Post by masterofallgoons on Oct 3, 2019 16:26:35 GMT
Anybody see either of these?
Watched them both recently. There are obvious similarities as both are found footage movies largely presented as documentaries which are about the 'true' dangers of novelty haunted attractions that are sequels to minor successes of their original films and both operate on the premise that the original 'documentaries' were huge, widely known stories that became cultural touchstones that everyone wanted to know about.
The Houses October Built 2 sets itself apart from the first mainly in that they have a drone this time. They have a whole scene where they give it to their DP/co star as a gift and from then on they use the drone footage constantly. For a lot of the runtime it operates as a genuine travelogue of these people going form one haunted house to the other across the country, with some poorly acted dialogue of pushing the plot forward that only really comes to fruition in the last 20 mins or so. Until that point they show us a lot of other Halloween-ish attractions, which is actually more interesting than the story that this is allegedly about, but also done in a fairly dull way and spends way too much time on each segment and also showing off their ability to use a drone now. There's a scene, for instance, where they run a 'zombie 5k' and it's just an endless barrage of swooping drone shots and annoying electronic music. It's not a long movie, but it really starts to feel like it.
Also, the first movie (which also wasn't anything great) ended with uncertainly and might have been sort of a cool way to finish the story and leave us guessing what actually happened. This movie opens with, I guess, the actual ending of the first movie, without actually answering what really happened. It feels like a cheat, and then the movie sort of ends in the same way, only this time it's clear that they're trying to set up another sequel.
Hell House LLC 2 is meant to play out sort of like a true crime documentary in which nobody knows if the found-footage we saw the first time around was real. There's also a framing device of a local news interview show. A lot of this is just meandering and repetitive stuff from the first movie. It's pretty tedious, and then the ending comes along, and while it's rather stupid it's also kinda crazy. Honestly, it sort of reminded me of Hellraiser Revelations, which is a terrible thing to be compared to, but it reaches into a similar well and is presented as found footage.
This one also is a very deliberate attempt to set up another movie, but in this case it actually maybe will present an opportunity to take it in a wildly different direction, which could be fun. It's damning to say that the best thing this movie does is that it sets up something that has the potential to be much better, but that's the best I can do.
Watched them both recently. There are obvious similarities as both are found footage movies largely presented as documentaries which are about the 'true' dangers of novelty haunted attractions that are sequels to minor successes of their original films and both operate on the premise that the original 'documentaries' were huge, widely known stories that became cultural touchstones that everyone wanted to know about.
The Houses October Built 2 sets itself apart from the first mainly in that they have a drone this time. They have a whole scene where they give it to their DP/co star as a gift and from then on they use the drone footage constantly. For a lot of the runtime it operates as a genuine travelogue of these people going form one haunted house to the other across the country, with some poorly acted dialogue of pushing the plot forward that only really comes to fruition in the last 20 mins or so. Until that point they show us a lot of other Halloween-ish attractions, which is actually more interesting than the story that this is allegedly about, but also done in a fairly dull way and spends way too much time on each segment and also showing off their ability to use a drone now. There's a scene, for instance, where they run a 'zombie 5k' and it's just an endless barrage of swooping drone shots and annoying electronic music. It's not a long movie, but it really starts to feel like it.
Also, the first movie (which also wasn't anything great) ended with uncertainly and might have been sort of a cool way to finish the story and leave us guessing what actually happened. This movie opens with, I guess, the actual ending of the first movie, without actually answering what really happened. It feels like a cheat, and then the movie sort of ends in the same way, only this time it's clear that they're trying to set up another sequel.
Hell House LLC 2 is meant to play out sort of like a true crime documentary in which nobody knows if the found-footage we saw the first time around was real. There's also a framing device of a local news interview show. A lot of this is just meandering and repetitive stuff from the first movie. It's pretty tedious, and then the ending comes along, and while it's rather stupid it's also kinda crazy. Honestly, it sort of reminded me of Hellraiser Revelations, which is a terrible thing to be compared to, but it reaches into a similar well and is presented as found footage.
This one also is a very deliberate attempt to set up another movie, but in this case it actually maybe will present an opportunity to take it in a wildly different direction, which could be fun. It's damning to say that the best thing this movie does is that it sets up something that has the potential to be much better, but that's the best I can do.
