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Editorial · Ranked List

8 Movies Like Hell House LLC

By Alan Willey ·

Hell House LLC (2015) is Stephen Cognetti's found-footage benchmark for dread on almost no blood: a small crew converts an abandoned hotel into a Halloween haunted-house attraction, films the build, and keeps filming as the building turns on them. We score it 7.7 overall with a Fear of 6.8 against a Gore of 1.15, and that gap is the whole point. It is one of the most frightening films in our catalog and one of the least bloody. These eight films are ranked by how close each sits to that specific combination rather than by overall score, so Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) leads on a 7.65 ahead of higher-scored found-footage films that work in a completely different register. Every entry is spoiler-free: what follows describes premise and feeling, never how any of them resolves.

  1. 01

    Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum(2018)

    The closest match in the catalog, and the one to watch first. A crew livestreams an overnight exploration of an abandoned Korean asylum, with cameras rigged to their bodies and a producer back at base steering them toward the room nobody opens. It shares Hell House LLC's exact shape, amateurs filming inside a building that is not empty, and pushes it harder: we score it 8.65 on Fear against a Gore of 1.0, the highest fear-to-blood ratio here.

  2. 02

    The Blair Witch Project(1999)

    The film the whole format is answering. Three student filmmakers walk into the woods to shoot a documentary and the footage is what comes back. Nothing is shown and almost nothing bleeds, which is why it still works: we score it 7.5 on Fear against a Gore of 1.0. Watch it for the same reason Hell House LLC works, mundane footage slowly becoming unbearable.

  3. 03

    Noroi: The Curse(2005)

    A documentary filmmaker investigates a chain of disappearances and cursed sites, and the deeper he digs the worse it gets. It is the patient, investigative end of found footage, closer to a real documentary than a horror film for long stretches, which is exactly what makes the turns land. Not yet curator-scored, so it carries no numbers here.

  4. 04

    Lake Mungo(2008)

    A mockumentary about a family after a drowning, assembled from interviews and home video. It is the quietest film on this list and the one that most rewards the Hell House LLC habit of watching the edges of the frame. The horror is in what was already in the footage before anyone looked closely. Fear 5.0, Gore 1.0.

  5. 05

    Paranormal Activity(2007)

    Static cameras, a fixed house, and a nightly counter that keeps climbing. It works the same trick of making you study an unremarkable frame until something in it moves. Less inventive than Hell House LLC and more patient than most people remember, at Fear 6.5 on a Gore of 1.0.

  6. 06

    Host(2020)

    A séance over a video call, shot during lockdown and running under an hour. The format is different but the discipline is the same, a fixed set of frames you cannot look away from and a threat that arrives inside an ordinary evening. Tighter and faster than anything else here, and at Fear 7.5 one of the most frightening.

  7. 07

    As Above, So Below(2014)

    A descent into the Paris catacombs on headlamps and helmet cameras. It trades Hell House LLC's stillness for claustrophobia and forward motion, so it is the pick when you want the format and the confined space rather than the slow build. Gore 2.55, higher than most of this list but still low.

  8. 08

    El orfanato(2007)

    The one entry here that is not found footage, included for the reader who wanted the dread rather than the camcorder. A woman returns to the orphanage where she grew up, reopens it, and her son starts talking to someone who is not there. Same haunted building, same near-total absence of blood at a Gore of 1.0, and a higher overall score than anything above it at 7.6.

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Common questions

What about the Hell House LLC sequels?
This list is other films rather than the sequels. Only the 2015 original is in our catalog and curator-scored so far, so we have no scores to rank the follow-ups against, and a readalike that opened with a film's own sequels would not be answering the question. Watch them if you want more of the same hotel; the eight above are for when you want the feeling somewhere else.
Why is [REC] not on this list?
Because it works in the opposite register despite matching on paper. [REC] is found footage set in a sealed building and we score it 7.7 overall, higher than most entries here, but at Gore 7.0 and Fear 8.5 it is a fast, bloody, physical film. Hell House LLC is slow and almost bloodless. If you want the format at full volume it is an excellent watch; it is just not what someone asking for more like Hell House LLC is asking for.
Do I have to like found footage to use this list?
No. The Orphanage at the bottom is the pick if the format is the part you can do without, and it scores 7.6, higher than every found-footage entry above it. Lake Mungo is the gentlest way into the format, since it is assembled as a documentary rather than shot as a first-person camcorder film.
Which of these is the scariest?
By our Fear score, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum at 8.65, then Host and The Blair Witch Project at 7.5, then The Orphanage at 7.0. Gonjiam does it on a Gore of 1.0, which is the same trick Hell House LLC pulls. Noroi: The Curse is not yet curator-scored, so it carries no Fear number.