Learn everything that happened in Hell House LLC: The Abaddon Hotel (2017).

With the fifth and allegedly final installment of the Hell House LLC franchise coming up, that will tie all previous four films together, it’s important to know exactly what happened in all those four films. I have watched all of them again, and I didn’t mind at all, because I love the franchise, especially because it’s found footage and with a mockumentary style, and I have made recaps for every film. 

So let’s pick up where we left off and revisit the second installment of the franchise. 

The Main Characters:

• Jessica Fox: Owner of the blog The Inside that is dedicated to investigate stories that uncover corruption.
• Molly Reynolds: Works with Jessica at The Inside.
• David Morris: Works with Jessica at The Inside and is a cameraman.
• Suzy McCombs: Hostess of the tv-show Morning Mysteries.
• Arnold Tasselman: A guest at the Morning Mysteries show and Abaddon town official.
• Mitchell Cavanaugh: A guest at the Morning Mysteries show and who worked with Diane Graves on the documentary that interviewed Sara Havel (in Hell House LLC (2015)) which  he since has released. 
• Brock Davies: A guest at the Morning Mysteries show and psychic and medium who wants to solve the mystery of the Abaddon Hotel. 

Morning Mysteries

The film begins with a disclaimer that all the footage was edited together by Russell Wynn.

At October 6 2017 Morning Mysteries discusses what happened at the Abaddon Hotel in 2009, when a so-called malfunction in the haunted house attraction was cause for panic and even deaths. With 15 people dead and 7 people still unaccounted for, nobody knows exactly what happened. While Arnold Tasselman says it’s all a hoax, Mitchell Cavanaugh warns people not to go there because it’s dangerous. And Brock Davies wants to go to the hotel and unravel its mysteries. 

Several videos are shown of young people going into the hotel on a dare or for views and likes. The front door always opens by itself and once inside they are trapped and never seen again. One young man Jackson Mallett went to the Abaddon Hotel and disappeared on August 5 2016. His mother Wendy got texts in which he says to come to the Abaddon Hotel, that they were all here at the dining room and that they have no eyes. He says they want him to go with them. He goes upstairs to room 2C and cloaked figures show up and we can hear Jackson scream. On the background the same eerie piano tune is heard. But the strange part is that in a video taken by the Mallett family at Christmas in 1997 shows a young Jackson sitting behind a keyboard in a trance, playing that same eerie piano tune and he says that the Hotel opens in 2009, and to tell everyone. 

After the show Suzy tells the audience to tune in next week when they have Russell Wynn on the show, a wealthy tech entrepreneur who claims he’s been receiving anonymous packages containing unseen video footage from the Abaddon Hotel and he’s been quietly putting it all together. He’s also going to talk about his upcoming site specific play Insomnia. 

Jessica, Molly and David are watching the show and Jessica calls in during airtime and says to Mitchel that if he wants to know where Diane is, he has to contact her. Although he said he would never go there, he also wants to find out what happened to Diane.

Continue reading below this announcement.

Back to the Abaddon Hotel

So Mitchell does contact Jessica. She tells him that after Tully and his cult committed suicide the officials stopped investigating and she accuses the town for covering it all up.

Tully built the house as a maze based on H.H. Holmes Murder House, but that he kept videotapes and photo’s about what happened at the Hotel in the basement. She knows this because she was sent a transcript of Patrick Carmichael, who worked at the time at the Hotel and was a cult member. He missed the suicide party because he got arrested for assault. He says that Tully kept everything in the fridges in the basement. 

Now she wants to get those documents and find proof that Tully and his Satanic cult were responsible for the disappearances of many people. They need Mitchell because he watched all the Hell House footage to make the documentary and knows his way around the maze-like Hotel. 

On October 8 2017 Jessica, Mitchell and David go back into the Abaddon Hotel. Molly stays behind outside on the lookout. As they try to enter, Brock shows up with his cameraman Malcolm. While Jessica, Mitchell and David find their way to the basement they come across a wall with est aperta porta written on it. In the basement they find the fridge and look through all the stuff in boxes. The three clowns are still there, sitting against the wooden fence. 

Brock goes to the dining room where Tully and his cult committed suicide to make contact with his planchette. But even before he starts, something strange happens. Suddenly nooses are hanging from the ceiling, that weren’t there before. When he asks if he is dealing with Tully, the Hell House crew or a missing person, the answer is no. But when he asks if it wants to do them harm, it says yes. Suddenly this same young woman  (from Hell House LLC (2015)) shows up. Brock and Malcolm run and we hear both of them scream and the camera scrambles. 

Downstairs in the basement while Jessica, Mitchell and David are going through the boxes full of documents, we see someone walking past the fridge. Molly then calls them on the radio. She’s upstairs at the entrance. David goes up to get her and she says he called her and told her to come, but he tells her he didn’t. Mitchell doesn’t think it’s safe anymore, so he tells them to pack everything up and that they have to leave. He says they were lured here. 

They try to find their way out but all the exists are closed. They find Brock and Malcolm hanging from the nooses in the dining room. And they start to panic. One exit is blocked by the clown mannequin with the bleeding eyes. When Mitchell says it’s just a mannequin it moves its head towards them and lifts its arm. The exist door shuts by itself with a big force. They run upstairs and are chased by the creepy young woman. They find a chalkboard with their names and room numbers written on it and also the name of Russell Wynn in room 3C. 

They lock themselves in a room upstairs and hide. David has found some footage of Alex meeting an unknown person who stays off camera in April 2009 at the Abaddon Hotel. That person knows Alex has lost the company’s money due to a bad investment and suggest to turn the Abaddon Hotel into a haunted house attraction. This confirms the suspicions of Mitchell who thinks the hotel itself, or something within the hotel is luring all of them for years and that what is happening was set in motion long before that night in 2009. 

We learn in the Morning Mysteries show that there are strange symbols written down in Alex’ journal, like something was compelling him. 

Suddenly the lights go out, and when David turns on the camera light, Molly is gone. They find a note that says that Lovely Molly is in the basement with her friends. They find her there, unconscious, lying in the arms of the clown with the bleeding eyes. Suddenly a portal is opening in the basement and they have to run. While the clown is chasing them. 

Mitchell stumbles upon Sara Havel who is calling her mother and says that Mitchell will join them. He runs and finds himself in the dining room. There Jessica and Molly are tied up sitting in a chair and at the table sit Alex and Mac, like two zombies. Diane Graves is also there at the piano playing the eerie piano tune. At the end of the table stands Arnold Tasselman. The same Arnold who was at Morning Mysteries with Mitchell a few days ago.

We learn that Suzy got a phone call after the Morning Mysteries show that Arnold Tasselman was sorry that he couldn’t make it because of an accident. But he was just here, she says. Now we know that it was actually Andrew Tully who appeared at the show and not Arnold Tasselman. 

Arnold tells him he is in fact Andrew Tully. All he ever wanted was more guests. The Hotel never closed and was always full of guests. The night they committed suicide was the grand relaunch and now he has to keep the dominoes falling to lure people back to the Hotel. He did this with Alex and Diane and now Jessica. It was him who offered Alex the hotel, who sent Sara to Diane’s crew to give the tapes to Diane and he sent the package with the transcript of Patrick to Jessica. He found the Gateway to the Lake of Fire. But it doesn’t become clear what that all means. 

All we know is that cloaked figures kill Molly and Jessica but that he sends Jessica away to be picked up by the sheriff, 5 days after her disappearance. At the sheriff’s office she is asked questions, and eventually she tells him she was at the Abaddon Hotel and that he should go there. The camera gets a glimpse of her dead face. And so the dominoes keep falling. But for what purpose?

In a mid-credits scene we see Alex meeting Mac in a diner and Mac is recording their conversation. It becomes clear that Alex lost the company’s money and that he will fix it and no-one can know about it. 

Conclusion

Key points to remember:

• The footage of Jessica we just saw was thus put together by Russell Wynn. 
• We now know that Andrew Tully is luring people to the hotel and that he has found the Gateway to the Lake of Fire. 
• Andrew Tully lured Alex to the Hotel and proposed to turn it into a haunted house attraction so more people would come. 
• Andrew Tully sent a dead Sara Havel to talk to Diane Graves and give her the tapes so Diane would go to the Hotel and the story about the Hotel keeps on going.
• Andrew Tully also sent Jessica a package with a transcript of Patrick Carmichael, that triggers her interest in the Hotel.
• People who die there, stay there. But for what purpose?

Unanswered questions:

• We still don’t know who the eerie young ghost woman is.
• We don’t know what the Lake of Fire is or why Tully is luring people to the hotel. 
• We also still don’t know where the clown with the bleeding eyes came from and why it can move around. 
• How can Andrew Tully be alive and dead and appear at the Morning Mysteries show?
• How can a dead Sara Havel materialize as a ghost and become physically real, like Jessica?
• Who is Russell Wynn? And what has he got to do with all of this?
• And the eerie pain tune keeps on playing.

Read more about Hell House LLC:

• Hell House LLC (2015) recap
• Hell House LLC: Lake of Fire (2019) recap
• Hell House Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023) recap
• Hell House LLC (2015) review
• Hell House LLC: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) review
• Hell House LLC: Lake of Fire (2019) review