Hell House LLC: Lineage, the fifth installment of the Hell House LLC film series, written and directed by Stephen Cognetti, is ‘supposedly’ the final film of the franchise. Considering the film leaves more questions than answers, a sixth installment won’t be a complete surprise. This time, the franchise abandons the found footage format, a decision that didn’t yield the desired results. The found-footage style shifts one’s attention away from the bad acting and average plot to the unpredictable scares, and that has worked quite well for the franchise. But this time, the unconvincing performances and the lousy script are impossible to ignore. The 2025 film is centered around Vanessa Shepard (from Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire), one of the survivors of the Abaddon Hotel. Instead of running away from the town where she’d almost died, Vanessa felt a compulsion to return to Abaddon and face the demons once again.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Bobby Hopewell targeted?
Vanessa had been seeing a therapist, Dr. Farrell, to make sense of her nightmares. She often dreamt of an abandoned house with a prominent cross, and her therapist strongly believed that seeing flashes of particular places could be interpreted as a trauma response. Vanessa was told that the trauma she’d experienced at the Abaddon Hotel was responsible for her haunting dreams. Her therapist added that several of her patients had been having nightmares, and she believed it had something to do with the collective trauma of the people of the town. Most families had relatives who went missing either during the Rockland County Fair in the 90s, or at the haunted Abaddon hotel. The cases remained unsolved, and that resulted in mass anxiety and severe trauma. Dr. Farrell mentioned Bobby Hopewell, a local who had been complaining about nightmares. His father was one of the many who’d disappeared during the Rockland County Fair, and Bobby was deeply disturbed by the incident. He’d been ‘seeing things’ lately, but according to the therapist, he was just experiencing nightmares like Vanessa.
Vanessa crossed paths with Bobby at the waiting area; later that night, Bobby tried contacting her. He left her a voicemail stating that someone who’d been investigating the town’s past had gotten in touch with him, and whatever they’d explained had affected Bobby. He thought a few sessions with a therapist could help him heal, but sometimes he wondered if it was truly all just in his head, as Dr. Farrell had repeatedly reminded him. He freaked out when he noticed a red ball on the table that showed up out of nowhere. Bobby tried to get rid of it, but when he woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a text notification, he saw the ball carefully placed on the bedside table. He knew something was wrong, so he grabbed a hammer and walked into the basement. Bobby decided to video record the encounter because he couldn’t rely on himself anymore. He saw a black-and-white clown standing in the basement. Bobby repeatedly told himself it was just his vivid imagination acting up, but when he heard the floor creak, he realized his worst nightmare had come true. Bobby’s dead body was found the next day at his house, and Dr. Farrell wondered if her diagnosis had been wrong all along. Bobby had mentioned that he felt a connection with Vanessa during his session, and she thought it was important that Vanessa knew about it. The doctor wasn’t sure anymore if what Vanessa was going through was just a nightmare or if she was actually seeing things.
Later, Alicia, the woman Bobby had mentioned was studying Abaddon’s history, met Vanessa at her bar. She explained that she’d spoken to Bobby, and she believed that his father’s disappearance had a lot to do with the town’s past. Vanessa wasn’t sure if she wanted to delve into the past, but she soon realized that Alicia knew a lot more than she’d predicted. Alicia had started investigating the deaths in the Carmichael family, and she realized that it all started in 1989 when the Rockland County Fair was closing up. A group of inebriated friends were on a pickup truck two miles from the fairground when they crashed into Patrick and Margaret Carmichael, who were returning home from New York City. Patrick survived, but Margaret passed away, and as we already know, her death had a devastating impact on Patrick. According to Alicia, Bobby’s father, Troy Hopewell, was the driver of the truck that killed Margaret, and his disappearance in 1993 during the Rockland County Fair wasn’t just a random unsolved mystery; it was all connected. According to Alicia, most of the unsolved cases in Abaddon had to do with the unfortunate 1989 incident. Everyone in that truck was eventually hunted down, and they all disappeared. But the curse didn’t end there; the family members of these individuals weren’t spared either.
Alicia had noticed a red ball lying beside the body of every victim. She deduced that if one saw a ball, it meant it was over for them, and she was certain that the cops must have found a ball beside Bobby’s dead body. She believed that the evil spirits were determined to destroy the lineage of those responsible for the accident, and she was confident that anyone related to these individuals was in danger. Vanessa went through the list of the individuals who were on the truck, and she noticed Melvin Haskins’ name, a relative of her soon-to-be ex-husband, Tom Haskins. Vanessa tried warning Tom, but he didn’t pay heed to her concerns. That night, the ominous black-and-white clown paid Tom a visit, and we all know how that goes!
What happened to Alicia and the priest?
Alicia planned to put an end to the curse by performing an exorcism ritual at the Carmichael manor. She had requested Father David Flannery to come along with her, but he wasn’t sure if he was up to the task. Exorcising the Carmichaels almost seemed like an impossible challenge to the pastor, and he mentioned that every time someone mentioned the Carmichaels, he was reminded of Robert Frost’s “Ghost House.” It was almost as if the ghosts were desperately trying to hold onto their idea of ‘home,’ and Father David wasn’t sure if the manor was ‘the home’ of the spirits.
Alicia decided to head to the Carmichael manor alone to perform the ritual, but to her surprise, Father David joined her. He was clearly moved by Alicia’s dedication to stop the evil forces from destroying lives. Alicia had assumed that exorcism was the only answer to the problem at hand, but clearly that was not the case. Alicia and Father David ran into evil spirits residing at the Carmichael manor. Their goal was, of course, to scare the duo off, and that worked to an extent. While the priest repeatedly reminded Alicia to not get distracted by the spirits and their ‘antics,’ she couldn’t just ignore them. Father David decided to conduct the exorcism in the living room, where, he assumed, the family often gathered. As soon as Father David started praying, demonic spirits began to appear; they advised him to leave already, but the priest refused to give up. The spirits didn’t seem to be affected by the ritual; they stated with confidence that within the manor only their blood ruled. When the priest continued praying, the spirit crushed his neck and gutted him to death. Alicia attempted to escape, but one of the clowns stood in her path. He rapidly approached her, followed by a deafening scream, suggesting that Alicia possibly didn’t make it out of the manor alive.
What was Vanessa’s connection to the Carmichael Manor?
Vanessa had assumed that she didn’t have a personal connection with the Abaddon hotel or the Carmichaels, but as it turned out, she didn’t know the entire truth. In The Carmichael Manor, Rebecca had found letters stored in a vintage German clock from the Abaddon Hotel that was displayed at a nearby antique store. Among the letters that she’d discovered, there was one in particular that mentioned a woman named Beverly. She was pregnant at the time, and ‘he’ wanted her to be brought back to the hotel. Here ‘he’ possibly refers to Andrew Tully, the leader of the satanic cult that operated in Abaddon. Presumably, the note was written before Tully hanged himself to cross over to the ‘other side.’ So, who was Beverly? In Hell House LLC, a young mother and her daughter had supposedly disappeared in 1989 during their stay at the hotel. Andrew Tully, the then owner of the hotel, was held responsible, though he was later cleared of all charges. We don’t really get to know Beverly, but we can only guess that she was pregnant or had recently given birth to her daughter when she went missing. Considering Vanessa is 37 years old, it fits the timeline flawlessly. Vanessa grew up far away from Abaddon, and her mother chose to never discuss her past, so she had no idea that she had a deep connection to the place. Vanessa had mentioned that her mother was pregnant with twins and that her brother didn’t survive. But the ending of Hell House LLC: Lineage suggests that Vanessa’s twin brother was alive.
Who is Mitchell?
As someone who had stayed at the Abaddon Hotel, Beverly had definitely found out about the cult. According to the note, Tully was anxious about Beverly escaping from the hotel and insisted that she be located at once. Maybe Beverly failed to run away the first time, and perhaps she’d given birth at the hotel. Presumably, her son, Mitchell, was taken away from her by the cult. She later managed to escape with her daughter, Vanessa, and she never turned back. Vanessa soon discovered that Max, the bartender at her bar, also had a connection to the 1989 accident. His grandfather was in the trunk, and just like Vanessa, he too had been haunted by the evil spirits. But instead of waiting for the clown to kill him, he decided to take his own life. Vanessa tried to stop him, but he didn’t listen, and she was petrified when she heard him pull the trigger. She felt a desperate need to put an end to the madness, but she felt hopeless when Max’s ghost told her that Alicia and the priest’s exorcism ritual was unsuccessful. As we already know, Vanessa’s vision caused her to panic, but we soon learn that it also brought her a sense of clarity. She had visions from the past as well as the future, so she was the only one who actually had the power to stop the cult.
Remember in Hell House LLC: The Carmichael Manor when Rebecca and Margot decided to leave the manor, and their car was acting up? Well, as it turned out, Mitchell was responsible for messing with the car, and Vanessa’s vision helped her solve the mystery! Vanessa recognized Mitchell. She’d probably heard about him since he was the editor with Diane Graves’ documentary crew, and later in Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel, it was assumed that he’d sacrificed himself to keep Jessica alive, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the case. Was Mitchell turned into a demonic spirit just like every other person who ended up at the hotel? Or, was Mitchell a member of the cult? Did he join the cult after finding out about them in 2009? Or had he always belonged to the cult? This also makes one wonder who Vanessa and Mitchell’s birth father was. Maybe he was a member who had introduced his son to the workings of the cult from a young age, and was he brought up to serve the cult’s purpose? Given how little we know about Mitchell, we have no choice but to imagine all the possibilities!
Can Vanessa stop the demonic forces?
Hell House LLC: Lineage’s ending indicates that the lonely house wasn’t the Carmichael Manor; it was likely Tully’s childhood house that Vanessa had been repeatedly seeing in her dreams. During the final scene, Vanessa travels back in time and witnesses Patrick Carmichael in conversation with the ‘caretaker of the manor,’ aka Freddie Perkins, one of the three clowns. He mentioned that as long as ‘his’ blood was safely secure to the soil, they would successfully cross over and become immortal. They’d packed most of their belongings in a trunk they had decided to store somewhere outside the hotel (the Carmichael Manor) to conceal all evidence that connected them with the Rockland County Fair. This conversation presumably took place before the mass suicide. Freddie didn’t reveal where Tully’s body was buried because he already knew that Vanessa could hear them. Was it because Vanessa was related to Tully, and his supernatural power had been transferred to her (as well as Mitchell)? The numbers on the back of the photographs were supposed to indicate where the body was located—possibly the coordinates to the grave.
Although Hell House LLC: Lineage is supposed to be the final installment, it ends on an abrupt note. Vanessa is the only one who can stop the demonic forces from taking more lives. She has to find Tully’s body and incinerate it to put an end to what he’d started. The cult members will do their best to stop Vanessa; they will likely use Mitchell to emotionally blackmail her, but hopefully, she will remain dedicated to the cause until the very end. The next installment (if there is one) will reveal Beverly’s connection with the Abaddon hotel and Andrew Tully. It’s likely that Mitchell is the same guy we’ve seen in the first and second parts, but there remains a possibility that he’s someone else altogether (since we don’t get to see his face).
