WRITTEN and directed by Stephen Cognetti, Lineage is the fifth and final instalment in the Hell House LLC franchise.
And while the first film in the series is one of the very best found-footage horror films you are ever likely to see, this intrusive newbie is a real letdown.
It can’t seem to make up its mind whether its daytime soap opera or ripened drama. Either way, it plods along lugubriously. The move away from mockumentary-style raw footage doesn’t help proceedings, and, if anything, it just magnifies the whole lack of tension and urgency.
In fairness, you really can’t expect to terrorise your audience when all the house lights are on and there’s a flashlight left within hand’s reach on every surface, just in case of a power-cut.
I’m a big fan of the earlier Hell House films, but Cognetti’s latest is a wearied disappointment from beginning to end.
The story in Lineage picks up with Vanessa Shepherd (Elizabeth Vermilyea), who is haunted by visions and recurring nightmares years after a near-death experience. And most surprising of all for the inhabitants of the spooky town of Abaddon, is Vanessa’s return to the very scene of her lucky escape, a place she seems unable to break free from its unexplainable hold on her.
When people around her suddenly and inexplicably begin to die, she soon uncovers her terrifying connection to the Abaddon Hotel, the Carmichael Manor and the mysterious murders that have been occurring for decades, long before Hell House LLC.
The cynic, and hardened horror fan in me, struggles to believe that this will be the very last we will see of Hell House, and honestly, after some of the delightful consternation of earlier offerings and sequels, I hope it isn’t, as it deserves a far better send off than this.
Lineage is a total misfire that sullies the horror series’ previous terrifying glories.
(2/5)