package outside of the hotel.

And she does do that. She's like, am I in frame? Blah, blah, blah. And we're seeing that because there was something behind her. Otherwise, we never would have seen this. So, you know, I'm not just like a personal pet peeve, I think. But we finally see Vanessa Shepard in an interview where she shares that she was the host of Morning Mysteries in 2018 when Russell took over the Abaddon.

We see a photograph of Russell Wynn standing with his arms crossed in front of the Abaddon Hotel, a deep scar running down the left side of his face, over his eye and down his cheek. The Hell House banner has been replaced with a black one, simply reading insomnia. Vanessa continues that she told producers that she wasn't interested when they first approached her to do an episode at the hotel.

We quickly cut to producer Sam Frost, played by Dwayne Cooper, who chuckles as he corroborates this. Vanessa was not interested at all, but her ears did perk up when they mentioned Russell Wynn. Sam admits that the most striking thing besides what happened that night was that Russell was open to letting Vanessa and Louie film everything, even though Sam thought it was a long shot that would never happen.

We see footage of the Abaddon, of Russell sitting with the crew and laughing before we cut to Sam at his interview, who realizes that looking back, maybe that was a red flag. Maybe. Could have been. Maybe it wasn't. We are treated to a pulsing montage of footage and cell phone videos of people running through the Abaddon Hotel, screaming, doors being slammed. And when it ends, the cawing of crows echoes as text on screen reads.

The Morning Mysteries footage, September 13th to October 2nd, 2018. Happy birthday, John Paul. I was like, September 13th. They did that for you. And you know what? Every time in the paranormal activity ones too, when they show the thing, it was always when it was in September, days before. Before my birthday or after? They're like, we got you. I knew I loved these movies. There you go. Add an extra point. Yeah. He's like, oh, I did.

Vanessa Shepard stands outside the Abaddon Hotel with its boarded windows and hanging insomnia sign. She ticks off the reports, ghost sightings, disappearances, even demonic possession. She immediately breaks character, unable to hold back her laugh as she asks the cameraman if this is real. She composes herself and takes it from the top. So this is the start of my problems with Vanessa Shepard as a character. Okay.

When you say that she's not interested in doing an episode at the hotel, I'm thinking she's like, oh, no, like I would be. Fuck that. I'm not doing that. then you see this and it's like i can't get used to this name and it's like oh so you don't believe and then in a moment she's horrified to even go inside yeah but then very quickly once we're inside she's there after dark she's there alone so it's like you're scared or you're not that did annoy me too

I mean, there's really no excuse. Yeah, there's nothing to say for that. That's what I'm saying. There are certain characters where it's like, oh, okay, you... have some kind of reverence even you know you're just like oh some fucked up shit happened there and i don't want to go it feels weird i don't want to step inside but i feel like with vanessa we get both and they don't it doesn't make sense i think what you can do if you do have it to wear

She's not interested because she's like, no, you know, this whole supernatural thing is bullshit. Yeah. Then you have moments later where it's like, oh, shit. Yeah. I was wrong. Yeah. That can lead to something pretty cool. For sure. I feel like we almost kind of got that with Jessica in the second one. Right. Because she was very skeptical. And then when she got there, she was in denial for a little bit. But it's like, bitch, you can only deny for so long.

But Vanessa begins with all of these events happening, the histories and the mysteries. Here comes Russell Wynn. She introduces him as the founder of Wynn Media Group, which again was mentioned in Hell House 2. Yeah. He is an entrepreneur who made his first million by the age of 25. Since, he's built a media empire with his hit live-action interactive shows. We see photographs of Russell Wynn, some that date back to before the...

deep scar that mars half of his face. The picture slideshow continues as Vanessa explains that insomnia is the passion project that Russell poured his love of theater into. It's an interactive dark performance piece that's gotten overwhelming love, both from the press and from audience members. And I'll be honest, not the performance that we see tonight, but the idea of this, I would be all over this.

fucking cool yeah idea yes we linger on a headline that reads entrepreneur Russell Wynn takes interactive theater to a new level with insomnia Back in the front of the hotel, Vanessa reveals that she's been given complete access to the show at its new location. She looks back at it before turning to the camera and stating its infamous name, the Abaddon Hotel.

Vanessa turns to someone off screen, sounding a little annoyed when she says that she's finished her intro. Can she meet Russell now? She's told that she can't. Russell is in a creative meeting, and the length of those is dependent on Russell's mood. Vanessa shrugs, asking if she can meet him after that then, and she's told, yeah, probably. I thought that was why I'm here. Yeah.

Vanessa waves the person off screen over, introducing him as Jeff Stone, played by Sam Cozzi. He is Russell's head of operations. Jeff comes over donned in his WMG vest, clutching a clipboard. When Vanessa asks what his job entails, he tells her honestly, right now keeping her occupied. The camera follows Jeff as he starts to walk away, explaining that Russell wants him to give Vanessa the tour before they do everyone's introductions.

But when Jeff and the camera both turn back toward Vanessa, she hasn't moved an inch. She still stands where they filmed her intro next to the road. Jeff asks if she's scared and Vanessa retorts, aren't you? Jeff reminds her that she's doing an all access documentary on insomnia in the Abaddon Hotel. She does realize that eventually she will have to go in. Vanessa concedes that she knows this and finally walks over to Jeff.

I do want to say when Jeff started talking, I was like, he has a great voice, speaking voice. I was like, is that Mark Summers? Mark Summers. That would be a get. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Mark Summers and Hell House 3. That's cool. Right in this tasty snack. Yeah. I'll show you how this hell was made. Yeah. And it's just Alex's deal. After a cut, we followed Jeff and Vanessa as they walked toward the door with the date displayed in the lower left, September 16th, 15 days until opening night of insomnia.

Jeff admits that they were all a little hesitant to go in at first, but like Russell always says, it's only wood and nails. something has just occurred yeah there's a there's some there's some parallels um that one can't help but draw that i'll be honest i don't love um but it's only wooden nails really uh It just triggered that that is also part of whatever. Go ahead. I wanted to say when we first met Jeff, I hadn't thought of Mark Summers. What I did think was that he was kind of a dick.

The way that he was talking to Vanessa and he's like, well, I'm here to just keep you occupied like she's a child or something. Yeah. And then him saying the whole thing of like, you know, you're going to have to go in there. Right. Yeah. What are you a baby? And then they get the thing is like, no, we were all babies. we first arrived that's how it starts so it's like okay i can get that we all start as babies

They pass a dummy propped up against the railing, its head cocked to the side and fake blood staining its shirt. Next to it is an abandoned hell house sign. When Vanessa asks about it, Jeff explains that she'll still see some of their stuff lying around. Static sounds and the camera glitches to show Diane Graves, played by Alice Balky, trying to enter the Abaddon Hotel from the door but finding it locked.

Nearby is the abandoned hell house sign strewn on the leaf littered ground. We cut again to Paul grinning next to that dummy who he named Hector. They sit side by side at a piano. About to deliver a fucking iconic ass. It's really, really good. Yeah, I did love that. I will say it is rewritten later that it happened to a little boy or something. Which makes no sense. It moved through Paul. He felt the vibe. I'm sure. This was another one that I was like, look.

you know let us recognize these things yeah that's cool enough to be like dude that's fucking Hector yes and the I will say dude the cutaway to the sign also being on the ground yeah There were shots from the first film of it being where the insomnia sign is. I thought that would have been a little bit better. But you know what? We're just doing what we do. It's still here. It was on the ground.

But that is even wild to think that. We left some of their shit here and we're just building around it. Yeah. Won't you feel a certain type of way about that? Yes. But now the gray of the past is wiped away as Jeff steps into the bright hallway of the Abaddon. He admits that they haven't fully made it theirs yet, but it's starting to come together.

He turns to look at Vanessa, but he sees that she hasn't progressed past the threshold. He assures her that she will be fine. They've been here for three weeks now. The only scary thing is the asbestos. So I still don't want to go there. And I will say that is something that's kind of changed because even in the second one where they had those people coming in, just like random vloggers or whatever, they were going in in the daytime and they got their shit rocked.

That's true. Yeah, they never came back out. Yeah. So it is interesting that now it's okay. Well, I think... That Tully and his crew, they love a spectacle and we're setting up for a spectacle. So they're waiting. They got to give an interview first. Exactly. They need to be on Morning Mysteries. The name's Arnold Tasselman. Arnold Tasselman. Great to meet you. Vanessa shoots a nervous look to the cameraman before finally stepping inside.

Jeff tells her that Russell has made sure that some of the actors and production staff will be available for her to interview them. Vanessa asks if that includes him and after a sigh, Jeff offers to give her a quote right now. He can't wait to get the hell back to New York.

They continue into the hallway lit in red, maintaining this film status as a modern giallo. And when a crew member, Isabel, played by Olivia Rolden, asks Jeff if she can post what they're working on on Instagram, Jeff tells her to... Clear it with Russell first. Yeah, there you go for the millennials. They're rehearsing. That's part of Faust? Yeah. As they enter the bar area, they pass very familiar wine racks. Jeff takes a bottle and hands it to Vanessa assuring her that she'll like this.

Russell had all the wine bottles pulled and replaced with his own label out of California. So he makes wine too? Indeed. He's trying, he's trying. We cut again to Tony in the past, shining his flashlight on the dusty bottles in the dark wine rack, asking, what's your wine of choice there, hotshot? We cut back to Vanessa holding Russell's wine bottle and nodding approvingly at the camera that this is impressive.

As she places it back on the shelf, Jeff offers for her to take 15 or 20 boxes, depending on how big her van is, because they're not moving that anyway, and she'd be doing them a favor. Jeez. I know. He's like, this wine sucks. Having that is worth whatever hell comes. 20 boxes of wine? He's like, that used to be water. Cuts! Bye. Bye.

Getting back to business, Jeff shares that he thinks this will be the most popular set for the audience along with the bar. But before he can finish his thought, there is a loud click and all of the lights go out. It is pitch black when Vanessa's worried voice asks Jeff what's going on. He tells her calmly not to freak out. The power has been spotty for the last few days, but it usually comes back on in about 10 seconds or so. This, I feel, could lead to something really cool.

but I don't feel that it does. This is a very interesting, suspenseful moment that you're, it would feel as though you're introducing it now. Yeah. And I could see this being so cool. Yeah. I'm upset. He chuckles that Vanessa wants the insomnia experience and now she's got it. And Vanessa laughs nervously as she agrees. Finally, the lights come on and the building whirs back to life. Jeff tells her that it was just like he said, only 10 seconds or so.

Max comes toward them, reporting that the power went out again, but he smiles that he loves the dark. After he saunters past them, a voice comes through on Jeff's walkie. It's Harvey, played by Scott Ritchie. Jeff asks what he can do for him. And after joking that what Jeff can do for him is to make him a size two again. But what he can do for Russell is to know that he's finished in the basement. I like Harvey. Yeah. I think he's got the most.

personality out of anybody in this group i agree um max is fine i think gregory is funny his like pretentious little character or whatever um but harvey made me chuckle a couple times Jeff explains to Vanessa that while Harvey isn't any good with radios, he's the head of artistic operations and a big pain in his. But he turns his attention back to the walkie. He asks Harvey if he's in the basement and Harvey replies sarcastically that he is because Russell wants to use it.

I don't know. The cutaway was like PG-13. You know that Harvey's a bad mother. What the hell? It's very funny to me. It was silly. But Harvey adds that Russell wanting to use the basement because it's super safe for the actors and definitely not a liability at all. And for this crew.

I did appreciate that they're thinking of it in that way. Yeah. It's not just totally the basement scary. He's like, it's fucking dangerous down there. Like, these are the things you have to think about when you're employing people. Yeah. Well, not only that, I. as we talk about and thinking about it, if we're not doing a haunted house, we don't need the basement. The play is up here. We really don't need that.

Honestly, I understand it's interactive or whatever, but imagine having to lead the entire audience downstairs. And I'll be honest, T, like you were kind of alluding to earlier, how interactive is it? Because when we finally see it, it doesn't feel very interactive. No, it feels very structured. But when Harvey asks for confirmation that he's audible, Jeff tells him that he is before countering that Russell needs to meet him in the bar. He's not going down into the basement.

Focusing back on Vanessa, he assures her that once she meets Russell, she'll love him. Vanessa nods in agreement as Jeff leads her away through what he calls heaven. Heaven is lit with blue lights that gives way to a hall draped in white sheets. Jeff says that this is where God will make his wager with the devil, with angels as his witness. He admits that the white is a little cliche, but that's what Russell wants. You made a face off. That was for us. That was an off mic face.

Jeff continues forward, but Vanessa hangs back once again. She says that she thought she saw something or someone. The camera swings back to the blue hallway they just passed through, but there's nothing there. When Jeff catches them peering down the hall, he explains that they call it Abaddon eyes. Everybody feels like they saw something out of the corner of their eye or they feel like they're being watched. It's happened to all of them, but it's just.

everyone's imagination messing with them. I think if we need a name for something like that, that's a problem, period. Not everybody feels a presence. Everybody feels like they're being watched. It's just that. No, fuck you. Let's go do this outside. Yes. We don't know. And I think that the thing is, hey, is everybody else seeing shit here? Oh, my God.

You are too? Man, it must be all of our eyes are playing tricks. Let's come up with a name for it. Yeah, you're right. That's hilarious. Oh, it's just Abaddon eyes. He presses forward, but Vanessa stays behind, looking back suspiciously as she repeats, Abaddon eyes. When Jeff asks if she's coming or if she just wants to hang out, she laughs and catches up to him.

The bright white gives way to a black corridor as they leave heaven behind. But they run into Jane, who reports angrily that when the blackout happened, she was standing right here. She pushes past Jeff, inviting him to think about that. Jeff tries to remind her that this is why they have a buddy system, but he is told to fuck off for his troubles.

I thought that it was interesting that they were implementing a buddy system. Yeah. And a big part of hell house to like the whole reason that they get Mitchell on board is because the Abaddon is supposed to be like fucking HH.

Holmes' house and the hallways don't make sense. I'm like, I... know that layout in my head like yeah i know that the the wine area leads to the bar then the dining room is off of that like i feel like i can picture it in my mind so it's kind of funny that i'm like no i know where we're going

They finally reach the bar area where Jeff mutters under his breath, lamenting Russell's insistence on using the basement. Harvey stands there waiting and greets Jeff jokingly as one of his least favorite people in the world. Jeff returns the favor and asks where Russell is. Harvey insists that you can't rush perfection, but that Russell is coming up the stairs right now. He counts back from five, and on one, Russell steps into the room.

He greets Jeff with a grin, pointing out that he didn't see him down in the basement. And when Jeff tells him that that's true, Russell turns his attention toward Vanessa and the camera, commenting that they've brought their crew. He and Vanessa make the proper introductions and shake hands. Russell ascertains that Vanessa is the new morning mysteries girl. And Vanessa confirms this. Russell, though, insists that that's too bad. He liked Susie. I'd be like, well, thanks. Well, you've got.

Vanessa now yeah well Susie ain't here it's like well can't you just tell them my name because they some bad happened to them can we not just say yeah well no not Susie she wasn't there what happened to her she didn't go in with them She made the right call. She was like, I quit. You guys have fun. Fuck this show.

The footage dissolves to find Susie McCombs, played by Amanda K. Morales, standing in front of the camera with the Abaddon Hotel framed behind her. She wears an expression of worry and fear on her face. She also interviewed a ghost. Yeah. So that's a good reason. It's like, yeah, this isn't for me. I'm moving back with my parents in Connecticut or whatever. She's like, this place has no screening process. You let a ghost, you mic'd a ghost.

What the fuck? Yeah, we're done. I quit. I would love it if there were more bits of trivia or information available on casting. Yeah. Because maybe the actress who played. Susie. Yeah. Just couldn't come back. Maybe that's kind of what it feels like. Cause nothing. I mean, I, but yeah, I, I maybe would even put in a line being like, well, she wants nothing to do with this anymore or something because I don't think I would.

But back in the bar, Russell pours two drinks, remembering that Susie was a total bitch, but he did like her. He warns Vanessa not to thank him yet because he's sure she's heard all the stories about the Abaddon. Everyone who enters with a camera never seems to make it out. Jeff warns Russell sternly not to do that because Vanessa barely came in as it is.

He assures Vanessa that Russell is just kidding, and Russell agrees. He's just screwing with her. He takes the drinks and tries to hand them to Vanessa, who politely refuses it, so he hands it to Harvey instead. She tells Russell that they promise to stay out of his way as much as they can. They'll just be flies on the wall. Just the thing about editing, but Harvey's drink does disappear between shots.

Just made me laugh. He drank it really fast and ate the glass. It's sugar glass. I don't know. This is insomnia, man. They spare no fucking. But Russell commends that he loves what Vanessa has done with Morning Mysteries and Vanessa is surprised. She didn't know that Russell watched it. Jeff counters that he doesn't, but Russell insists that he does and Harvey agrees.

Raising his drink, he boasts that Vanessa hasn't had any guests disappear, so she's got that on Susie. And Vanessa chuckles that that's true.

Russell shifts his attention to behind the camera, identifying the cameraman as Lawson, but it's actually Louie, played by Joe Bandelli, who corrects him. Now, Joe Bandelli, he's been behind the camera multiple times. This film... as well he's also in the costume of the black and white clown very often and he's also a producer of the franchise very cool so this dude is it's uh pretty cool to see him back again yeah

Louis thrusts a thumbs up into the frame, gushing that he's a huge fan of Russell's shows and just of everything he's done. Russell compliments Louie's good taste and grants him the permission to film until his heart's content. He adds, though, that when they film the actors, they may moan and groan, but it's all part of the show. They're actors and they secretly.

love the attention. But Jeff counters that that's no secret. Vanessa asks where they should start and Russell suggests that they meet everyone. He leads them into the dining room where the cast and crew sit at the tables. He introduces Vanessa, and Louis has to correct Russell when he tells the group that Louis' name is Lonnie, but Russell presses forward.

He tells the group that Vanessa and Louis will be embedded with them for the entire operation. They're going to film everything. So he warns them not to say anything they don't want millions of people to hear. Then he turns the floor over to Vanessa. Vanessa reminds the group that they have handed a few of them mini camcorders, and we see proof of this when footage of Isabel turning her mini cam toward herself and Harvey is spliced in. Similarly, we see Jane do the same.

Vanessa explains that they did this because they want to encourage them to film anything they want, like behind the scenes things and self-taped interviews. Once they're done with everything, they'll incorporate it all together into the footage that they've shot. Gregory has a question for Russell what happens if they catch a ghost on camera Gregory is serious but most of the room starts laughing including Russell who sarcastically tells him that that's a great question he's

Suggests that if Gregory is the one that encounters the ghost, he can start by asking if it's ever heard of him or seen him or his reel. Can I ask you guys a question real quick? I know the trajectory that this film follows eventually. Right. Your first reads on Russell, I felt he's kind of a dick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like clearly hiding something nefarious. Yeah. But that's just from my on site. Right. Right. Right.

And those first actions, I guess. And words he's spoken. On sight and his entire personality. Yeah. I completely agree. And I was thinking of Tully in the second one when he's like, I fucking knew you wouldn't be able to resist.

or whatever like they Tully in the house or whatever is happening here they love the attention they love the cameras they love all the people being here they love the spectacle and I thought that Russell was an integral role in providing Tully and co with what they want right so yeah for sure I'm like oh I've already figured this out. I know who this guy is. I know his trajectory. I know what role he's playing. And even knowing it from right here.

That would have been more satisfying than what we get to me, if I'm being completely honest. No, yeah, because I read the same way. It's like you're definitely hiding something. Yes. You are being stern for whatever reason.

And like belittling. Yeah. When he's making fun of Vanessa and they never make it out. And Gregory's like, what if we do see a ghost? Oh, why don't you fucking show him you're real? Like, it's like you're going out of your way to be like, no, guys, like whatever. It's bullshit. Everything's fine. Yeah. Mocking Gregory with a fake British accent, Max appeals to the imagined ghost, boasting that he was in this thing called Shakespeare in the Pog.

The group laughs, but Gregory maintains that it was brilliant summer theater. It's like you guys laugh now, but I was very fulfilling work. Very fulfilling work. We get reactions from the minicams of laughter and incredulity. But Vanessa, to the chagrin of the rest of the group, asks which show he was in. Gregory brags that it was Into the Woods and he starred with Amy Adams.

but Jane pops his balloon swiftly. It wasn't him and Amy Adams. Gregory played tree number three, meaning two other people played trees better than he did, which that is not necessarily what it means. And if I'm going to play with fucking Amy...

I'm telling everybody I was in a play with Amy fucking Adams. Yeah. I don't care if I was a rock. Like it doesn't matter. Yeah. Were you in that play? Yeah. Like they're being so mean. This guy is kind of a dick and he's pretentious and kind of up his own ass, but like, don't. do that no and just a couple of things one i feel like aren't we friends here or not yeah no shit and two very clearly established with all this shit we've had a lot of history together clearly yeah number one

That's actually number two, but number three. I and Nay were theater kids. Yeah. I don't remember being dicks to each other like this. No. I feel like we were much more supportive of each other's work. Yeah, because unless you're like... super jealous or whatever that's a huge like you don't belittle that that's fucking cool yeah I think that it's probably more a response of like how Gregory is like I'm the shit like he's like I'm the lead

Obviously, like, I think Gregory, like I said, he's a dick, but he is foused, okay? He's named after me. He did. He does have the chops, okay? Vanessa regains control of the room, alerting everyone that what they really want them to do is pretend that they're not here. She compares them to the camera crew from the office, just catching everything. Jane asserts that she hated the office. And Russell admits that this is a difficult group to keep focused. So they need to stay on task.

Isabel has a question, though. Can they still post to social media? Russell says that they can under the established conditions that they keep it vague. I just need to know which office Jane is talking about because that will determine whether or not I like Jane. Yeah. Vanessa agrees. They encourage them to post on social media, but they need to make sure to tag Morning Mysteries. Isabel understands, adding hashtag MM.

But Vanessa reiterates that, no, it needs to be morning mysteries. Isabelle is like. So not M.M. But Jane, Harvey and Isabel argue that M.M. is better. It's like food like that keeps things vague. But Vanessa doesn't want it to be vague. In fact, they want it to be very specific. Morning. Harvey's like, she's too bossy. So I hate everyone here. That's a problem. That's more millennial stuff. Yeah. Hashtag M.M.

But the minicam starts to glitch and it quickly clears up. But Russell wraps up the conversation that he just wanted everyone to meet. And with that, the crew starts to leave, walking past the camera on their way out of the room. Jeff steps over to Russell, telling him that they might need to go back to the city because believe it or not, the wine is not selling like they thought it would.

But Vanessa volleys for Russell's attention. She asks if she can give Jeff and Russell cameras as well. Jeff says that he can't. With everything he's got going on, he needs to keep his hands free. But Vanessa assures him that they can probably get him a GoPro he can win. at the end of the film. Stay tuned.

When it's Russell's turn to answer, he shrugs that if they give him a camera, he's not going to, you know, use it. He's not a camera guy. Vanessa tells him that that's OK. He doesn't have to use it if he doesn't want to. But they do want him to have a camera.

So if you're Vanessa, you're an investigative reporter. That is very peculiar what I just heard. We have to go back to New York because the wine isn't selling. Yeah. Aren't you supposed to be like this almost billionaire? Billionaire. Yeah. So that's. strange i would put that like on a little notepad yeah yeah no that's that is very weird

Later, holding a flashlight, Vanessa leads the way down into the basement, but we give way to past footage where the person behind the camera implores someone to just come up so they can help them. This was the hitchhiking situation. that was really effective for everyone here. But when he finally makes it down the stairs, a woman stands in the darkness of the basement. Her pale eyes stare out from her red and slack face as she looms, her head almost touching the ceiling.

The men behind the camera scream as they retreat. But now, Vanessa hurries down with Louis and his camera close behind. Which is, I'm like, she didn't even want to go inside. Jeff is like, I'm not fucking going in that basement. But Vanessa is leading the way? Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense. No. In the basement, they find pentagrams and upside down crosses and chalk on the walls. Water drips loudly from the leaking pipes. And Louis admits that it's creepy down here.

When Vanessa finds a cluster of colorful clown dummies slumped against the wall, she gets Louie's attention. We dissolve to the past again where Paul similarly finds the clowns, but with the horrifying black and white one perched at the front of the line. He pushes the clown's rubber head, believing it to be Alex and demanding that he not fuck with him. But it's not Alex.

Paul turns and runs away, calling out for Tony. But now, Louis takes a lingering shot of the colorful clowns before Vanessa suggests with a nervous chuckle that they get out of here. He agrees, and they head back toward the stairs. Later, Vanessa has set up a camera to film herself as she explains that if you search on Google or Reddit, really anywhere, you find a plethora of unexplained videos and photos. Most of them are related to the town or the hotel.

But she goes on that Hell House was not the first incident to happen here. It's only the most popular. We see a newspaper as she describes disappearances related to an early 2000s county fair. The headline reads, Rockland County Fair shut down for safety concerns. Reported incident on haunted hayride.

Vanessa admits that this raises red flags for her now. She cites the unsettling Billy Braddock story. But before she can expound on this, there's a knock at the door. She already knows that it's Louie for the five o'clock. So I want to know about.

Billy Braddock yeah I don't know again the way that we've kind of like dropped these names and and stuff in crumbs and previous installments I'm wondering if we are gonna get a movie about billy braddock or this fair or whatever the fuck happened to me with that exact reasoning yeah i was like we're prequel teasing yeah and i i i'm sad like i'm into it

The camera is still rolling when she gets up and lets him inside. Louis comes in excitedly, clutching a flash drive in his hand. He reports that he has to show her something before they get started with their meeting. When he sits down in front of the camera, Vanessa tells him that she was just updating the journal. But Louis brings up what Jeff said about the whole Abaddon eyes thing. When people think they see something, he thinks his camera actually caught.

something he starts to type into the computer and Vanessa is intrigued but she asks him if she really wants to see this Louie concedes that she probably doesn't but still he pulls up the footage for us to watch We see Vanessa and Jeff standing by the wine racks, but their conversation is stripped away. All sound is replaced with dark ambiance. Jeff is talking to Vanessa, but the frame freezes and zooms in on the blue heaven.

hallway behind them where a hooded figure lurks. The footage slowly fades to black. So, you know, the Assassin's Creed. Yeah, it was just a mannequin. That's fine. Whatever. But elsewhere, a stationary camera fills Jane walking into a bedroom. She looks around, asking where everybody is. But with her back to the door, she doesn't see that one of the clowns is making its way out of the shadows of the hallway. and into the bedroom. But we quickly see that it's Max holding the clown dummy up.

it's still enough to scare jane when she turns around gregory walks into frame from the side of the bed where i feel like she would have seen it and i'm also Is this the buddy system? Yeah, I guess. And Jane still isn't adhering to it. But Gregory and Max both laugh and an offended Jane accuses them of sexism. Max goes to the camera and picks it up as Jane adds that Russell wouldn't be happy if he knew they were messing around with this stuff. And if he asks her, she wasn't a part of it.

Max thrusts the camera at her, alerting that she was on camera, though, and Jane retorts that she doesn't think that's why Vanessa gave them those. Gregory asserts that Vanessa should be thanking them because without them, she wouldn't have any footage. Max jokes that without this, it would just be Gregory talking about his craft. And Gregory maintains that that is good television.

I do love that Gregory is undeterred. He doesn't feel bad about it. He's like, no, I am fucking great. But up in the attic, Vanessa and Louis are present for a meeting between Russell, Jeff and Harvey. Russell sits with his feet up on the table while Jeff presents the next order of business. Russell's bank called.

When Russell asks which one Jeff reports gravely that they all did. And although he himself only has one bank, if they called him, he would be concerned. He looks uncomfortably at the camera before shifting his focus. is to his phone but Harvey brings up another issue Isabel asked him a weird question she wanted to know if she would still get paid if she had to quit for some reason Jeff tells him immediately no

Russell asks if Isabel is thinking about quitting and Harvey reasons that he doesn't think she is. It was just a weird question, which is wild because it's like, if I don't do my job, am I still going to get it? It's a bold. I know. That is it. That is a weird question, but that is concerning. Yes. You did think about it. That's why you're asking. Why are you asking?

And once again, finances are coming up. Yes. And Vanessa's just like, let him talk. Yeah. I would be asking something. I am here for the meeting. I know we're here to observe. Yeah. But at the same time. I'm a journalist. Yeah. With this, Harvey dismisses himself to tend to another issue. Jane hates her dress as much as Harvey hates Jeff's budget because they're both cheap.

He heads downstairs and Jeff pulls a box up from the floor. He sets it on the table in front of Russell, informing that a Father Paulus dropped it off for him. As Russell starts to open the box, we cut to an interview with Father Paulus, played by Dan Dobransky. His subtitle distinguishes the setting as the All Saints Church in Abaddon, New York.

The sun backlights Father Paulus as it streams in through a large stained glass cross behind him. Vanessa broaches the subject of the hotel reopening taking place in a few weeks. Paulus confesses that he told Russell that it's a mistake. Vanessa asks Russell's response and Paulus reveals that Russell hired him. Russell hired him. Keep that in mind. Yeah.

Back in the attic, Russell peers into the box and after a reflective moment, he decides. Good. He gets up from the table and starts toward a safe across the room. Jeff asks if this is something he should know, but Russell insists casually that it's private. Jeff accepts this, but wonders how Russell knows Father Paulus. As Russell opens his safe to put the box inside, he says that Paulus is an old... friend.

And I'm realizing now that we never understand the contents of this box. It's whatever you want it to be. Yeah. It's what's in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase. It should have been a glow on his face. Yeah. But you're right. I didn't even think of it. He puts it away into the safe and yeah, we never even... Honestly, I forget all about it. Yeah, I did too until right now.

In his interview, Father Paulus teaches that many demons claim to be the souls of real people that lived on earth thousands of years ago, even during the time of Christ. So they use their knowledge of these events to sow doubt. into believers he shares that one demon that they've encountered in abaddon has said the same thing over and over

Est Aperta Porta. The interview glitches and we cut to the past where Jessica Fox exits the kitchen of the Abaddon Hotel. She's confronted with a message scrawled on the wall in black.

by the beam of the flashlight est aperta porta when she asks what it is Mitchell guesses that it's Latin when jessica inquires its meaning the footage is lost again and we are back in our interview with father paulus and when he said when he said it i was like oh that was what was written on the wall right and then they're like remember it was written on the wall see again like let let

us have these little rewards yeah it's a treat to remember these things yeah yeah vanessa translates instead the gate is open Paulus affirms this. And when Vanessa asks if he's ever heard of Andrew Tully, accompanied with the abrupt sound of a discordant piano, Paulus affirms this too. He has. Vanessa points out that Tully thought he'd found this gateway and that it was the gateway to hell.

We glitched to the past once again where Andrew Tully, played by Brian David Tracy, presides over his hellish gathering in the Abaddon Hotel dining room. Look, my... I did just rewatch these films. Right, right. My knowledge of footage getting to us as the viewer is a little spotty. Yeah. But are we aware that we have footage of Andrew Tully doing all this shit? Yeah. I didn't even think about it.

Like that proves firstly that he was there at that morning mysteries meeting at the thing. And then he's here like condemning Mitchell and everyone to hell or whatever. Yeah. We have that. It's really funny. That is funny. We keep, we keep.

this as the crew disappeared the crew disappeared we see molly get murdered in the scene yes yes so it's like think it's a little bit less of a mystery and alex is sitting at the table right behind alex and mac i believe yeah so yeah i don't think this should be in here at all no and the fact of vanessa with her being like do people really believe it's like it's not a matter The person you've replaced did interview a ghost and we have proof of Tully fucking doing this. Yeah.

I think that's why I was like, well, why hire the church if we have this, like you're saying, this proof of what's going on there? Yeah. I don't need you to come in and study and then be like, we found, no, we found these. We got it. They're telling us what's happening. Unless, and that's why.

I'm asking questions because I don't know if the chronology is like this. This documentary we're watching is after we've got everything and assembled everything. So I don't know how. I don't either. I don't know. Either way. That's hilarious. A restrained and stricken Jessica sits behind him, confined to a chair with the hooded figure standing next to her. I'm also just thinking like they keep saying the morning.

the the morning mysteries crew morning mysteries crew this isn't the morning this is the inside crew This is Jessica's team. No shit. And Mitchell Cavanaugh wasn't even part of Morning Mysteries. He was just a guest on Morning Mysteries. See, that's where I kind of got confused because I remember him being there talking to them. Yeah. But he does go in with them. So I just kind of associate.

Oh, well, you guys are coming from the same place. No, this is Jessica's company. Yeah, but you're right. It was what, Susan? What was her name? Susie, the host? That's Morning Mystery. She's Morning Mystery. Yeah, so you're right. They shouldn't be labeled Morning Mysteries at all. It's like just clicking in my head.

Jessica was watching Morning Mysteries. She called into Morning Mysteries. That's right. And again, Mitchell was just a guest. None of these people were affiliated with the show. Look, Morning Mysteries does sound better. It does. Oh, and Brock Davies and his guy was a guest. Yes, too. None of them were on morning. So why are we saying that? It's a mistake.

I guess maybe it's like, well, no, because they weren't even on the show. Just Mitchell. That's what I was thinking. Well, maybe if they were on the show, they're saying like the crew that showed up was on. But weren't that different? But they're even labeled with like. Onscreen text. It just clicked in my head that that is false, actually. Tully's voice is deep and distorted when he reports, we are servants of the snake and we will release someone into the lake of fire.

Back in Paulus's interview, he chuckles. He admits that the church is rich with references to hell and Satan. There are old texts that refer to an earthly gateway to hell where the demon Abaddon stands guard. A familiar tune on a piano begins to play as he continues that it is said no man can close this gateway once it's been opened. It would take one of God's angels. But if the gate is.

open literal hell could be unleashed on earth having said that there are some versions of the Bible that say that this is all metaphorical so the church doesn't really have a stance either way Convenient. I'm going to be honest. I was really surprised to hear that the church doesn't have a stance on that. I was like, what? Yeah. I mean, you can't really stand in the middle of something like that. Like it's, it's real or it's not real. You're also the church. Yeah. Could be.

Yeah, we're still, you know, we're not sure about that. Yeah, just give us the traditional. The church doesn't think it's interesting enough for us to look into. You know what I mean? Just that you don't care. Or it's like an underground portion of the church that has looked into it. Yeah, something. And we can't talk about it.

Vanessa walks with Russell outside, indicating the field around them. She asks if they're bringing people all the way out here, but Russell says that they're not. He just needed fresh air, and he realized that this may be the only chance they get to chat today.

Vanessa brings up that he lowered ticket prices by 30 percent and she wonders if he's expecting a drop in revenue. But Russell grins that that was Jeff's idea. Since it's so far out of the city, Jeff didn't think that people would pay full. price to make the trip so he decreased the price to increase ticket sales but he personally thinks that the show is so great that people will pay whatever he tells them to and the show will sell out so this when

When she's like, you lower ticket prices or whatever, I was like, oh, he's really trying to fucking pack this place. And he wants opening night to be a grand opening night. And then he's like, no, that was Jeff's idea. Okay. All right. Vanessa chuckles that that's true. People will pay to see a show in this godforsaken hotel. Russell wonders what she means by godforsaken. Does she mean that literally?

Vanessa's confused. Does anyone use the term God forsaken literally? She admits that she doesn't even believe in God. Russell commiserates. Neither did I. He's like, oh, poor child. Yeah, don't, no, no, no, no. Vanessa presses for the story behind this, joking that him being a born-again Christian would be a great twist on the story. But Russell only offers that it's not like she's thinking. He's like, it's a bigger twist. Yeah. Just hold on. We'll get there.

Somehow Vanessa changes the subject and asks if Hell House came out here. But Russell says that they didn't. This was the county fairgrounds in the early 2000s. He points in the distance where they had the grounds and we cut to footage of this. We float above the fair in an aerial shot as rides twist and lively music plays. Screams echo.

But we cut back to Russell, who continues that they use the cornfield behind the Abaddon Hotel as a hayride. But people got injured and they ended up shutting it down. This is when Vanessa finally realizes. So this is where it happened. Yeah. How many fucking fairs were there in Avedon? Okay.

and you were just reading about this said hayride yeah and i'm a little annoyed that he's like it's not like you're thinking and she's like so nice weather we're having i mean like what can we press that a little bit are you she's like well we have stock footage of a hayride Let's cut to that. That's why she didn't ask. I don't have anything for that.

But Russell says that it's all sad. Vanessa moves them further down the timeline. A few years after that is when Hell House came to town. And nine years after that, Russell Wynn comes to town. Russell nods and asserts that he knows what she's getting at. Vanessa reasons that you would think after some point the town would just stop having events here. Russell smirks though that fortunately it's not up to them. It did make me laugh because I remembered in the second one when.

quote unquote Tasselman was like that they told Alex not to do it and they were like they advised against her they told him no and they're like well he couldn't advise he couldn't say no so he advised against her it's like what do you mean what do you mean you can't It's just so weird.

Vanessa points out that he still hasn't shared why he moved insomnia out here this year. She asks if he can tell her. But as Russell thinks this over, the walkie on his hip crackles to life. Harvey's voice reports that there's wardrobe. drama and he needs Russell inside now Russell asks why they need him in wardrobe and when he can't get a clear answer from Harvey he tells Vanessa good-naturedly that they'll have to continue this later Vanessa asks promise

And Russell responds as much as I can. Firstly, absolutely not. No. That's the most. Yeah. This question is incredibly important. Yeah. You can take two. And it's a wardrobe problem. Yeah. It's not like, hey, the basement caught fire or something. We can take a second or fuck it. I'll walk with you. Yeah. Tell me.

Walk and talk. Exactly. They're out in the field. They have to walk back to the hotel. She's like, well, but we got to stay here. Why? Give them a couple minutes and we'll go. I'm going to head start. He walks away and Vanessa looks after him for a moment before turning to the camera with a shrug that at least they made progress.

They walk through the field, but Vanessa stops to pick up something interesting. She holds up a worn and weathered planchette, but when Louis asks what it is, she says that she doesn't know. She flips it over and finds initials engraved in script B.D. We cut to Brock Davies pulling this planchette out of his pocket, pristine and shiny. As he sits in the dining room, dummies and props inhabiting the other tables, he places a planchette on the wooden surface. The footage dissolves again.

now in the field louis asks bd and vanessa shrugs before dropping it back on the ground You've taken over Morning Mysteries. Yes. You know that there was a psychic medium ghost hunter paranormal expert named Brock Davies on that show.

I don't think it's too much of a leap to be like, could this be? She's like, oh, and fucking throws it back on the ground. And whether or not the Hell House 2 footage has been... shared with us yet but they were on TV they were all on TV together he was a guest on the show with your predecessor yes and the other thing as well I just feel like this one was extra like annoying to me because

We already showed the result of this scene with Brock Davies. And so way later in the film, we pick up this planchette. We already know what happens because you showed us. Yeah. Let's. Let this be a cool little Easter egg. We know what that is. Yeah. Yes. It's unbelievable. And this is where I was just like, oh, this is just not going to stop. I didn't like it. I do. I'm not going to lie. I do like seeing.

agreed pieces from it and then but it is that this i don't think we needed because we did see that scene earlier so finding it being like hey i know what that is yeah it i i guess i get If you haven't seen the other ones and you're just watching this, which...

That's crazy to jump in the third movie without knowing. Personally, I think if you have to make a choice to make a film for the people who have seen the other two entries or the people that haven't seen the other two entries, I think you reward your viewers. Agreed.

Now, in an interview with Vanessa, she says reluctantly that she'll give Russell some credit. He allowed people to have fun and enjoy themselves at work, but he also had rules and he didn't want... anyone wandering around the hotel by themselves at night. We follow Vanessa into the dining room where a crew is gathered. Text alerts us. September 21st, 10 days until the opening night of insomnia.

Russell, Harvey and Jeff stand by while Gregory and Jane rehearse a scene. Gregory delivers his line, but Jane drops character with an apology. She turns to Russell, admitting that she doesn't get it. Is he questioning the existence of. Russell explains that Faust is telling Jane's character Gretchen his own doubts about heaven and hell as depicted by Christianity.

Faust is full of doubts. Jane asks if she shares these doubts. But before Russell can answer, Harvey decides that if they're going to unpack Faust religious views, they should probably get dinner first. And again, this kind of conflicts with what we know of this group or learned from them earlier about it kind of being almost like this is the troop. This is who does this insomnia play.

That has done it many times before. Right. And yet she's like, I don't understand the motivation of the character. The character you've been playing. I feel like even if Jane is brand new. In her interview at the very beginning, she's like, it's amazing. He's made it modern. Like, it's this classic tale. He's a genius. So it's like, she's like, well, I don't get it. Yeah, I don't get it at all. We had talked a little bit ago and...

I was talking with your sister and she had brought something up and it really hit with me. And as we're talking about it, we go through some of these characters just feel like there is no story behind them. They're just told. ooh, they're supposed to be, very little, and then just like, here, read this. And I don't want to say that everybody, for me anyway, and I love these movies, but some of their...

I don't feel like they're actual characters. No. Or like they're people, like you were saying with the other two. Yeah. They just feel like that. Hey, you were hired to do this job. Pat on the back. Here's your script. Go ahead and do it. And no disrespect to these people, but some of it, it does take. Take me out of it.

And there are line deliveries that I'm just like, dude, that was not it. That just was not great. There are some line deliveries and there is weirdly one full scene. Yes. It just feels... strange that scene it is like did y'all know that this was for realsies

Because I mentioned it earlier and T was like, I have that in my notes that it feels like they're rehearsing. It doesn't even feel like they know that this is going to be in the movie. Yeah. But we'll get there when we get there because I was like. oh dear. This is a lot. Vanessa takes this opportunity to pass through them to get to Jeff across the room.

She tells him that it seems like everything's going well, and Jeff sighs that this place is half the size of the theater they have in the city, so it's easier to manage. Vanessa asks how Russell is holding up, and Jeff admits that he can't get a read. It's different than it was in New York.

Vanessa spots a copy of Faust on the table in front of Jeff and she indicates it. Jeff says that he's never read Faust and he doesn't plan to either. Vanessa giggles at this but across the room Russell has decided that this is a wrap. Getting everyone's attention, Jeff allows that they can do the bonfire, but everyone needs to be back to their hotels by 9 sharp, and Harvey will be doing room-by-room headcounts. Harvey nods that this is a fact.

Jeff turns to Vanessa in a quieter tone and says that if they're planning on shooting the bonfire, they need to make sure and get the part where Harvey gets drunk and tries to walk over fire. Harvey laments that he only did that twice. He explains to Vanessa that it was his year of saying yes. And he chastises Jeff, asking why he would even bring that up. He's such a shit starter. This did make me laugh because it's like, yeah, I get year of saying yes, but.

not to walking to fire and he did it two times yeah well he's like i made a commitment i told myself i made a promise to myself We cut to the bonfire where Max wields his camera. He focuses it on Gregory, Jane and Isabel who sit with their solo cups. He intones that everyone is gone. Gregory asks him, so you gonna do it?

And Max quips that he is for 500 bucks. He says that if Gregory will show him the money, he'll do it. But when he asks if Gregory is going to do it, the thespian sounds a little tipsy when he declares that he is not going in that basement. Jane laughs loudly as Max calls him a pussy, but Gregory reminds him that he's not brave if he needs $500 to do it.

Max asserts that he needs to be paid for his work. He says that it's fucked up to run in there on a dare. And Jane asks why, mocking if it's because he saw a scary movie. Max says that it is, but also because Russell and Jeff would kill him. And Jane reasons that that's true. But after a moment, she announces, fuck it, I'll do it. Max reiterates the stakes, basement and back, and it's drinks on him. Jane agrees enthusiastically, but Gregory shakes his head, warning that if Russell finds out...

Max asks if Gregory is going to tell him. He goes one by one, asking Gregory, Jane and Isabel if they're going to tell. They all shake their heads. And with that, Jane hops up and starts off as they chant behind her. Do it. Do it. Do it. Before Jane heads inside, she double checks the rules. She has to go down there, touch the clown on the nose on camera and come back. I was like, the clown? We're involving the clown in there? Jane, no!

She makes sure that she doesn't have to make out with it or something. Max laughs that if she does he wants to watch that tape. He hands the camera over to Jane, who turns it toward her friends. Gregory and Max watch excitedly, but Isabel warns her to please hurry. As Jane enters the hotel she jokes that she'll see you bitches on the flip side. She goes past the wine racks musing that maybe she'll have a little drink first.

In the white draped hall of heaven, she stops to film each mannequin set up in the corners. all donning white hooded robes. She tells them that it's been a pleasure as she passes into the next area, but when she hears something behind her, she turns around. One of the mannequins now has their hand thrusted out into the doorway.

Jane reacts to this with a gasp as the familiar tune of the piano starts to play. But she quickly gathers herself and tells her friends that it's not cool because she knows it's them. This was a pretty fucking good scare for me. No. Yeah. It's so subtle because it's almost something that it's like, could it have been that way or could I have knocked into it or you know what I mean? I appreciate like those quiet moments like we talked about. Yeah. You know.

And this happened a lot in Layers of Fear, I felt, where it's just like these slight changes. And you're like, that is close to what it was. But I know it wasn't. And so I really like that. That fucks with you more. Yes. The footage starts to glitch, but Jane continues forward. The piano music ends with a discordant note. And when Jane looks back again, the mannequin's hand is still visible.

Still, she presses forward into the bar area and through glitches, we see the original Hell House crew having their celebratory gathering. Jane jokingly orders the drink from the non-existent bartender, but she pauses just before going into the basement. I have to say this is the exact tactic to have.

The one that I would also have, I don't want to be in this building, so we're going to be cracking a bunch of stupid jokes. Oh, yeah. The entire way to make it like, oh, I wonder if ghosts are farting in here or whatever. Everything is going to be a joke. Anything to lighten them. Exactly. To not have to. think for a second about where i am yeah and what i'm actually seeing but are the ghost we need to know she's a better investigative journalist than vanessa the people deserve

Jane turns the camera on herself, the bright light shrouding the room behind her in darkness, but we can clearly see them. Paul, Tony, Mac, Sarah. and alex all standing around the bar staring with grave seriousness at the camera as jane gives a peace sign announcing that she's entering the basement and intones peace out motherfuckers this was very i thought this was so fucking cool i know that when we see in a moment maybe logistically this shouldn't be whatever like whatever um

We can argue that, and I don't disagree with that argument, but this shot of her turning it around, peace out, whatever, and they're all standing behind her in this like... terrifying and somber tableau just watching yeah i thought it looked really fucking cool it did i appreciated it as well and again we will and the logistics of the next scare or whatever right right aside

But I feel like this would have been so much cooler to me if we had not seen interspersed throughout this entire film, the original Hell House crew. yes i totally agree that this is our first time seeing them yeah this would have been that would have been really great yeah maybe mention them but we don't lay eyes on them or maybe don't have that we she's literally at the bar ordering a drink from a ghost as a joke or whatever

and then we cut away to them yes we don't do that yeah at least even if you want to space them out i don't know it's just again no i totally agree but the shot is great yeah She turns the camera back forward as she begins to descend the stairs, but the static crackling is back, glitching the frame.

It only gets more insistent the further down she goes. But when she finally enters the basement properly, the clowns are propped up against the wall, including the black and white one, which was not there earlier when Vanessa came down here. Jane approaches them playfully and lowers herself to them on the floor. She turns the camera to herself as she leans into the colorful one in the middle promising to give her friends a little something extra.

She plants a lingering kiss on the clown's rubber lips before declaring that that's about as raunchy as she's going to get. She sits back up, bringing the black and white clown into view and revealing that he has turned to face her and the camera. His pointed black lips are parted and black and red trails leak down from the hollow recesses of his eyes. Jane's grin drops as she freezes, staring at the clown as it slowly, almost imperceptibly cranes his head over to her.

This is what I want. When I check into this fucking hotel, that is fucking creepy. And it's quiet. And the way that his head turns, it's like, is it? No, it's turning. I loved this. But again, it begs the question, how is she able to see this? But she wasn't able to see the Hell House crew.

But our view glitches as Jane stands, her footsteps crunching beneath her as she slowly and carefully makes her way back toward the stairs, careful to keep the camera on the view of the clown behind her. She breaks off into a run, but when... she turns back around the clown is standing at the center of the basement facing her Jane lets loose a blood curdling scream as she scrambles up the stairs. She loses her footing and sobs as she aims the camera down toward the basement.

She shakes as crunching footsteps are heard, but finally her friends come to her rescue. We hear Gregory asking what the fuck happened to her before the footage cuts out. It took... what felt like 10 years for her friends to get here yeah when she stopped on the stairs was like go stupid i don't know why i i didn't really care too much for her character but no yeah but i

But her sitting there, I'm like, why are you sitting on the steps? Move your ass. Yeah. It's not like you saw the clown in an instant move from that seat to the center of the room. Yep. Where do you think he's going to be next? Yeah. On the fucking stairs. but that's what is horrifying because the head turn would have been enough for me oh yeah he was looming in the like it's indisputable yeah

Later, Louis films Jeff, Harvey, and Russell in another attic meeting. Russell is incensed, reiterating that he made it clear no one was supposed to be in the hotel after they wrapped. Jeff agrees. Russell told them that. So did Jeff. So did Harvey. He guesses that she must have just had too much to drink. Harvey adds that she didn't show up to set today either. Russell sighs and decides that he'll talk to her.

Jeff says that he checked her camera and she was telling the truth. She really did see that clown. So what did y'all see? Did you see the clown turning its head? Did you see the clown standing in the middle? Like, what did you see? I feel like it's.

And it does get excused or explained away in a minute. Right. I guess. Yeah. Terrible way. Yeah. But I feel like this is enough for anyone who has seen, at least Max, you know, there's enough here to where maybe we shouldn't be doing this, guys. Yeah. Yeah. And we need definitely more convincing from Russell than we get to make us stay here. Oh, yeah. So that is what I read in that interview is that when.

Cognetti said that when he was showing the script to Bandelli actually he was like look I love this the scares are really cool but there's no fucking way that people are seeing this and still choosing to come back. And that's when Cogniti was like, okay, Russell's a billionaire. He's offering them a lot of money. That's why they keep coming back. So that's why Russell Wynn is a billionaire. And that concludes my trivia for LLLC3, Lake of Fire.

Jeff turns his attention to Harvey and tasks him with making sure that no one is playing any pranks on each other anymore. Harvey assures them that he will keep a tighter leash on them. Russell gets down to the facts. The fact is that Jane really did see something, but it still could have been a prank because the crew have been pranking each other since they got here.

If they can get in front of this, they can stop the speculation or, God forbid, the tweeting. Jeff turns back toward Vanessa and Louis and asserts that this conversation does not air. Vanessa agrees with the glance toward Louis. I would just like to compare the two quote prank.

Unpranked, or unquote. Quote, I'm pranked. Yeah, I'm pissed at the whole prank thing. Yeah. Well, you mean Max is carrying in that clown? Yes. Yeah. The actual, like, he has the clown. You very clearly see both pairs of legs. Like it's the most, you know, whatever. Juvenile prank in the world. What we have on this tape, we know.

that she was the only one in here. We know that because we sent her in there. And so to see that clown turn its head, to see it fucking teleport to the center of the room, I understand Russell's trying to keep everyone here and everything with that kind of thinking. But if I'm Harvey, I...

was there yeah yeah if i'm anybody else in the crew yeah the cast yeah no it's it's very frustrating and well i'll save that for later but no it that's kind of what i was gonna say too i don't like the prank thing because of that we can clearly see the the video There's nobody else down there with her. We see if they see the clown's head move or even him stand up.

how did you do that so fast without moving? We don't hear you, your footsteps, nothing. So to be like, it's a prank. It's like, that's, that's very cheap. You know what actually be even better? She didn't see the hell house crew, right? Yeah. So maybe it's selective and they do watch the tape and they're like, Jane, nothing happened. Right. Okay. You know, and maybe that black and white clown wasn't even there.

yeah yeah so it it that that's what makes it hard to reconcile because it's like jane saw that she experienced it everybody who watched her footage saw it yeah but it's like oh okay guys no more pranks it's like what the what And tweeting Millennium. Yes. There's another one. We're back. We're back. In an interview with Max at the bar, he shares that he knows Jane. She doesn't break easily.

He says that Russell thinks one of them fucked with her, but he knows that it wasn't him. Vanessa asks how it felt coming into work today, but Max shrugs and asks what he could do. Russell is paying him better than any other gig he could possibly get. Vanessa wants Max's opinion as to why Russell is paying everyone so much to be here. And Max reasons that he's only known Russell for about five years, but he's changed since the crash. It made me laugh because five years is...

a decent time to know something. Yeah, that's my note. Only, you know that person. You know them. That was really funny. It's only half a decade. Like, calm down. I barely... now five months yes i'd be like oh okay i've only known him for about five years Vanessa asks if he's referring to the car crash in 2008 and Max affirms that he is, indicating his own eye, where Russell's scar is on his face.

He says that Russell is lucky to be alive. The rumor is, actually, they were about to call it. He surmises that maybe massive head trauma can lead people to do some crazy stuff. Out on the balcony, Max films Isabel as she does a makeup application on Gregory. He asks if they're just supposed to keep filming because his camera's already full. Uninvested, Isabel answers dryly that Vanessa didn't really say. But Max says that Isabel's camera is really nice. She should try to take it home.

Isabel doesn't answer. She dazedly dabs Gregory's nose with the makeup sponge. Both Gregory and Max ask if she's okay because she's so quiet today. But snapping back to her work, Isabel insists that she's fine. Gregory finally asks what they think happened to Jane. Max reasons that the only person that could pull off a prank like that is him, and he was with Gregory the whole time. Gregory asks, were you?

Max thinks that he was, but even if he wasn't, he knows he didn't do it. Gregory admits that if he saw that clown, he would have pooped his panties. And Jane really did see it. He gives her credit for sticking around. She's tough for a girl. Annoyed, Isabel tells Gregory, fuck you, before declaring that all women are tougher than him. So he says here that Jane... sticks around yeah and so I guess whatever Russell

Talked to her, offered her work. I was surprised that we don't see Jane for a very long time. Yeah. And I thought that when we saw Jane, she would have some maybe renewed motivations or she would be hanging around Russell. Like, but it's just like, nah, I gave her more money and she came back. It's just like, then why did we do all that? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I just thought more would come of this.

undeniable scare yeah undeniable evidence that there is something happening here yeah and i thought russell would have maybe coaxed her back in a different way but she's like no i gave her my oh okay okay millennial There you go. You want to buy a house, right? God damn it. I'll be back on Monday. Fuck. Harvey radios Isabel asking if she's with the boys. She reports that she's just finishing their makeup and Harvey tells her to send them his way once she's done turning them from drab to fab.

This finally elicits a smile from Isabel. With his makeup finished, Gregory stands and bids Max get into character, barkeep. Max asks if he wants a shot, and Gregory answers with an immediate yes. Max sets down Isabel's camera and heads inside with Gregory. As Isabel picks it back up, thunder booms in the sky.

She heads inside down an extremely dark hallway and into one lit by small lights along the walls. So, OK, even under the best of times, we had a buddy system. And now that we saw this happen to Jane and we were there last night, we're just going to leave it. isabelle alone on the balcony and go down darkened corridors and just like i was like why did they leave her alone why didn't she say hey i'll i'll go with you yeah that's the only thing for me too is that when we get in here like

We turn the corner and it's pitch black. Yes. Like, why are the... There is no customers here. We're not doing... The lights should be on. All of them. They should be. But remember, quote, un-prank. Yeah. It didn't happen. Everything's fine. But once she trains the camera up at the end of the hall, she gasps when she sees someone standing there. It's Sarah Havel standing beneath the exit sign and peering into the next room.

Blood mars the side of her face and neck, and she turns slowly toward Isabel. Sarah beckons her with a finger before turning back and entering the next room. Afraid, Isabel fumbles for the light on the camera and turns it on before following Sarah. A bed sits in the center of the stark hotel room draped with white sheets, but someone sits underneath one perched on the edge of the bed.

We get a staticky glitch that shows Sarah sitting the exact same way before returning to the sheet draped figure. Hoping that it's Jane, Isabel calls out to her friend. But as it gets closer, we keep seeing images of Sarah sitting on the bed. Isabel asserts that this is fucked up, but she still comes closer until the door behind her slams shut. So once again, you know, not to be a broken record about it, the cutaways absolutely ruin this scare.

Okay. This one was egregious. Yeah. Because sitting in this moment of her rounding the corner and seeing this ghost-like sheet ghost figure, that's enough. And it does, of course, recall what they saw in Hell House 2, I believe. Or maybe one. I can't remember. We followed Sarah. We followed her down the hall. We know. We know what this is alluding to. Well, I was going to say, we've been in the room before. True. So it's just, I don't know. It would have worked so much better. Honestly.

And we were talking off mic earlier. I don't know how long this film would be if they took out all these cutaways. It'd be pretty short. It'd be a lean quality hour. Well, you got to fill them with different stuff. It's that. Also, Isabelle's brave as fuck. Yeah. She was the only one that seemed really disturbed about what had happened to Jane.

So I think she should know better than anyone that Jane wouldn't do this. Yeah. Especially since she followed a different woman down the hall, whether she knows who Sarah is or not. And Harvey just radioed her on a walkie. Bitch, call for help. Oh, yeah. She has a walkie. I'm not going in that room. No. I'm sorry. I'll yell from there. I would run back to the balcony and leap from the... I'm done. I'm scaling down the... I'm done. We found this.

But she's alive. She's alive. She went back to New York. But Isabel turns at the sound, illuminating the red splashes against the closed door. But when she turns back toward the bed, the white sheet is askew and the figure is gone. She turns back at the sound of breathing and comes... face to face with Sarah, blood lining her throat like a morbid necklace as she grins at her.

Isabel screams and the camera glitches as we see Sarah standing still in the corner. Isabel drops the camera and we hear the thudding of her feet as she sprints away. Presumably to leap from the balcony. In another attic meeting, we are told through text in the corner, September 24th, seven days until opening night of insomnia. Russell muses that he thought more money would work like it did with Jane. He laments that now they have to rehire so close to opening.

Harvey wonders what Russell offered Isabel and Russell says that he offered double the pay just like he did with Jane and that better not leave this room. Harvey says that he has some calls out and he's sure they'll have the position filled by tomorrow. Jeff warns him to make sure and stay quiet about why Isabel left. Harvey says that of course he will, but what are they supposed to say when the others inevitably ask? He reminds everyone how gossipy this cast is.

Jeff offers that maybe she burned out and got too tired, but this does not sit right with Harvey, who has known Isabel for years. He refuses to go around telling people that she was too tired to do a gig. He allows that he's a bit over the top, but he... He implores Russell to listen to him. Something is wrong here. He tells Russell that he knows it. They know it. Everyone knows it. But they're just plowing through the day like everything is fine. He says that it's starting to feel.

like but he pauses until Russell tells him to go on and so Harvey does it's starting to feel like hell house and they didn't listen to the warning signs did they Russell The light above Russell flickers as the screen gives way to the staticky glitch and we cut to the Hell House crew in the basement where Paul is adamant that they need to shut things down right now.

Tony stands by the row of clowns yelling that someone saw what happened and now they're going to make a fucking joke. He tells the person holding the camera, fuck you, man. But back at the table, Russell counters that this is nothing like Hell House. No one is going to get hurt. He tells Harvey not to tell him he's jumping on the bus with Isabel. But Harvey makes it clear that that's not what he's saying. What he's saying is that he's.

recruited people to be here and now he feels like something bad is gonna happen if it does it'll be on him and he can't handle that Russell can only offer that it won't happen might have to quit yeah like this is wild i appreciate this moment from harvey i'm saying we are responsible for these people hell house didn't listen and look what happened and sticking up for isabel of like i'm not gonna talk shit like she didn't do anything

wrong well it's that if stuff is going on here we all see it like he's saying everybody knows it Don't try to fucking be like, oh, she was just lazy. No, that's not what the fuck's going on. That's fucked up. She was working. She left for a reason. Think of something else, but don't do that. Yeah. And this is like Hell House. Yeah. No, it is. What are you talking about? We're literally setting up. It is treated like a novel concept. It's like, you know what, guys? It's just now dawning on me.

Yeah. But Russell promises that if everyone, including himself, does their job, it's all going to work out. Vanessa speaks up from off screen, apologizing for the interruptions. She says that they got Isabel's camera back, but the call. card is missing. I don't know how we got the footage we got with the missing card. Yeah. I don't know what comes of this. I don't know. Don't think too much. Yeah. Just ignore it.

She asks if they know anything about that but Jeff doesn't even understand what card she's talking about. Vanessa explains that it's the memory card from the camera that has all the footage. Jeff sighs and takes his phone out of his pocket, realizing that they need to find that Russell sits back in his chair and tells them.

Don't look at me. You stole it. You're guilty. You're guilty as fuck. I will stand 10 toes down. That was the intended story. Yes. I never have to hear Cognetti or anybody else admit it. Thoroughly. convinced myself they could not have been more suspicious no steven stevie you can let me know you tell me we won't tell anyone

We cut to an interview with Harvey standing in front of the wine racks. He admits that being tasked with turning the shit show of a hotel into a functioning set has been the least enjoyable project he's ever worked on. Even after having done children. Theater in Alabama Harvey nods with sympathy when Vanessa brings up Isabel's sudden departure she asks what the mood around set was as a result

Harvey says that they've had hiccups just like any production, but he wants to make it explicitly clear. Nothing was wrong with Isabel's performance at all. She just had to leave. He turns to the camera and addresses Isabel directly, promising that they'll have a drink when he sees her back in New York. He mouths, I love you, before turning back to Vanessa. But I do, I appreciate this.

Integrity, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, they're not trying to demean her work ethic. Because Jeff and Russell were ready to. Yeah. And this, again, makes him seem like more of a real person. He's like, that's my friend. I'm not doing that to my friend. But we cut back to the interview with Robert Lyons, who shares that Isabel's departure isn't a surprise if you look back at her social media history while she was there.

He says that she was posting a lot of selfies and we see a couple of these. But Robert, I know. I know. Just hold on. But Robert tells us that if you look at the comments on these photos, people... Sorry. People were starting to point out some things in the background. He says that if you look at the pictures, you can see for yourself that something is there. The screen goes black and white text reads, the following images were pulled from Isabel's social media.

We see a selfie of Isabel posing next to the wine rack. She smiles big as she winks and throws up devil horns. But behind the rack, you clearly see Mac. peering through at her. And to make sure we know it's Mac, we glitched a footage of him rubbing the head of the black and white clown, dismissing that it's a fucking mannequin before dissolving back to the photo, zooming in tighter on Mac's. face.

In another photo, Isabel smiles next to the vast darkness of the basement where Tony stands in the shadows looking out at us. We get a cut of Tony setting up Paul's camera before he heads down the decorated hallway. Yet another photo. Isabel grins in a grainy selfie taken in the attic where Alex hangs behind her suspended from the rafters by a rope around his neck. And we cut to Alex trying to free.

himself in the screaming chaos of the candle lit attic now in each of these it's as though isabelle is taking a selfie with yes the deceased it's framed it's framed she's off to the side Alex is in the center of the frame. Tony is in the center of the frame. Mac is like, hey, photo bombing it. This is really disappointing. You cannot fucking tell me. Maybe she didn't see it when she took it.

Unless somebody else is handling Isabel's social media. Yeah. There's no way you didn't see this when you posted it. Right. Look, I'll be honest. The first one I like. because dude's in the back. And it could be like, oh, it's a passing by person. I don't know.

Then when we get to the other ones, it's like, oh, no, you just like put them in there. Yeah. If you would have been just make them further back and more transparent, make it a little harder to see them. That way people that's a. old ass person right there yeah there's no way yeah people are like hey did you mean to take a picture of that guy yeah you did yeah you're not gonna help that guy

The second one, I was like, this one's really bad because it literally does look like a behind the scenes photo of me just taking a picture with somebody dressed as a ghost or whatever it is. When we get to that third one. Anytime you take a picture of yourself, like a selfie or whatever, the first thing I do is I look at my face and make sure everything looks as okay as it can. Yeah.

He's part of her fucking face. Yeah, no. He's literally on her shoulder like a devil telling her bad shit to do. Yeah, no, this was astounding. I will give you the first one. I was like, oh, okay. Yes. It was as we kept going that I was like. fuck off yeah this is insulting and then enough with the fucking cutaways yeah no we know that yeah that's enough where we already have it to where you're showing us these hidden things found in images and people in the comments are like

Are you serious? Did you not? I want to see some of these comments. would love that yeah i the only way that i honestly wouldn't have been so upset with the cutaways is if they were harder to see in the photos yes because then it's like look the silhouette matches to this or whatever oh okay but to see them full body or full whatever it's like that y'all just took a picture together yeah you know what you know what i thought would have been cool is if when they're traveling through and

Isabel's like can I post this on Instagram or whatever? We see photos. That she posted on Instagram documenting and being like, you know, this was heavily promoted. People were posting it online. And we see selfies and we see whatever stuff on set that Isabel is posting. Then we get this with Robert Lyons being like, Lyons being like people were noticing things and we see those same pictures, but there's shit buried in the background that maybe this win group or whatever has enhanced. Okay.

Because it's like, oh my God, we've seen that before. There are a few things more satisfying than that. I'm thinking of Lake Mungo, which is a shining example, like literal goosebumps of, oh my God. That would have been so fucking cool here. And I feel like it's such a good idea, but such poor, poor execution. Yeah, this could not have been more unsuccessful. You know what else is if it was like a live.

You're not going to go back and review that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing it right now. You post it. You're done. Yeah. Yeah. This was, again, a really fucking cool idea if they just would have done it differently. We cut to the wine area where Louis has turned the camera toward himself. Vanessa stands behind him and asks what's wrong with it. Louis explains that the zoom lens isn't focusing. He zooms in and out, saying that it's working, but it's just being.

wonky when Vanessa asks if he can fix it he says that he can he leaves to go get his bag from the car As he passes her, Vanessa reminds him that they just wrapped for the day. Maybe they should go back to their hotel. But Louis wants to fix it here. He tells her to keep an eye on the camera and to use it if anything weird or interesting happens. Vanessa chuckles and agrees as she scrolls on her phone, left alone in this hotel at night after wrapping.

And she's like, yeah, I will. It's like, who's this bitch that was too scared to walk in? Yeah. It's just I'm annoyed. For a moment nothing happens but the hallway to heaven behind her illuminates when a switch is loudly flipped. Calming music begins to play and Vanessa immediately snatches up the camera and goes to investigate. She walks through the blue and then stark white hallway passing the hooded mannequins.

She calls out for Jeff and Harvey, and when she hears knocking behind her, she turns with a gasp to find nothing there. Once she gets to the end of the hall, she turns the camera toward herself, warning Louis that if he's screwing with her, she's going to shove his camera you know where. I've never known Louis to be a prankster, but yeah. Behind her, one of the mannequins is slowly turning its head to reveal that its face is now painted white with dark black circles for eyes.

She gets into the darkness of the next room, but it appears that someone is standing in the shadows. Their face looks pained and distorted. Vanessa calls out, hello? And she tries to zoom in to get a better look. But as Louis already said, it isn't working. When it focuses a little bit, we see that it's...

Jessica blood smeared down her face as she stares out from the darkness and in case you didn't know it was Jessica we cut to her interrogation footage from the police station where she is similarly bleeding before cutting back to the hallway. Vanessa screams as she runs back the way she came and it cuts to black. I will move right past that. Yeah. I did very much appreciate the look of that mannequin. Yeah. Yeah. That was cool. I even Jessica looked.

creepy in the shadows and i liked even though i would have liked a bigger gap between us saying this and us showing this but the fact that he was like the zoom isn't working and then she's trying to get a better look and the zoom isn't working yeah and so because i was like god damn it I was leaned in too. Yeah. And even in the blur, the blur looked pretty frightening. Yeah, it did. We come back up on the interview with the producer, Sam Frost.

He says that Louis called him one day saying that something happened to Vanessa. Louis wanted to pull her out and go back to New York. But Sam told him that that's Vanessa's call, not Louis. We watch from the tilted angle of the dropped camera as Jeff and Russell talk to Vanessa in the white-draped hallway. Jeff asserts that there was no one anywhere in the hotel. It had already been cleared out. Louie comes over, countering that Vanessa said she saw something and she's not crazy.

Jeff says that he never said she was crazy. So Louie invites him to explain why their sets are malfunctioning then. Defensive. Jeff insists that their sets are not malfunctioning. Vanessa is. Russell grips Jeff by the shoulder and gently tells everyone to calm down. He wants to know what Vanessa thinks she saw. She admits that she doesn't know it was really quick. Jeff nods that maybe it was nothing. And Vanessa agrees. Yeah, maybe.

Louis is pissed. He refutes this and implores Vanessa not to let them bully her. But Vanessa says that she just really wants to forget about the whole thing. She's embarrassed. When he says her name with concern, she's emphatic that she's okay. I liked this energy from Louie because if the three of us are going into something and one of y'all said something and they're like, oh no, like you're probably, no.

I know him. He says that he fucking saw something. He saw something. Yeah. So I liked that he wasn't just like Vanessa. Like I remember Abaddon eyes or whatever. He's like, no, fuck you guys. Like you're not going to do this to my colleague. No. Yeah. In her interview, Vanessa admits that she could already hear her male colleagues saying, see, she couldn't handle it. So she wasn't going anywhere.

In her car, she declares that she doesn't want to be called difficult or crazy or any of the other sexist shit men say about women in the workplace. Louis assures her that he gets it, but Vanessa continues that she's only had the job for a few months. She can't screw it all up just because she saw something she can't explain.

Louis is understanding about her situation but he reminds her that they both saw the video that was real and he has her back on it he asks what she wants to do and after a sigh Vanessa decides that she wants to talk to Russell. When Louis says that he thinks Russell will be in at about eight tomorrow, Vanessa is clearer. She means right now.

Louis asks if she really wants to ambush him at his hotel. And Vanessa says that she does. So, okay. I agree and understand with everything that she is saying. Yeah. But you have. proof you have footage if it were just her word against Jeff and Russell I get it. Look, I'm going to suck it up and I'll play ball until I have something to rub in your fucking face. You have something to rub in their fucking face. Yeah. I will say that I did at least.

It is unfortunate what she's saying, but I did appreciate at least an explanation of why she didn't push back. But I mean, that is right. She has the video, even if it's blurry in and out. Show them. You can still see what I saw. It was there and the mannequin is on there. Yeah. And Louis being like, dude, we both saw it. I saw it too. Yeah. Nobody can say, oh, you're crazy. You're difficult. We're watching it.

We cut to Robert Lyons, who says that if Russell thought he was going to be the first person to use the Abaddon Hotel and not have unusual paranormal incidents pile up, he was insane. But he says that actually a lot of people thought he was insane.

We see a clip of Russell smiling for the camera in the white hallway with the mannequin behind him as he throws his arm around Harvey. This is just his move every time that they show that Russell is a likable guy. It's him throwing his arm over somebody. the only evidence we have see people let him touch them they hug him like that's all we have

But Robert continues that it wasn't just Hell House. There are countless people who have disappeared inside that hotel. The poor people from that Morning Mysteries episode are just the latest. He shares that they were last seen at a bar near the hotel before they went missing.

We cut to footage of Jessica and Mitchell sitting at a table in the bar with David Morris and Molly Reynolds, played by Dusty Austin and Joy Schatz. They talk and laugh over a pitcher of beer. But back in the interview, Robert brings... up the Billy Braddock disappearance. He had posted on Facebook that he was going to the Abaddon Hotel to burn it down. Then he was never heard from again. He shares that most of the missing people film what they're doing just like hell.

house and insomnia did and he reasons that those tapes have to exist somewhere i smell a prequel We join Vanessa walking down the hall of a hotel as Louis films. She stops at a door before lightly knocking. When she sees that the door is open, she pushes it the rest of the way. Vanessa and Louis step inside the room to find that Russell is in. there but there is a laptop on his bed

Footage of Jessica and Mitchell standing outside the Abaddon Hotel plays on the screen. Neither Vanessa nor Louie know what this video is. But Russell speaks up from the doorway holding his ice bucket. He asks what they're doing. and vanessa explains that she actually came to talk to him and he's like about what come on dude so i guess this is this is

This is proof, at least, that Vanessa and Louis don't know Hell House 2. Right. Right. Because they see this footage and they're like, I don't know what that is. They know who Mitchell Kavanaugh is, though. From, I guess, the Morning Mysteries interview, maybe. Yeah. And isn't it strange just thinking about it? There's nothing in his room. No. And I guess he was watching it just before he walked out because he was fucking pointed towards the door.

Louis films on the sly, keeping the camera aimed at the ground as he and Vanessa step out into the hall. Vanessa says that she wanted to talk to Russell about the hotel and what's been happening. She says that his people don't feel safe and she wants him to see the video that she shot. But Russell asserts that he doesn't need to see her video. He's sure she did see something that scared her.

After a pause, Vanessa asks why he isn't concerned then. Russell reminds her that she's here to document the opening, not to advise him on his business. He offers an apology for what happened to her, but Vanessa dismisses her. own situation she implores him to talk to his own people they don't feel safe there

Russell tells Vanessa and Louis coldly that he'll see them at the Abaddon before closing the door to his room. Alone in the hall with Louis now, Vanessa turns and asks, was that Mitchell Kavanaugh? Louis agrees that it was the missing Mitchell Kavanaugh.

He follows Vanessa as she goes back the way they came. Just want to say very quickly from the angle of the footage we saw, was the back of that guy's head Mitchell Kavanaugh? Yeah. We did not see shit. Yeah, never turned around. He had a distinct haircut. And that's crazy to just slam the door on them. Yes. That's wild. And okay, I am doing this interview, but do I work for you or I'm working with you alongside you? I'm still here in this workplace. It still needs to be safe.

Yeah. And the only person that I've heard say that they have bad feelings or whatever is Harvey. Yeah. I don't like I don't know where she's getting this. Everybody's fucking scared. Like nobody has said Isabel took her ass back to New York. Yeah. She's not there to complain. Like, I don't know where she's getting this from. I feel like there really should have been an interview with a very changed.

jane yeah yeah and then that could have led to something else but there just hasn't been anything that would lead anyone to that yeah We cut to the field outside of the Abaddon Hotel. It's September 26th, five days until opening night of insomnia. Russell walks with Jeff, who consults his clipboard and asks what Russell wants to do in case of rain. Russell smirks that one week before they open, young Jeffrey starts to worry about everything. Five days.

Jeffrey cites Murphy's law, but Russell is sure that everyone will be fine if they bring their umbrellas. On to the next order of business. Jeff asks if they're still planning to use the buses to bring people in from the city. And Russell is, under the condition that they do it for the originally quoted price, despite the demand. I'm like, this dude, you're a billionaire.

And again, I'm like, oh, you're trying to pack people in here. Oh, you don't have transportation? That's okay. We'll bus you in. Oh, you can't afford the ticket? That's okay. We'll slash the price. It's like a collection. Yes. And if that's what was happening, we're dripping that information. So you kind of have to be paying attention to what the fuck Jeff and Russell are talking about. That's their couple names. It's like Anthony Jesselnik? Is that what you're saying? I didn't see him in this.

But I think the same thing can be said then if maybe why he wanted to leave it at such a high price. He didn't want people buying the tickets or if it was expensive. I don't. I don't know. Because it doesn't make sense. Yeah. Jeff shares that the crew is all doing good and everyone is in great spirits. It's like they didn't even notice that Isabel ran back to the city and he doesn't understand how. This is an odd line that literally means nothing.

Russell argues that they did notice, but Jeff and Harvey have done such a great job of helping him keep everyone focused. Russell thanks Jeff and Jeff shakes his head that it's not easy. He looks back toward the Abaddon Hotel, but just as he started. starts to say, this place, his walkie chirps with Harvey's voice. I don't know if Harvey has an alarm that he's like, they're about to say something. I need a wardrobe malfunction or whatever. You need a... Come back.

Harvey reports that he's upstairs and asks if they're ready to go with the light test. After conferring with Russell, Jeff radios back that they are and that he and Russell will be over in a bit. Jeff starts back toward the hotel and tells Russell that he'll see him in there. But Russell stays behind, looking around contemplatively before his eyes settle on the watching camera. Is that Louie? I guess. I don't know

But Harvey sits in one of the hotel rooms and radios someone named Mark telling him he's ready to do the light test. Typing on the keyboard in front of him, he instructs Mark to bring everything to full dark. As promised, the switches flip.

loudly and the entire room goes dark save for the glow of the screen in front of Harvey he mutters to himself that he doesn't have time for this when there's a million things that he needs to do today but he types more onto the keyboard and walkies for the dust lamp to be turned on.

The lamp behind him turns on, illuminating a small section of the room where a woman sits, matted hair framing her face as she turns toward Harvey and the screen glitches. Harvey doesn't turn around. Once the lamp works, He instructs for it to be turned back off, and he's bathed in darkness once again. Harvey radios for the red lamp to be turned on, and after a moment, it is. The room glows red, still a giallo at its core.

and Harvey muses through the glitching footage that it looks so good, but it would be even better if they had two of them. He's still clueless to the woman in the nightgown skulking in the darkness. She's standing now and slowly making... taking her way toward Harvey. But when he orders for the red lamps to be turned off, she disappears into the darkness. In the dark, Harvey mutters his complaints about Jeff. Jeff said they could only afford one lamp. Jeff says to stop flirting with Louie.

Jeff says all the things that make him sick. That was hilarious to me. But just as he muses, what a guy that Jeff. Fluttering fingers reach out and lightly graze his ear. Jeff jumps turning in his chair and demanding to know who's there.

He radios in for the lights to be turned back on, and they all are, the regular lamp and the red one. Harvey is completely alone in the room. When the person on the walkie asks if he's okay, he uneasily says that he is, and for them... to run the lights again so this is kind of what i was talking about as far as the thing that was set up earlier about the lights going out periodically 10 second increments or whatever we're bringing it back to do this light test

What if it was a bit of a malfunction and we're getting that thing a little more frequently? Yeah. We have this really suspenseful sequence where it is like every 10 seconds. It's like something is closer or something is, you know, I feel like that would have worked a lot better than this when we've already established the.

thing yeah i agree this did look cool it does but it had the potential really to be a lot scarier yeah i did like it too but i felt like it could have we could have tweaked it a little more to be better Yeah. But downstairs in the wine area, Harvey is the one holding the camera when he follows Jeff begging for some more money for the lights. It's looking drab in here like dinner theater and he doesn't do dinner theater.

Jeff responds flatly that once they find a way to move some of these wine bottles, then they'll talk about it. He's obsessed with this wine. Harvey's incredulous that the wine will be sold, even calling it backwash. But when Jeff hears talking around the corner, he bids Harvey to be quiet. That is something stupid. I was like, well, the problem is we misspelled wine on all of these. It's like, that's when?

the man that owns the company that's our boss that's why they're not moving But they realize that it's Gregory talking with a fan who reveals that she hasn't been back to New York in nine years. Jeff jokes in a whisper that Gregory met his first fan and it's a girl that likes him. They continue to listen as the fan ribs Gregory for being so confident to the point where he's a little conceited, but she likes that. Gregory thanks her and she says that he's welcome, adding, we'll enjoy you.

Jeff has to ask, what the hell does that mean? They're still around the corner critiquing this conversation. I'm sure she'll explain that. But Gregory has dropped his voice lower, confessing that he hopes they do because he's about done here. The woman tells Gregory that that's nice, but he's never leaving here. He knows that, right? Jeff's face is etched in concern when Gregory asks what she means and she tells him.

Because silly, he's coming and you're all going to hell. Her voice does distort on the last word. And that's enough for Jeff and Harvey who finally round the corner. Gregory sits at his table alone, but he turns to introduce Jeff and Harvey to the woman he was talking to, the woman who has seemingly disappeared. I have a huge problem with this. Simply because, look, you said exactly you're all going to hurl.

And then they rush into the room and Greg's like, hey, Jeff, thank you. Oh, where'd she go? It's like, no, I don't care. That's terrifying. Right. Sarah had a very interesting story. Our next stop, apparently. Is Hal. But he's unbothered. Yeah. That's painful, actually. I like them around the corner and hearing this. But yeah, when we get in there, him not acknowledging that or even being...

because he doesn't seem very freaked out about it. He does like, well, she was right here. Yeah, that's strange. No, I would have a much bigger reaction to this. Oh, no, yeah. I do feel like this is like a less successful.

version of the scare in two oh yeah when mitchell's going through the hallway and the girl uh i think it's melissa is on the phone with her mom yeah and she's like no mom you don't understand we're already dead and like that's fucking frightening she's like with us or whatever that was scary like genuinely scary this feels like that and it like you said john paul it is effective to a point that does sound creepy but i'd be like what the fuck did you just say You guys are here

But yeah, that's really true. And it also does make me giggle a little bit that she's like, I haven't been back to New York in 90s. Because it's not good. But Gregory looks around confused. And when Jeff asks who it was, Gregory admits that she didn't say her name. Harvey repeats what they all know. There's no one here. He asks Gregory what he's talking about. is emphatic that she was right here two seconds ago.

Jeff asks where she went and Harvey jokes about his imaginary girlfriend before admitting that she did sound cute, which is a stretch for him. Why are you making jokes right now? And why would there be a random woman here? You guys aren't even open. Yeah. And Jeff seemed cool with it that he's talking to a fan. Yeah, he's like, oh, my God. Good for Greg. We heard the voice change. That wasn't cute. No. No.

Jeff wants to know what she looked like. Gregory says that she had dark blonde hair and she was wearing a gray T-shirt and jeans. He asks if she went past them and Jeff and Harvey truthfully answer that no, she didn't. Gregory insists. that she was right here at another attic meeting Jeff tells Russell that what the woman was saying in the way she sounded was just really strange

After pondering for a moment, Russell takes his seat at the table and confirms that nobody has seen her since. Jeff says that this is true, and when Russell asks if anyone got a name, he says no. Jeff grimaces, though, and needs to be prodded to continue when he says that the way Gregory described her sounded like Sarah Havel because she's the only one.

I'm straight up not having a good time but it could be so many people that have disappeared from this place it could be a lot of people and also if we needed to find out that it was Sarah it would be so helpful if there was a whole film featuring sarah or like if we could google on our phones sarah hovel and be like hey did she look like this it's too bad that they can't do that nope or if isabelle was still here yeah and say hey that's the girl I followed into the fucking yep yep yep

I think I'm sorry if I'm running this thing and I'm insistent on having it here and Russell will get to his fucking motivations later or whatever. It would be a prerequisite that everyone who is on this crew needs to have watched that. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's either going to be a group watch, like you have to sign a waiver saying that you did watch it and that if any of these people are wandering around, you would recognize them or whatever.

I don't know. It's just like, how would you take a part of this in this place and not educate yourself? I get like blissful ignorance or whatever, not wanting to scare yourself before doing it, whatever. But I just think that everyone should be fully informed. Yeah. Well, Jeff didn't even read Faust. Well, Jeff isn't in the play. He just runs the company. Yeah, but it's also your bread and butter, dude. He should.

But Louis turns the camera toward Vanessa, who wears a bewildered expression, and we glitch again to footage of Sarah and Alex in bed. Sarah concealing her body with a pillow when the perverted Paul comes in with his camera to get a peek. We dissolve to Sarah, lying on her back on the floor of the hotel, choking on her own blood. And then her standing in a shadowy corner, red smeared across her face as she stares emotionlessly.

The footage dissolves to black and we come up on the Robert Lyons interview. In his opinion, Russell had his enablers, same as Alex Taylor. There were people around him letting him get away with things and never even questioning it. We see shots of Alex commanding his crew, instructing Mac in the basement, addressing his actors in the hallway. We see a smiling Russell draping his arms around Jeff and Harvey outside of the Abaddon Hotel.

Robert shares that he thinks this is how Hell House met its demise. And so too, insomnia, nine years later. And again, this would make more sense if what I thought was going to happen would happen. Yes. But in her own interview, Vanessa asserts that Russell knew what he was doing the entire time. She nods with certainty before declaring that that's what she thinks people need to know most.

That's where the Russell and Alex comparisons end. Russell knew what was coming opening night. She repeats that he knew it. When everyone got together the night before the opening, she says that it was like nothing had happened. And that's the brilliant.

of Russell Wynn. He created a comfortable atmosphere in an environment where no one had any right to feel comfortable. I thought it was really funny that her saying that about his charm and keeping everybody because earlier when she was talking to him outside of his hotel room she was like everybody's freaking out dude yeah you're right and he was kind of being a dick to her about everything going on there yeah

slammed a door in her face yeah it's like what a charming man i feel so comfortable right now We next join Vanessa sitting with the cast and crew of Insomnia at a table in a bar. Text informs us that it is September 30th, one day until the opening of Insomnia. Glancing cheekily at the camera, Harvey asks Vanessa just how single she would say Louie is. Vanessa chuckles at this, but Jeff changes the subject. He wonders if Vanessa has plans to become a big time news anchor.

And Vanessa is coy. But Harvey asserts that she already is a big time news anchor. He asks, though, in her illustrious career, has she ever interviewed anyone as uptight as Jeff? Has anyone else ever given?

her the Jeff face after a moment of reflection Vanessa giggles that he might be the most uptight but when Harvey pinches up his face in a mockery of Jeff's expression she tells him that that's not what he looks like Jeff maintained that he's just responsible everyone cheers when russell finally shows up dancing his way to the table despite his tardiness i was like who the fuck is this guy this is not who i know

Harvey scoots over so that Russell can plop down between him and Jeff. And when Russell asks if he missed dinner, Vanessa breaks the news that he did by about 30 minutes. Now, the framing of this table. With Russell at its center and Jeff on one side and that crew kind of leaning over and Harvey on the other side and his crew kind of leaning over it did remind me of a depiction of a visual of a certain.

final meal of a certain uh no no ignore it okay okay that one girl's back anyway yeah yeah jane is that's right right but did anybody else get that um No, it wasn't. It looked like a dinner or something, like a last dinner. Yeah. Ignore it. Russell calls over a starstruck server. But when he asks for a menu, the news is broken to him that the kitchen closed half an hour ago. Russell points out that it's only 1030 and the server offers both his apologies and to go ask.

the chef if he can whip something up russell insists that it's fine and instead he asks for some dinner rolls and a glass of red wine to be specific Chateau Latour, preferably mid 80s, maybe 91 if they have it. Obnoxious. It's literally, I'll take a single plum floating in perfume and served in a man's hat. It's like, what the fuck do you think? Do you actually think you're going to get that? Do you know where you are? You're an Abaddon. You're going to die.

informs them that they don't have chateau anything but they do have win merlot Russell dismisses his own wine as way overpriced and settles for the house red. The server disappears to get his drink. He is also... The meal is bread and wine. Sure is. I'm not. I refuse to keep saying. I was going to say, JP is like, these sections of the film. They don't happen. They're just coincidence. Missing reels like Grindhouse.

Vanessa playfully asks what they can attribute to Russell Wynn being amongst the people. Russell explains that it's the last night of normalcy, so he wants to be with his people. Because after tomorrow, it's going to be hell.

again alluding to whatever the server brings a basket of rolls and Russell's wine but as he sips the rolls are snatched up by Harvey Louie Vanessa and Jeff Russell is in disbelief but Vanessa changes the subject she says that Jeff told her that they've already sold out their first week.

She asks how that makes him feel. He thanks her for the question, realizing that she's in interview mode. He wonders why she can't just relax and socialize like a regular person. But Vanessa laughs that that's what she's doing. This was normal conversation. Using a dinner roll as a microphone, Russell turns right to the camera and commends Vanessa on a very good question that he's glad she asked. He says that they're so excited for insomnia. He grins that his crew is ready.

We'll see you tomorrow. He suddenly drops the act and is like, but seriously, I don't think you should come tomorrow. Wait, what? What the hell? Why did you invite us on an all access? Like I. I don't understand. It's very weird. It comes out of nowhere and I feel like this is, it's just, it feels, I don't know, I don't even know how to describe it. It just feels very weird.

It comes out of nowhere. Russell's entire personality in this whole scene comes out of nowhere. Him being playful with the camera, him fucking shimmying to the table. I'm like, what? What? I feel like if we would have gotten this character throughout the movie, then I feel like it would have been a little different. But he's very stern and like, we've got to do this. And no, don't ask about Abaddon. And then we see this little thing.

And we're close to the end. Yes. So. And it would lend credence to Vanessa saying he's so charming. Like everybody just, they, when you're around him, you feel like everything's going to be okay. Or the pranks. Or the pranks. I'm just quote on prank. I don't, I don't, it's confusing. Vanessa is confused. She wants to know why. He said that it was part of the plan that she and Louis come. But Russell offers that they can come and film the dress rehearsal. It'll have the same effect.

Vanessa reminds him that he gave her and Louis full access, but Russell holds her gaze when he insists that they pick another knight. Louis presses in on Russell's face as Vanessa asks him what's going on. Taking a sip of the house red, Russell says that it's nothing. Vanessa asks if he really expects her to believe that, and he says that he does.

The server comes over, asking if he can do anything else for Russell, but Russell doesn't need anything. He says that he's going to bed and instructs the server to hand the bill over to Jeff, and Jeff assures that he will take care of it. Louis zooms in as Russell leans into Jeff and whispers something in his ear. Jeff's face reacts in mild surprise and he asks Russell if he's sure. The two shake hands and Russell gets up, bidding everyone to sleep well and be ready for tomorrow.

Before he can leave the bar, though, Vanessa gets up and goes after him. Their voices are muffled by the music, but she clearly demands to know what's going on. Russell asks her if she really wants to know. When Vanessa nods, he places his hands on her shoulders and leans down to whisper in her ear.

He speaks for a long time and when he finishes and walks away, Vanessa stares after him. She stands for a moment contemplating before looking over at Louis. Louis immediately gets up with his camera and goes to her. She tells him worriedly that... they need to talk to Father Paulus again because she thinks he knows something. When Louis asks what the father knows, she amends the word something to everything.

Again, I'm not trying to spoil anything. We never know what the fuck Russell says to her. We never know what the fuck Russell says to Jeff that Jeff is like, oh, really? We never know what's in the safe.

a nod to lost in translation but i don't think it was really the safe thing is pretty egregious because we do show him opening the box and looking into it and then we cut away he's like good yeah so i would love to know what was in there and then with what how what happens yeah we're never gonna know no

We cut to them in the car where they sit parked outside of the church. Vanessa stares out the window, turned away from Louie, but he continues to ask her questions. He wants to know what Russell said to her. What's going on? He asks her to just tell him something. After a moment, Vanessa abruptly tells Louis to come on.

We see why when she accosts Father Paulus, who is just now arriving to the church. She calls across the parking lot to him as he approaches the doors and asks to speak with him. But Father Paulus quickly tells her that he doesn't have time for that. He's very busy today.

Vanessa accuses him of not telling her everything about his relationship with Russell Paulus opens the doors of the church and steps inside replying curtly that he's sorry she feels that way but Vanessa still has questions she asks if he's receiving any money from russell this makes father paulus freeze why yeah i thought that that was clear he quote

He hired me. Yes. Unprank. I don't understand why this is even a gotcha at all. Yeah. I don't know, but it does make him stop and come and have the conversation. He should be like, yeah, I told you that. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, he did. He gave us that history lesson about some shit and all that. Yep. And she was in the room where Russell is like, oh, he's an old friend. Yep. So I don't know what else there is to know.

Unless what we need is what Russell whispered to her. Yeah. Okay. He's like, Father Paulus is the key to all of this. Stabs her on the shoulder. Good talk. All right. I'll see you later. He turns around and approaches Vanessa and Louis with his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. He asks them, money?

Vanessa says yes, specifically cash. She points out that she can't help but feel like Russell is having some banking issues and that has to do with him moving around large sums of money. Paulus considers this for a moment before allowing. He might be. Vanessa asks what he's doing with the money, but Paula says that he really can't say. Vanessa instructs Louis to lower the camera, but he continues to film their feet as Vanessa purports their conversation to be off the record.

As the church bell rings, she implores him that this is too big to be just between Father Paulus and Russell. She reminds him that he said he knew Andrew Tully was searching for the gateway to hell right here in this town over 30 years.

ago what if he found that gateway and he used it to achieve what he always wanted to cross to the other side and come back and then Russell is having hundreds of people go through there later tonight Father Paula sounds uneasy when he replies that Russell is a very troubled soul. He's carrying a large burden with him. Vanessa asks what that's making him do. And Father Paulus confesses that as of midnight tonight, Russell Wynn is liquidating all his assets and he's instructed Father.

Paulus to disperse them to suitable charities everyone stands in silence for a moment until Vanessa offers him a gentle thank you she and Louis turn and walk back to their car and she can't help but whisper holy shit Louis asks what that means and Vanessa shares that she thinks that this is it for Russell tonight. I think this would set off a little more alarm bells than just Russell's going to do something to himself. Right. Or something. All those people are still there, like she said.

other people are going to be there the crew i know we're worried about him but if he's having all these people there wouldn't it be i'm afraid he's going to do something with all of these people there yes he's literally slashing those prices like you said yeah busting people in getting as many people as he possibly can into this building do we feel like a cult sacrifice yes yes yeah that's what

Has completely thrown because he's like, Russell's a very troubled soul. What have you, whatever. We're getting all these people here. We're promising this crew so much money. that they can't believe they're being paid this much money. It's easy to promise whatever the fuck you want when you're never going to have to pay it. It's just, it's, I don't know, man. I don't know.

strap in okay because we're coming up to the very for me i'll put it on me unsatisfying conclusion it's not just on you no no there's there's some problem In the Robert Lyons interview, he says that Vanessa drops the bombshell story on New York 8's website, breaking all kinds of journalistic rules. That's unethical as fuck. Yes. What she did. Yeah. It goes national within the hour. He says that if Vanessa is wrong, she would have been fired that day. But it turns out she was right.

In her interview, Vanessa is asked if she told Father Paulus that it was off the record. She admits that she did tell him that, but it's because she knew that he was hiding something. Everyone did. Who's everyone? Yeah. What are you talking about? Everyone's been saying that. But she. But she says that she feels like they came so close to getting insomnia shut down before it opened. And she tells the interviewer to just imagine that.

I feel like it wasn't about to be shut down. No, and even imagining that, I don't think it matters. It doesn't make any sense. this is what i mean though i feel like we were setting up for a completely different conclusion yes one that is more in line with the themes with the vibe with everything about this series yeah We cut to the dining room at the Abaddon Hotel. Text on screen informs us. Opening night.

Jane and Max sit together, playfully mocking each other's movements and voices, but their attention is pulled to the TV. So Jane is fine. Yeah. She's laughing. She's cracking jokes. She's ready to fucking perform. Okay. A news reporter played by Joe Walls announces that Insomnia is hours away from opening at its new location in the Abaddon Hotel. But they've just received word regarding Russell Wynn's finances.

They call out the source by name, New York 8's Vanessa Shepard, host of Morning Mysteries. And Gregory looks over at her excitedly. He's like, hey, that's you. I gotta be honest, after I broke all that journalistic, like... My integrity, by the way, is gone. It's gone. But... I'm honestly not going to be here for this. That was wild. That's crazy to also be here. Yeah. I'm going to show up. He won't be mad. He'll be a little mad.

But the news reporter continues that according to Vanessa, who has spoken with the cast and crew of Insomnia, Russell is planning a complete liquidation of all of his assets at midnight tonight. Everyone turns to look at Vanessa with a confused expression and Vanessa looks sheepishly at Louie. She's like, yeah, I did do that.

The news reporter wonders what this could mean for insomnia and the rest of his holdings. But someone switches the TV off. Jane immediately wants to know if they're still getting paid. But Jeff and Harvey look very nervous and quickly leave the room. After shooting a look at Louie, he and Vanessa follow, which again is very ballsy. They go up to the attic where Jeff asks Russell, what the fuck?

Russell just looks down at his phone, unfazed, musing, if you can't trust a priest. But he insists that the report is misleading. He's not liquidating the IP and holdings that fund things like insomnia. I don't understand. Why are we not? Whatever. He's like, no, the show must go on. I'm confused. And if he's not, then he is saying that everyone is still getting paid. Yeah. I don't know man.

But Jeff doesn't give a shit about insomnia. He says that this whole venture has been bullshit. Coming out into the middle of nowhere, Russell's shitty wine. He demands to know what else Russell is hiding. He's really fixed on that wine. But Russell asserts that he's not hiding anything and what he does with his own money is none of Jeff's business. Jeff reminds him that he is the COO of Wynn Media Group. Of course it concerns him. Russell repeats that it's not.

Jeff's concern and Jeff turns away muttering that this is just fucking great Russell is yelling now, asking if Jeff is done because they're opening in two hours. He yells at them to get their shit together so they can have an awesome show. This is the scene that is, I'm sorry, horrendously acted. By everyone involved. I don't know what happened here. I don't know how this made it in because none of them perform like this throughout the film. Yeah, I was...

I'll be honest again, as much as I've been saying I do enjoy the series, I enjoy the movies, this scene was very odd to witness and just sit there and like... It was that. It feels strange because the acting isn't very strong. And I don't know if it's like you're saying they're there. Like, we're going to test this out real quick. And then we can. That's what it feels like. And it was just like, oh, no, that was the scene.

guys just did it that's fine oh okay yeah we only have 11 days yeah but it it is very distracting Harvey is relieved to hear that they're still opening tonight and he and Jeff make a hasty retreat. With them gone, Russell looks across the room at Vanessa and taunts her. Nice try.

We freeze on him for a moment before cutting back to Vanessa's interview. So it feels like you almost got to shut down. Nice try. Like, doesn't that seem evil? Yes. Yeah. I'm still killing everyone. That's what it feels like. She says that Russell was never going to be able to keep that story a secret. But looking back, she admits that it makes sense.

Producer Sam Frost shares that the tapes he found the most interesting were the unseen footage shot by Hell House. We see clips of the Hell House crew messing with props, peering through the boarded windows of the hotel, flipping off the camera. as they walk through the field. It all goes black and text on screen reads April 2009.

We join the Hell House crew at a diner where Alex has presumably just put forth his idea to hold Hell House in Abaddon. Paul is immediately on board because he hates the fucking city anyway and the two fist bump. Tony reminds Paul that Alex isn't saying they're moving there permanently. But Alex points behind the camera to Mac, who's on board, and at Paul, who just agreed. He turns to his girlfriend, Sarah, and says that she's good too.

Tony, the holdout, says that he's in if Lucifer's cabin is out. Everyone chuckles and sighs at this, and Sarah asks for Alex to please tell her they can retire Lucifer's cabin. Alex concedes and agrees and makes sure that Mac has documented everything. And Mac is still documenting when the group walks out of the diner where they pass the last booth. And there sits Russell Wynn.

and a flannel shirt and a pork pie hat. His hands wrapped around the coffee mug in front of him and his gaze forward. But we, of course, freeze and zoom in on him. It cuts to black and text on screen. reads October 2017. Interesting choice of hat. He's like, I'm never going to wear that again. I laughed out loud. Are we just in disguise mode? I love a disguise. I mean, but he is a fucking like famous billionaire. No. Yeah. True. You need the pork pie hat.

At a bar, Jessica reasons that he has seen everything from Hell House. She sits across from Molly and asks, do you want to lead the way to the basement? She gets up and Molly immediately follows, answering, obviously not. She slides out of the booth and follows Jessica out of the bar. But as they exit the door, they pass someone bathed in the cool blue light of the neon sign. It's Russell Wynn and we freeze on him.

I think I'm kind of confused as to what this is even implying. I'm getting like, you know, he's always been the caretaker. Yes. But I don't know exactly like. Take a shot. Thank you. I think for me, it feels like it fits more in line with a nefarious thing. This does not seem like something good at all. Because when I was watching it at this point, that's what I'm still thinking. Yes. Right.

Well, I think we all three were there. Yeah. It doesn't make sense because I did pause the movie myself and was trying to remember the other two. And I only seen the Carmichael house once, so I can't really remember exact details to that one. But the other two I've seen a lot. So I was like, I can try to call back, you know, my memory of those. But I have no idea. If he is watching them, again, that does seem evil. But, I mean, I don't get it. And if he is a watchful eye?

He fucking sucks. Yeah, because both of those groups are no longer with us. Right. And maybe it would make sense with the group before them, but for Hell House, no. No. But now in the bar area of the insomnia set, Jeff warns Max, who has taken his place behind the bar not to put too much alcohol in the drinks. But moving quickly through to the other room, Russell chimes in that the drunkard the guest.

get the better reviews they leave. We follow Russell through the dark hallway and out the door where he pumps his arms like we saw him earlier garnering more cheers from the crowd. he thanks everyone for coming out and announces that the hotel will be opened momentarily deals will be made with the devil god will forsake you he promises that they'll follow as we fall in love and battle with our inner demons into heaven and hell. He welcomes everyone to insomnia before disappearing back inside.

The person holding the camera talks to Gregory before he slips away to his post and the camera person closes themselves behind the gated wall by the wine racks. There is piano when the guests come in out of the rain. One of the guests films as the attendees come in in an orderly line. John T. Piano plays as they're met with the crew member dressed as a bellhop. I've never seen this person in my life. He was cast tonight. He's an understudy.

He hands them white masks and in a British accent tells them that the bar is open and the dining room is ready to serve. One of the guests squeals excitedly as he pulls the mask down over his face.

Vanessa pulls on her own mask as she enters the Hall of Heaven. Max is at the end, portraying Mephistopheles, proposing a wager over the calm music. He asserts that no man can resist evil. He can destroy... what is divine and faust and the earth will be his he muses that faust like all men is a complicated soul who preaches good but does evil In a control room, Jeff paces as Harvey sits with the crew member played by Angela Moyer.

They're told on the radio that Gretchen is clear and Mephistopheles and Faust will be in the witch's kitchen in 20 seconds. The crew member copies. She then radios Max that he's got guests incoming. Jeff leans between them to peer at the screens. He asks if anyone's got eyes on Russell. The last time Harvey saw him he was on the balcony but when Jeff asks where that is on the monitors Harvey says that they don't have a camera there.

Jeff looks nervous and continues to pace, but Harvey chuckles that it's going to be fine. I think that this. production is being backed by a billionaire there should be nowhere that we don't have eyes i think that a lot of this with the lighting and whatnot it was it's a hold over from before they made wrestle a billionaire right and it feels like why don't we have anything on the balcony yeah And so I thought something bananas was going to happen on the balcony. It doesn't.

That is true. You could have went with that route. He has so much money to where there's eyes everywhere and we're seeing stuff freak out or malfunction or what like that. And we talked about... kind of appreciating that aspect of having these eyes in the sky on the paranormal activity too we could have had it here as well he is a fucking billionaire We can only afford one red light. It's like, what? I can only afford, I can't even afford one. This is not me. This is a billionaire. Right.

We get a lingering surveillance shot of the heaven hallway before going to the bar where Vanessa and Louis watch with the other guests as Gregory as Faust leans on the bar. Behind it, Mephistopheles entices him. asking why he is seeking death when he hasn't even lived. He implores Gregory to give him the duration of his stay here, just one fall of sand through the hourglass, and he will be Faust's servant and give him anything.

his heart desires. Faust replies gravely that he doesn't have the power to give him what he truly wants but Mephistopheles invites him to try him and sign the contract. In the control room, Jeff points at one of the screens and asks if the lights are supposed to be doing that. We see the surveillance footage aimed down the stairs. And although it's black and white, you can see the flashing light in the next room. We can't afford color, but.

I guess you don't stay a billionaire. I feel like it makes more sense if Jeff is maybe having second thoughts of being a part of something like this. And that's why he's so. nervous and frantic something that Russell whispered to him when they were in that cafe or the bar but otherwise it's like I don't know why he's acting like this I think that we Jeff is just uptight

And he's just worried that something's going to go wrong. I think that that and it's just manifesting. Is that good? Is that good? Do we have eyes on this? Like, I think that's that's it. It's not deeper than that. Well, it could have been, but it's not. But Harvey says that they are supposed to be doing that. That's the effect. He asks Jeff sincerely to calm down.

In the bar, Mephistopheles hands his rolled up contract to Faust, who touches it with trepidation. He implores him again to stay for just one night. But in the control room, Jeff defends himself. He just wanted to make sure. But he does back off and Harvey admits that he's got him all nervous. In the bar. Jane as Gretchen saunters by and when she catches Faust's eye, Mephistopheles promises that he can truly show him living and that if he's lonely, they can remedy that.

We catch up with the group, Vanessa and Louie, as they press forward past the wine racks. We linger on the wind wine bottles for a while before one of the guests in front of them lets out a startled scream. In the control room. Jeff immediately wants to know what that was. And Harvey is just as confused. He peers at the screen wanting to know what the hell is going on. And he finally says, holy shit.

We cut back to the wine room and see what scared the patron. The black and white clown stands against the wall and the guests have to move past him. He is motionless, but all the same. Louis films his rubber face as they inch. by so we have shitty wine now the clowns upstairs yeah i think we made a mistake yeah big mistake in the control room harvey reports that there is someone in 2c

Jeff asks them to pull it up, and they do. With loud bursts of static, a man in a suit with his back to the camera appears, disappears, reappears, disappears. That is not, hey, there's someone in there. It's much bigger than that. Harvey finally concedes that someone should go find Russell. And after a long sigh, Jeff volunteers. He starts toward the door, but Harvey stops him. He hands him a GoPro with the reminder that Vanessa wants him to wear this at all times out there. I was like, dude.

I would not be thinking about that if I just fucking saw that. Jeff, put on your GoPro. But elsewhere, Russell turns on the camera and aims it on himself, musing that he guesses he's using it after all. Again, whatever. I'm just going to stop. We all know that I wanted a different ending, okay? Yes.

He turns it forward and we see the dim, light-lined wall where Isabel saw Sarah earlier. Russell walks down the hall, passing two masked guests who pay him no mind. I didn't know we could just freely wander. And then they'd be like, that's Russell Wynn. What's that on your head, dude? Nothing. No. But he makes his way to room 2C.

He films around the room, ignoring the glitching of the camera, but we see from the surveillance footage that the man in the suit is blipping into existence once again. We see that standing behind Russell Wynn with his face scarred and hands clasped in front.

of him is andrew tully the one and only fan favorite andrew tully's smirk turns into a full grin when he commends russell brilliant move with the cameras again i'm like oh this is the meeting that you know whatever why russell is wandering around the hotel in the first place but whatever With the bright light bulb hanging from the ceiling jutted between them, he says that they taped everything too when they first opened. I smell a prequel.

And I will say that the light bulb, the bulb hanging from the ceiling is like right in front of. Tully's face I thought this was kind of cool when I rewatched the second one because when Tully is forcing Mitchell to record him the candle light is in front of his face just like this so it's it's a very similar shot okay which I thought was kind of cool

Oh, I thought it was a reference to Titus. The Fox TV show. That's what I thought you meant. I think that was his gimmick, wasn't it? I don't remember, dude. I think it's referencing itself. But it could also be the tightest. He did turn off the light at the end, right? I haven't seen that show in like 25 years. But Russell asks who hired him. Tully just informs him that his role is complete.

He invites him to sit back and enjoy his destiny that's about to be fulfilled. They will all enter the lake of fire together. His voice gravelly, Tully smiles that the beast's time has come around. At last. This is when Jeff hurries up the stairs with the camera on his head. He finds Russell in room 2C, standing alone and dazed. When he asks Russell what he's doing, Russell answers simply,

He's coming. Who? Yeah. In the dining room Mephistopheles reminds Faust that he knows the rules. He can't break the deal. He laughs that Faust's life was an old one, full of dust and moldy books. But Faust yells that this is not it. Mephistopheles asks what it is that Faust wants then. He has until the hourglass has run out. Even through the white masks of the audience, I can tell they're all like, this is the worst $82 I've ever spent.

little underwhelming how is this how is this insomnia yeah it is it is not what i was expecting um That's fucking hilarious. They're like, we drove 2,000 miles for this. Tully walks over and leans into Max declaring he doesn't make wagers for souls. Vanessa turns toward the camera, seemingly confused under her mask. But Tully continues to Gregory that it's far more complicated than that. The roots are far more ancient.

Gregory grabs Tully's arm, demanding, who are you, goddammit? And Tully's voice is deep and distorted when he answers, God is not here. For this moment, did you think that... Gregory was playing along with the play still. I was confused. I took it as he was mad because he's like, hey, you can't come in here doing your bit. We're already doing this. Maybe. I think it was just the dramatic way that he's.

it i was like is he still playing faust who are you god damn it i'm like it's a weird reaction it is Suddenly, the switches flip loudly and everything goes pitch black. The familiar tune of the piano begins to play as everyone stands in silence. In the hallway, Jeff calls out for Harvey in the dark, but the lights... And the crisp tablecloth between Gregory and Max is now stained crimson with blood. Tully holds Gregory by his face, which is nothing but a mess of blood.

everyone screams i think he's like pressing his thumbs into gregory's eyes yeah and not in the good slipknot way like in the murder way But in the control room, Harvey and the crew member jump back away from the screens, ignoring Jeff on the radio. In the dining room, it's pure chaos, screaming and running away from Gregory's grisly scene. Vanessa and Louie run.

too and in the control room so do the crew member and harvey they flee downstairs jeff instructs everyone to get the hell out of here even vanessa when she stops to cry that something happened to gregory he leads her through heaven and instructs the other guests to keep going to the exits, warning that this is not part of the show.

He's going away from the exits to corral people still lingering inside. And Louis and Vanessa follow him through the dark strobing room and into the bar. But when he sees them, he demands that they both get out now. This is a very frightening and stressful situation. But it's also like, goddammit, this is the Abaddon Hotel. Like, fool me thrice. I'm saying. I don't know that I have sympathy for anybody here.

I hope this isn't part of the show. And yeah, you've had time like there. It is just y'all's fault. Yes. The fire alarm mingles with the screaming patrons, but it all fades away to dark ambient droning while we watch through Jeff's GoPro as he slowly descends the stairs into the basement. There, a plethora of cloaked figures. turn in his direction and swarm him. That shot was great. Oh yeah. I agree.

Upstairs, Louie's camera glitches as unearthly screeches and moans echo through the hotel. Vanessa throws herself over the bar to hide behind it, but Louie's camera is dropped on the lazy Susan, panning as the dark cloaked figure. come up from the basement and attack the guests. We see multiple attacks on cell phone footage as the guests continue to scream at the top of their lungs. They are grabbed, overtaken. A woman is snatched in the white halls of heaven and the sheets are split.

But there's simply no match for the skeletal face to cloaked monsters. But back in the bar, the camera continues to spin, catching Vanessa cowering while on the other side of the bar, one of the cloaked figures slits a woman's throat and another figure guts a masked man as he thrashes against the wall.

Their screams echo out into the night where more guests wait to come inside. But the same news reporter from earlier stands there with the developing story. Russell wins insomnia opens at the Abaddon. He reports that it seems like, yes, there is something happening inside the hotel. He says that they've heard an alarm and the sounds of screaming, but he stops when he realizes something else is happening.

The guests pour out of the hotel in a panic, screaming as they sprint for freedom. They try to get away, but some of the cloaked figures have come out too, accosting them in the parking lot, even pulling them out of their cars while it's all captured on shade.

I was like... surprised that they came for their asses outside of the hotel yeah yeah that shocked me too i was like they made they i was happy well you're still on the property i guess if they got them in the corn maze or the cornfield i did notice because i i was like are they coming outside and getting them and when they do get that aerial shot you see a couple of those cloaked figures it looks like they're gliding they're not even walking i was like that's pretty I like that.

But Russell is still wandering the halls of the hotel. He goes into the dining room where people are still screaming and dying. Someone with a slit throat bleeds and vomits on the top of the bar as the lazy Susan continues to spin the camera. Finally, a blood spattered and gasping Vanessa comes out from her hiding spot.

The camera continues to rotate and it glitches when it catches Andrew Tully standing at the other end of the bar. Jaunty music distorts but starts back up as Vanessa continues to walk away. But elsewhere... We watch from a dropped camera as Jane wipes blood from her face and starts to crawl away. But she screams when she's abruptly pulled off screen. Slowly. Slowly. You can tell it was sped up. And it was still slow. In the heaven hallway, a bloodied mannequin loses its balance and crashes down.

But in the bar, Vanessa finally picks up the camera. She's grabbed by one of the cloaked figures and forced down into the basement. We watch from her dropped camera as Andrew Tully stands there bathed in red light. the open portal glowing behind him. The figure brings Vanessa against the wall and slits her throat. She slides down the wall and goes still. I was like, what the hell? Vanessa's dead.

It was so fast and so abrupt. And Louis, I guess, is caught and killed when his camera lands on the Lazy Susan. We don't even see it. Yeah. I don't think we ever see what happens to Harvey. No, he runs out of the control room. Yeah. Never to be seen again. But we continue watching. As Tully turns to someone who has entered, demanding, who are you? You can't stop this. Russell runs toward him glowing gold for a second and the two begin to tussle. Yeah.

The floor in front of them cracks open with the aid of some CG and flames lick up from beneath. The fire spreads and the hotel starts crashing down. What the fuck am I watching right now? This was I. I was truly in disbelief. Tully reacting to Russell running in here made me laugh out loud because it reminded me. Do you remember that? SNL skit when Will Ferrell was Mr. Tarkanian. Hell yes. I love it. I'm actually going to murder you. That's literally the same exact energy.

I and them tussling. That is the that's the climax. Yeah. And the rocks just gentle tussle as a fucking fake fire. I'm going to be honest. I didn't remember this when I had watched it again. And then I was like, oh. Whatever. But there's a lot. And again, I will be honest that I ignore through this movie that. To help me to enjoy it. Of course. A little better. But this is very confusing to what we got with Russell.

And with whatever's going on with this ending, because I don't know what the fuck's happening. Is that all somebody had to do is come down here and try to fight this dude? Gently tussle. I think it had to be the one. It had to be the way. Neo. Yes. We need Keanu Reeves. Make a cameo. I think that's the only thing that can save this.

Outside, the firefighters work to tame the newly engulfed hotel, and we watch through New York 8's breaking news footage as an announcer reveals that all of Insomnia's guest and crew were found in the cornfield behind the Abbey Road. on hotel miraculously unharmed i had to rewind it to make sure that that's what i heard yeah But Wynn Media Group COO Jeff Stone says that Russell Wynn is still unaccounted for. It goes from 9.33 p.m. to 7.08 a.m. where the blaze is finally extinguished.

The announcer continues that a fire broke out sometime during the 8 p.m. performance. It's reported that it started in the basement, but there is no cause and no word on the whereabouts of Russell Wynn. Later, Louis films some of the wreckage and looks up through the smoke at Vanessa. Jeff stands in the field behind her. Louis asks, nothing left, huh?

And Vanessa shakes her head. Jeff understands that he doesn't think he'll ever figure out what happened here. What happened to them? What happened to Russell? He admits that he thought he died. And Vanessa tells him gently that he did. Okay, here's where I have an issue. There is several issues along the way.

I feel like this might have worked better if maybe there wasn't this like frame documentary around everything. And we're just watching as it all unfolds in this film. Yeah. And I also feel like. To me, it's much more satisfying if they literally don't remember. If they feel like they remember the story, they're like, yeah, the play started and then we were... you know right now we're here instead of it being like no we all died yeah yeah so then

The story that's going to go to the media, they're like, well, a fire started at the beginning of the play and then everybody rushed outside. But if everyone that was killed in there has a memory of them being murdered by nameless ghouls who swarmed them, that's a little strange. Yeah, I'll be honest. I am confused as well, but I would prefer that they know what happened.

I would have I honestly them forgetting would be better. But I'm glad that they're at least like we didn't die. Just some crazy stuff happened. It's like, oh, no, you know, you got fucked off. Yeah. And then you came back because of. whatever. But it is this is strange for this to happen. Yes. And they have to remember because it's all on this weird documentary. Yeah. So that's why I just I don't even know how much that really added to the film.

this frame. And it's wild to release a documentary showing the actual murder of a bunch of people. I don't think... like you can do you shouldn't you should i don't think you should do that yeah well but i guess nobody died it's fine it's fine takes these backsies yeah because uh costas mandalore Yes, exactly. But Vanessa continues that Russell brought them back. Jeff doesn't understand how. And Vanessa offers an explanation. It was the car crash. That's why he was here.

We see that shot again of Russell Wynn smiling and giving a thumbs up to the camera. His arms draped around Jeff and Harvey's shoulders. So he's the buddy Christ. Yeah. In the Robert Lyons interview, he shares that what a lot of people don't know is that Russell essentially died twice. Sam says that everyone knew about the car crash because that's how Russell got his scar. But what they didn't know is that supposedly Russell was legally dead for two minutes.

Back at the wreckage, Jeff declares that they can't go public with that. But Vanessa reasons that she doesn't think Morning Mysteries is going to show any of this. This is the scoop of the goddamn century. Yeah. Why wouldn't they? Yeah. And I feel like a billionaire would probably use that as some kind of like, see, you couldn't keep me down. I came back because I'm supposed to make this money or I'm supposed to sell you whatever. I don't.

He was acting at the beginning. Yeah. It would have been his attitude. Yeah. But he was like, no, I've been given a purpose. Yeah. And I'm going to be a dick for the first 45 minutes. Everybody loves me. Yeah. The choice is yours. Robert Lyons supposes that you could say that Russell Wynn went to the other side and came back. If you believe in that stuff. You could say. That's exactly what you're positing.

In her interview, Vanessa is asked if she believes that story and she clarifies about Russell dying in the car crash. We see her in the Abaddon wreckage somehow finding a photo of the Hell House crew. In her interview, she admits that a few months ago she would have said no, but she's reminded of something that Father Paul has said in his first interview. No man could close that gateway.

In the wreckage, Vanessa looks up from the photo and gazes sadly at the camera as her voiceover finishes the thought. It would take an angel from God himself. We rewatched the footage at the bar where Russell whispered in Vanessa's ear before disappearing outside. Robert Lyons adds that the most interesting thing they've learned in the wake of the events is the discovery of a treasure trove of information. the form of tapes and drives found in Russell's hotel room.

We see a photo of Jessica, Mitchell, Molly, and David. As Robert continues that some of the tapes were made available, now they know what happened to the Morning Mysteries people. We're still calling them. We see the photo of the Hell House crew smiling outside of the Abaddon Hotel before cutting back to Robert's interview. He says that the Hell House footage was bizarre, to say the least. The police are calling them. The Abaddon tapes.

With the crackle of static, we jump to one of these tapes where someone flails on the ground gasping for air. When they are finally able to get their legs beneath them, they reach down and pick up the dropped camera. When the person turns the camera... toward themselves we see that it's Paul who pants out what the fuck with the sounding of a low note we cut to black and get the title Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire

We cut back to Paul, who turns the camera down the hall where Alex, Sarah and Mac enter. They look at him confused, but Paul demands to know what the fuck happened. Alex admits that he doesn't know, but he asks if Paul is OK. Paul turns the camera the other way to show Tony come out of one of the rooms. Paul asks, what happened to you, motherfucker? Tony is confused, too, when he tries to explain that he just went down to the basement.

Sarah reasons we're okay now, right? And Alex says that he thinks they are. Paul even chuckles that he feels pretty fucking good. After confirming that everyone is good, Alex proposes that they get the fuck out of here and back to New York. Gentle piano plays as he goes to the front door, and when he can't open it, Tony goes over to help. The group argues about whether the door is locked, but they're interrupted when someone down the hall warns, you can't leave.

When Paul whips the camera around, it's Russell Wynn standing there. He tells them, none of us can. Alex asks, why the hell not? And Russell explains this because they died here and the hotel took them. Sarah asks who he is and he tells her simply, I'm the one who closed the gateway. And you're the ones who helped open it. Fucking rub it in. I'm already dead, dude. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.

Alex asserts that they're not dying here. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Not so fast vest because this is all you. This is all like I know I'm just like don't blame me or whatever. This is all your fault. Yeah. The greatest crime. that anybody else committed was believing in you and trusting you like maybe a little more accountability yeah we're stuck here dude yeah because of you because we trusted you yeah Then they all beat the shit up. For all eternity.

He tries frantically to open the door, but Tony has given up and advises Alex to do the same. Alex breathes heavily as he leans against the door, finally giving up as Tony sinks to his knees. Russell tells them sincerely that he's so sorry this happened to them, but it's time to move on. Really? That's a lot. And then what happens next? Yeah. He walks down the hall. That's it. That's a picture wrap on Russell Wynn. Yeah, that's all the time he had.

He has to go his planet needs him. He ignores Sarah when she tells him to wait. Sarah looks back toward the rest of the Hell House crew with an expression of shock. Footage of her looking horrified during the horrors of Hell House are spliced in. And I was glad to see that the other ghosts were kind enough to give her a haircut because it does look good.

We see Alex, his feet swinging as he fights for his life, hanging from his neck in the attic. A door slams shut. Paul's quaking legs fail him as he falls, dying. But now, under the mocking red exit sign, the Hell House crew has resigned to their fate. So are these the Abaddon tapes or what was found in Russell's hotel room? Because if these are the Abaddon tapes, it doesn't make any goddamn sense because he had to close the gate at the end of what happened with this film. These...

What we're watching right now? Yes. I don't know. I'll be honest. I don't know how we're watching this. But he said that they found all that in his hotel room. Yeah, but not this. This all happened after. It has to be after. Russell's dead. Well, we don't know that. We don't know that. Time is a flag circle. Yeah. The story's there all the time. Somebody is chopping. it together with their real life deaths, which feels pretty fucked up. Louie's here somewhere. He's a tech guy.

After letting it sink in for a moment, Paul proposes, fuck it. Let's see if that bar is still open. Tony agrees, and the two share a secret handshake before they leave toward the bar. Mac follows, telling Alex and Sarah to come have a drink with them, too. But Alex is still leaning against the door, defeated. Sarah walks over to him and places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

When he turns and sees that it's her, he falls into her arms and sobs. She holds him and the two finally share a long look and nods of understanding. Hand in hand, they follow the rest of the crew out of the room and toward the bar. So like is the Abaddon Hotel just like a state of mind? Because this place did burn down. Yeah. So how are they in here? I think Murder House would tell us more, but that didn't really explain shit either. No help there.

Because this is like a purgatory, right? Yeah, I guess. But at least there's no more... bad guys like the poor right right i guess he's like we got a lot of win wine if you want to yeah that's about it he's like i'll sell you one yeah really You don't stay a billionaire giving shit away. They're just putting on productions of insomnia over and over. No, this is hell. This is hell. But it finally fades to black and the credits roll.

So, what did you guys think of Hell House LLC 3, Lake of Fire? I had a lot of fun talking about this movie.

I had a lot of fun watching it too and reviewing it and everything. I do want to say I know we pointed out a lot of... problems we had and a lot of them are very similar i i think uh you know like i said up top i will make excuses for but there's a lot of stuff i can't make excuses for and i mean a kind of performances sometimes and some story elements that don't really line up or that just feel kind of wrong, like they shouldn't be there.

added afterwards it does it it does come through in the movie and it it does hurt it for me but i do really still enjoy this and and i had a lot of fun making excuses for shit that i knew shouldn't be and and whole thing the religious tone behind it and whatever and and i'll be honest for me i'm choosing to ignore it just so that i can enjoy the movie a little better because i do

I'm not sure if the movie's trying to say that Russell is Jesus or he whatever or what's going on here. I want to take that he's just an angel. That's how he was able to still fight Tully and close the gate and whatever and her being like, it wouldn't be a man. it takes an angel to close it. Okay, cool. Because again, if we have Jesus and

I mean this with all respect. If Jesus is as powerful as, you know what I mean, what's going on, the teachings and everything, he should have been able to come in and take care of Tully like nothing. He should have shut this down with no problem. Nine years ago?

yeah or in the 80s yeah it's just all the blatant parallels right and it's like and i think that we all love religious horror here yeah this is not that it feels like why are we doing this right now it feels too big for what this is correct yeah yeah exactly yes yeah and it is that i'm gonna uh shoot an ant with a shotgun

yeah i'm like because tully is just friends with the devil where he just he's he likes him yeah he likes him that's it and even if he has this gate that's able to come in and out you're not some general in hell or you're not whatever you're just some dude like you're just another average demon who's got a door so it it does seem like that's too big of a thing to call upon to deal with this. And then him later being like, oh no, I'm stuck here too.

if you're the son of god you're not stuck in purgatory dude you're like it's hey i'm gonna bring you guys out or look this is where it's at i do have to go because of what my planet needs yeah there you go i'm just honestly i'm very puzzled by the entirety of the ending. Right, right. And honestly, if you're telling me that Tully's got a portal to hell, he's wasting it. This is all you're fucking doing?

Like we only got three movies worth of stuff. That's pretty wild. But I mean, I don't know. I think that there is an odd comfort in even though this is not my franchise right there is an odd comfort and i have returned to them even if i don't really like them very much but there is just something about this one that just feels so like on even on like i don't know the way that it

unfolds it really does like you said nay it feels like the story was almost changed midstream yeah it does because we're we're dealing with these themes of faust yes and this billionaire maybe he made a deal maybe be he it's like to me that would have made a lot more sense yeah this is his creation yes and so yeah he is gonna be doing a play about faust because he's trying to work through the shit that he did exactly it's my creation is it real

Let's watch that. Yeah. But no, I mean, you know, I just feel like this film. It's a deeply, deeply unsatisfying conclusion to the trilogy. I wanted... I don't know. It just is not what I hoped that it would be. And so many creative choices that just do not... work for me that i know i've already outlined a million times throughout but it's just it's a very very strange choice i flat out do not i and okay i appreciate seeing the cast at the end

Yeah. Seeing the cast of the first film all together again on its face is a pretty cool thing to happen. I don't understand how any of that is going on. And so it doesn't completely work for me because I'm like, you know, it's cool to do cool things, but they got to make sense. Yeah, for sure.

I don't think I need to detail everything I didn't like because I think I was pretty vocal throughout. It's just, I think unsatisfying is a good word because I don't hate it. I'm not like, oh, that's fucking dog shit. Don't watch it.

I still got enjoyment out of some of the scares. A lot of the performances were... decent to good yeah um and i love being back in this hotel it's just i feel like you are wrapping up i i've been on board even like i said the bullshit that fucking telly pulled in the second one i was kicking my feet and giggling i thought It was the funniest thing ever. I've been on board. I've been on board. All you had to do was land it. That's all you had to do. And you didn't. It feels like even the ending.

Does not feel on brand for the franchise it feels a little too warm and fuzzy but at the same time It's like oh no like he saved them you guys but like they're trapped here for fucking ever It's like what what are we doing? What are we happy? Are we sad? What are we doing here? I don't like that Russell is like three different characters depending on what part of the movie, depending on who's talking about him.

And then you have to step back and wonder, like, how much did Father Paulus know? How much did Jeff know? Because his reactions to things were like he was on the complete outside of everything. What was in the goddamn box? What's in the box? What is in the box he put in the safe? I'm just left with so many questions and Cognetti, obviously, you know, nothing set in stone, but.

I've seen him specifically state more than once that this is the end. We can go back to the beginning, but this is the end. And the Abaddon is burned down. So I guess it is. I'm left.

unsatisfied yeah i'm left with questions i'm left scratching my head that tussle in the fucking basement it did make me laugh it did give me enjoyment in that capacity because i couldn't believe it was Like... am i being quote unpranked right now yeah i i just i couldn't believe that this is truly how they're like no this is how we're bringing it home yeah this is how we're taking down this fucking evil hotel that's claimed so many lives

This? Him glowing gold and then gently tussling with this man? And then the rocks obscure everything? And then we get the Game of Thrones ending? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's sad. It's worse now. I'm just so utterly confused. And there was an aspect we talked about off mic.

the way that it leads into the original crew, we almost thought it was like a cyclical thing. Yes, yes. Which kind of would have been a little bit cooler. I would have liked better, yeah. But then I guess it couldn't work with this whole I saved everyone thing. And I don't know if I mentioned it on Mike earlier, but also when Sarah was talking to Gregory and they're like, oh, fuck, she likes me or whatever. Why was she saying that to him? It's Sarah.

Well, she's fucking scaring the shit out of Isabel. Like, she scared the shit out of Diane in the second one. Yeah, she did pop up in her face like PT, didn't she? Yeah. But that also, I mean, I don't know if that's just the house using people. Probably. Yeah, that's a fair point. I'll excuse that one. What I don't excuse is Gregory's reaction. No, it's inexcusable. You can't. But yeah, I mean, we can slide into ratings as well, but.

And this one is difficult for me to rate because I really do enjoy this franchise. And I was excited to see this one, even though I had been told it's not up to par. I'm like, I'll be the judge of that. And then I'm like, oh, it's not up to par. Well, you're about to be the judge of that. Yeah. It did give me a greater appreciation for the second one. And I've always really liked the first one. I will say that I gave the first tell house a 7.5. I would rate that.

a full point higher but i think maybe we should wait until we get until we finish um before we start moving things around me right uh so i'm gonna go based off of my scores as they are

And I apparently gave the second one a 6.5, which is mean. We need to do Carmichael sooner rather than later so that I can fix these. But I am having difficulty with this one because it's like... that meme with the kid with the gun where he's like crying and shooting like that's what i feel like because it's like i i really do I have a lot of love for this franchise. And I did like a lot of the scares here. I loved seeing the clown again, despite.

you know, whatever the hell that ending was. I do like seeing the Hell House crew again. I love that shot when she turns the camera and they're all standing there. I love the idea. of Isabel documenting all of this on Instagram and then going back and seeing shit in the background. Be honest, hated the execution. Loved the idea a lot. I loved the scare with the clown in the basement. I thought even the shit with the lights.

with harvey yeah was pretty fucking cool it's not like i wouldn't even i i would still say watch this movie i would still say watch the the trilogy But God damn, dude, a lot of it hurts. That scene, just the performance when they're fighting in the attic. I was like, what is going on? What is this? I think that the climax itself was a little bit underwhelming, if I'm being honest, with just the cloaked figures coming out and stabbing people like.

And there was one, there was one nameless school who looked like he was just rubbing some guy's belly. He was gutting him. Sure. Allegedly. Sure. Um, there, there's just a lot of things in this whole Russell Jesus parallel. I know, John Paul, you want me to stop bringing it up? But I'm just left wondering why. Why? And also, why are we calling people who weren't affiliated with Morning Mysteries the Morning Mysteries crew?

that's that's really yeah which is a really funny thing to me but it's a mixed bag I am open to reassessing once we cover, is it Carmichael Manor? What's it called? I think it's LLC, Hell House LLC Origins the Carmichael Manor. We could not decide on a title. No, you thought this title was long. Yeah, this title's already too much.

Yeah, I'm willing to reassess when we get there. But I will say that Lake of Fire was ultimately very disappointing. It had its moments where it did shine because I just do love this lore and I love. this franchise but overall as a conclusion especially it really disappointed me so based on the previous two scores which I will be changing as of today I am giving Hell House LLC 3, Lake of Fire, on a scale from 1 to 10 brave and blessed billionaires, a 5 out of 10. Okay. I...

still need some time to sit and reflect on what I have seen, what I have been through. And good Lord, this was a hard script to write, but I will now open the floor to you. I think everything you said is perfect. And for all those reasons, I love the movie and I do have problems with it. Yeah. I don't know. I think.

I think Hell House just also Abaddon has a hold on me. Like I do still, I enjoy the shit out of this movie. I would watch it again. Like honestly, immediately when we're done with this, there's, I, I, I know that this one. for me, is not the strongest one of the series. It would still be one, two, three. I mean, it's still in order. I prefer the first two.

But this one, I mean, again, I'd still watch it. Yeah. There is it. And you're right. A lot of the performances, they do give her fine. There are a couple of scenes in the movie that are like, oof, like that was a little rough. And I know the Jesus parallels there. I get it. Like I said, on me completely.

I don't pay attention because for me, it's just like I said, you're right, T. It is just too big of a thing for... what's happening here and if these demons aren't spilling out of the gates and going further than the property i mean yeah so blows off the property this gate sucks yeah because honestly they chased them into the parking lot but if they had went further would they just be shaking their fists

What the hell is this place? So it is weird. That's weird. It's like, oh, that's a... It is a problem, but you can confine that. It's a contained problem. I think your shotgun to an ant analogy is very apt. It is. Because when you think about it... it is just that's a lot um but i'm i'm i i still like this i like it a lot steve stevie steven stefan i'm your boy

I like these movies. I still, again, I'll champion them and I'll whatever. But with all that said, on a scale from one to 10, brave and blessed billionaires. I am going to give Hell House LLC 3 Lake of Fire a 7 out of 10. I, I still, I still like it. Hey, again, I let you boy. I'm Stephen. I'm here. I'm here, baby. Get ahold of me. Call my people. I look, I'm going to keep it brief. I really, really wanted to like where they took this and concluded it. Yeah.

And there are things that are enjoyable. I will always love to hear that little piano theme that they have. Yes. I very much appreciate how. We keep returning to the same location and making it a little different each time in some ways. I like the idea of insomnia. Just not the execution. Yeah. I like the theme of it being a story of Faust. Yeah. That's cool. We don't really do anything with it, but we are referencing something. Right, right.

But for me, I just I feel like everything here is it feels like a watered down version of cooler versions of what we already got. Yeah, that's fair. You know, everything with the clown. way better in the previous two films. This one was just like, oh yeah, the clown's back. There he is. There he is. I think the cutaways are like the staticky.

reminders of if you've been paying attention to the series at all you already know all of this yeah and that grew to be so annoying and such an odd choice it was i have never seen a film do that before found footage or other

yeah it's like what are you doing it just reminds you too much yeah yeah it's like you just don't trust us yeah to remember and there are some that cutaway where it's like it's the hell house llc sign on the ground and they cut away to it also being on the ground i was like you're doing too much But it was that and then the ending, which just, to me, ended up being so confusing. The themes that are attempted to be explored here just do not work for me. And...

I'm sorry. I really hope that there is some kind of explanation to whatever Father Paulus gave to Russell. I don't know why we set this up. I don't know what it could be. I don't know if there's something that I just flat out missed. But I don't think so. If you missed it, we all did. Yeah. Fair.

But yeah, I mean, this has never really been my franchise. I think I gave the first one a six. The second one a five. I would probably revise, and I will in the future, because I do feel like there are some scares that- that really grab you in those first two. This one, I just, there was nothing for me here and I was very upset about it. Yeah. So for me, out of 10.

brave and blessed billionaires, I am going to give Hell House LLC 3, Lake of Fire, fittingly, a 3 brave and blessed billionaires out of 10. Russell will be with all of us. Well, that's all from us at Podmortem. What would you rate Hell House LLC 3, Lake of Fire? And what should we watch next?

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