- Directed by Stephen Cognetti
- Written by Stephen Cognetti
- Stars Vas Eli, Jillian Guerts, Joy Shatz, Dusty Austen
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWFMSsBkoN8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
If you liked the previous work in the series, this is more of the same. It’s still skillfully done, but this one has too much talk and exposition. It drags a bit, and the climax is more of a fizzy release than a shocking burst. We didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable this time around.
Synopsis
We are told that footage we are about to see was collected over a period of two years. Wendy is being interviewed about Jackson Mallet who went missing at the Abaddon Hotel. He’d been getting text messages that came from inside the hotel. We watch old footage of Jackson, lost in the hotel two years ago. “They have no eyes,” he repeats. We see black-robed figures in the background and strange piano music.
We cut to 1979 and a very young Jackson, playing that same weird tune. He says “The hotel opens in 2009. Tell everyone.”
There’s an interview show with Mitchell Cavanaugh, the only survivor of the incident two years ago. He made the documentary that we all saw. There’s a guy there that thinks it was just a fire that killed fifteen people, but he refuses to explain why. The police swear there’s no danger there, but they still keep a police presence there at almost all times.
We cut to a livestreamer, trespassing in the old hotel. He sees some things that he shouldn’t. Back on the talk show, Mitchell defends his story against the ghosthunter and Arnold, the politician.
On a different investigative show, Jessica Fox, the investigator, talks to Mitchell. The hotel was based on H. H. Holmes’s murder house, built to be maze like inside. We hears about Patrick Carmichael, a member of old man Tully’s cult who didn’t die. She wants to go inside the old hotel and look inside the big freezer in the basement.
Jessica and Mitchell talk about taking Brock, the paranormal expert, to the old hotel to investigate. Molly goes along, but she’s not happy about it; they leave her outside to watch for the police. We cut to later, and Jessica looks all beat up as she’s interviewed for the police; she’s been missing for five days now.
Back when they were all inside, Brock, Jessica, and Mitchell investigate the place. There are blood stains and a real mess. They find the place where Andrew Tully and his followers killed themselves. They go into the basement and find the weird clowns. They look in the freezer, but there are no bodies. Brock talks to the spirits with his Ouija board pointer, but then they wake something up that they didn’t intend to.
Molly gets a call on the radio to come inside. David says he didn’t call, so she gets scared. They all see some weird stuff and make for the exit, but they can’t find it. And then the clown statues start showing up. There’s no knob on the inside of the door, so they’re trapped.
They finally play the tapes from the basement, where some of the characters from the first film are arguing about Alex embezzling money. Maybe he could set up the Abaddon to make up all that money he lost. The owner of the hotel offers to let Alex use it to give the place “a second life.”
In the modern group, Molly goes missing, and they find a note that she’s in the basement. The three head down there and find her with the clown dolls.
Suddenly, the gate to Hell blows open and everyone runs and screams as the lights fade in and out. They can’t get through the door, and there is more screaming as the clowns approach.
We cut back to the talk show, where the politician argues with Jessica about the local government’s involvement in all this. Brock makes an agreement with Mitchell to go to the hotel; since we’ve seen them there, we know it happened. Politician Arnold calls and says he’s sorry he couldn’t be at the interview; who was the guy on the show?
We cut to the tapes, where Mitchell confronts the politician, Arnold, who is really Andrew Tully, the deceased cult leader. He says this is his hotel. He’s got Alex and Mac from the first film with him. “All I ever wanted was more guests, and you all came!” His death was just the beginning. “We never left!” He then kills Molly as Jessica watches. Tully goes on and on explaining his plans, saying that only one of them will be allowed to leave. Michell sacrifices himself so that Jessica can get out.
We cut back to Jessica talking to the police. She claims not to remember any of it. Then we get a look at her face again, and maybe she didn’t really escape after all…
Commentary
It’s still found footage. There are still clowns, and there are still people investigating. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same as the first one. There’s just soooooo much talking, sitting, and arguing.
It goes from making no real sense for the majority to Tully literally explaining everything. He explains way too much, actually. All the exposition gets a little draggy, and that’s not supposed to happen in the climax.
Meh.