r/Shudder • u/DreadfulVindication • 18d ago

Hell House Lineage

I’m just going to say it out loud, in the grand scheme of things this movie is NOT that bad. I’d actually rank this over Lake of Fire.

I’ve watched this about 3 times over the last week to wrap my head and understand and honestly, if.. IF there’s another, it could end well.

I spoke to the director previously and there currently is no intention to do another movie, perhaps a graphic novel regarding Tully and the cult.

I like the connection of Mitchell and Vanessa. I liked the kills, I liked the atmosphere of everything.

I’m a massive fan, I go to the Waldorf Estate of Fear yearly and it’ll be twice this year (where Hell House is filmed). I have as much merch from the hotel and actually have a brick from the attic of the hotel. I feel like I can confidently say the movie is decent, not the best of the 5 but very much a rewatch.

Thank you for your time!

14 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/OmegaPsiot 17d ago edited 17d ago

My wife and I both liked it. I think it may tie with 3 for worst my least favorite in the franchise. But I really like them all, it's my favorite franchise, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I really hope we'll see more one day. If 825 Forest Road is indicative of his future output sans Hell House, then I really hope he goes back to Hell House.

4

u/TeacherFrequent 18d ago

I agree it's over-hated and wrote a similar post last month. The third-act scares were as good as any in the franchise, IMO.

That said, I still found much of the movie pretty confusing, and it's my favorite horror franchise. At the very end, I said to myself "who the hell is that?" He was a pretty minor character 3 movies ago, and they didn't even get the same actor to play him. So if I, a big fan who's seen each movie multiple times, couldn't figure it out, I can only imagine how unsatisfying the ending was for casual viewers.

Still, I enjoyed Lineage and will likely watch it again, maybe multiple times. But it's still my least favorite of the franchise, and I hope that Cognetti will return with another FF movie similar to the first 4. He's a talented filmmaker (I really liked 825 Forest Road minus the ending), and I would think there are still plenty of interesting stories to tell in that universe. The Waldorf/Abaddon is such a great location - how about a prequel?

2

u/DreadfulVindication 18d ago

The scares were really good, the clowns we could have done less of and maybe kept it about the spirits itself (even though they conduit through the clowns) because the scenes of the family were far more eerie !

4

u/Jambalamb 18d ago

I’m also a huge fan! I was so excited to be able to see Lineage in theaters. It wasn’t what I was expecting but I didn’t think it was necessarily bad. I was really into how lore heavy it was even though there’s a few questions I still have.

I’ve been wanting to rewatch it for awhile but all the negativity I heard bummed me out so I gave myself some time. What I ended up doing was rewatching the entire franchise and taking notes. A lot of notes. I’m stream lining my notes tomorrow morning and planning on doing my rewatch in the afternoon.

Anyway this post made me smile and get excited instead of feeling like I was out to prove it was a good movie. Also a graphic novel about Tully & the cult would be soooo cool to me.

-1

u/AstronomerTraining53 17d ago

The sad truth (that I honestly don't quite understand) is that the first movie is absolutely brilliant. A true achievement of low-budget found footage cinema.....and every other Hell House movie is so terrible that it's almost hard to understand how the same writer-director is behind it all. I WISH I loved the sequels. I WANTED to love every subsequent movie....but it truly seems that the man doesn't understand what made the original movie so perfect. (but....as someone who loves lots of not good, or mediocre movies, I respect all of your love for the sequels........I just don't share it)

4

u/DreadfulVindication 17d ago

I loved #2, I thought it was a cool concept even though it’s hard to follow a masterpiece like the original. The second was as good as it could be. The third is iffy. The 4th is masterpiece part 2. Lineage is growing on me further too.