Review: BnB HELL (2017)

BnB HELL is a somewhat predictable psychological thriller with decent acting and some quality death scenes.

The story focuses on a girl named Willa (Kimberly Woods), who is trying to locate her missing sister. After months of searching, she travels to a Bed and Breakfast called “Momma’s Hollywood Heaven,” which was the last place her sister was seen. The establishment is run by a creepy woman who insists on being called Momma (Carol Stanzione), and is full of oddities, such as hundreds of wizard figurines, and a video camera which has been used by every previous house guest to record a video diary of their stay.

Willa meets the other house guest, Marco (Rudy Dobrev), and they form a fast friendship. Together they investigate the house, and watch all of the video diaries – trying to find proof of Willa’s sister having stayed there. Of course, things don’t go right for long, and the killer is revealed and shows them both exactly what happened to the sister… and every other previous house guest.

BnB Hell tries very hard to be scary and to mislead the audience as to who the killer is, but it just doesn’t succeed. There’s a half-hearted attempt to add some supernatural elements to the story, but they’re never really explained, just alluded to. The film also spends too much time focusing on the bizarre neighbor (Mark Hanau), but we never see a closing to his story arc.

The things that I liked most about the film were the murders. The deaths ranged from night-time chloroform followed by a power drill lobotomy, to a simple throat slash, to the crazed killer breaking down a door and charging the victims before ripping them apart. Some of the scenes were very intense, although others were dulled by predictability and the fact that they were shown via a found-footage style handcam. The two main actors did a solid job, and the neighbor was excellent at being creepy and weird. The music did a lot to increase tension and make up for the simple cinematography.

BnB HELL was written by Andrea Harrison and directed by Andrew Jordan. Overall, it was an entertaining story, but it stumbled a few too many times and left plot lines unfinished. It’s worth watching at least once for the death scenes, but I’d be surprised if you liked it enough for a return viewing.