I loved the first one! The acting wasn't cringe in any way. Now the second one. It's terrible! The acting is painful. And Molly? Who is she related to? Her acting was worse than the high school production of Cabaret I just saw. Those kids should have Oscar's compared to her! When I was younger I used to think I'd never hack it! And the fact that she has this role, this opportunity to bring someone's story to the camera....and she is SO TERRIBLE AT IT! It upsets me.

Now I never hate oh actor's. But this chick didn't even try. And she made me p-o'd this whole movie. I really thing someone should buy the rights and do it better. This story is so great, it deserves a touch up.

First off, I have to say, I LOVED the first "Hell House LLC". I've watched it many, many times and still love it. The characters and character development was fantastic. There wasn't a member of the cast who let down the movie.

I was apprehensive about this one, though. And for good reason. This is the second Found Footage/Mockumentary style movie that from the off we were told it would be a trilogy (Creep 2015) being the other. The second "segment" as I'll put it, failed to live up to its predecessor and that has happened here as well. Don't get me wrong, this was good, but not great. And that is what the original is. Maybe because, without trying to be too harsh, it's a time filler that has to be good enough to keep you engrossed whilst keeping the (what you'd hope) best for last?

Anyway. Up until the first 20 minutes I honestly thought I was in for a dreadful sequel. The "Morning Mysteries" bit just didn't work. I get the payoff (which I won't give away) but it was far too cheesy and forced. The acting was unrealistic and the green-screen thing looked too bad to be true. I know the guys are on a tight budget, but they were on the first too but it wasn't noticeable. It flowed more and you got the feeling these guys were a team, each with their own quirks, but essentially good guys who you could imagine going for a pint with. There was nobody in this one. Not even Mitchell.

A HUGE problem in this one as well is there was no Paul. And I'm not meaning Gore Abrams himself as that's obviously not possible storyline wise, but nobody to take us through on cam who was fun. The girl who played Molly in this so overacted that I can't believe nobody pulled her up about it. She basically came across as fodder for The Abbadon and that was never the case with any characters in the first.

It did get considerably better once we were over the main "Morning Mysteries" segment, but it kept popping back to it now and again and it started to get annoying to be honest.

All in all, I promised myself I'd write a non biased review and here it is. I wasn't completely disappointed, but I just hope Stephen Cognetti has a good script for the 3rd and takes most of the criticism constructively.

It's not a bad effort, but the bar was set by the first and ultimately that can come back ironically and bite you in the ass.

The movie gets a 6 from me and I'll definitely be watching the concluding part.

'Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel' is my second Stephen Cognetti film, the first being 'Hell House LLC', and already I'm beginning to see some trends in his film-making - some positive, some not so. He seems to really struggle with the beginnings of his films and then tends to find his way as it goes along. Also he writes some terrible dialogue, especially in the non-horror scenes. But what saves all this and makes his films extremely watchable is that he seems to be a master at directing horror.

This house/hotel setting that he has created for these films is truly terrifying. Everything about it just works. The creatures moving about inside it, the maze-like feel it has and the feeling of overwhelming dread when a character is in there are just terrific. Not often do individual scare moments get me but this film has one that really caught me off-guard and had my heart leaping. I didn't see it coming and combine that with the imagery and I'm not afraid to say it got me.

If Cognetti can either fix his dialogue and the clunky non-horror scenes he writes, or get a script-doctor in to do it for him and just let him focus on the horror side of things, then he has a big future ahead of him. He has created something special with The Abandon Hotel and I very much look forward to checking out the third installment now.