Studio: RLJ Entertainment
Director:    Jamie DeWolf, Adam O’Brien, Jay Holben, Patrick Rea, Corey Norman, Jamie Root
Writer: Julien Maisonneuve, Trevor Botkin, Dave Shepherd, Haley Norman
Producer:  Jesse Baget, Matt Medisch
Stars:     Asher Kennedy, Andrew Fleming, Shannon Lahaie, Becka Adams, Allen Lowman, Jessica Fratus, Rachel Keefe

Review Score:

Summary:

Six stories of paranormal events include a filmmaker trapped in an abandoned asylum, a killer haunted by his crimes, and an unstable woman home alone with a supernatural spirit.

Synopsis:

U-Turn (2012) – Highway 116 – 3:36am – A motorist picks up a silent woman hitchhiking with her baby. The motorist stops to investigate a fatal car accident on the side of the road and discovers that he is actually the ghost of the man responsible for killing everyone when he fell asleep at the wheel.

Insane (2014) – Wavel Hill, WV – 11:52pm – Sarah Davis takes filmmaker Chad Winchester on a tour of the abandoned Wavel Hills Sanitarium, rumored to be haunted by the ghost of nurse Mary Weaver. Mary reportedly committed suicide after a doctor murdered her baby because he believed it to be the spawn of Satan. Sarah’s great-grandfather is revealed to have been the doctor. Mary manifests and kills Chad. Sarah tries escaping through a window, but Mary uses it to cut Sarah in half.

Alone (2014) – Killington, Vermont – August 24, 2014 – Home alone and electing to not take her medication, Erin confronts a supernatural specter that resembles her. The doppelganger drowns Erin in her bathtub.

Do Not Disturb (2009) – Dartmouth, Massachusetts – May 9, 2003 – Wanted for the murder of 12 women, killer Phillip Davenport hides out at the Sleep Well Hotel. An invisible presence repeatedly knocks on his door and communicates with Phillip by slipping calligraphy cards under the door. Phillip removes the lid of a room service tray to find a severed head inside. The invisible presence continues communicating through cards spit out of the head’s mouth. Having only killed seven women but wanted for murdering 12, Phillip believes the presence is a copycat responsible for the other five. Phillip fires his gun when there is another knock at the door and ends up killing a policeman. As additional police surround the building, Phillip accepts an invitation to join the presence by escaping into a black hole in the room service cart. Two officers enter the room and find only a card that reads, “together at last.”

Natal (2013) – Solon, Maine – June 13, 2013 – Recovering from a suicide attempt, Carissa retreats to her family’s cabin with her boyfriend Tristan and their friends Jess and Derek. Throughout the trip, Carissa behaves strangely and continually thinks she hears scratching in the walls. Derek drives away in anger when it is revealed that Tristan and Jess had an affair. Carissa screams and Tristan and Jess find her bleeding. Jess calls Derek to come back and help. Compelled by the scratching sounds and seemingly possessed, Carissa kills Tristan and Jess. Derek returns just as Carissa stabs at a clawed creature tearing itself from her belly.

Melissa (2014) – Philadelphia, PA – 9:30pm – Melissa calls 911 to report a masked man carrying a knife on her lawn. Somehow, the killer suddenly appears behind her in the house even as she stares at him through the window.

Click here for Culture Crypt's review of "The Invoking."

Review:

Don’t remember “The Invoking?” Didn’t see it? Didn’t like it? Don’t worry, because “The Invoking 2” joins “Troll 2,” “Knock Knock 2” (review here), and “Creepshow 3” (review here) as a horror movie sequel whose only relation to its predecessor is the title.

It’s one of those strategies that can come into play when a distributor believes s/he will have better success piggybacking on a previous moneymaker instead of risking unfamiliarity with a new property. See “Tormented,” the film “Berkshire County” (review here) retitled to look like a sequel to “Torment,” for another example.

Subtitled “Paranormal Events” within the movie itself, but not on the key art, “The Invoking 2” is actually a collection of six unrelated shorts connected only by the commonality of featuring a paranormal presence in each piece. Each story is straightforward enough for a single-sentence summary beginning with “A (person)…”

A man picks up a silent hitchhiker and discovers a disturbing connection to an accident on the side of the road.
A filmmaker and his guide through an abandoned asylum are haunted by the ghost of a nurse who committed suicide there.
A woman home alone is stalked by the specter of her sinister doppelgänger.
A serial killer meets his match when an unseen presence torments him in a hotel room.
A suicidal woman goes on a cabin getaway with friends, but is driven mad by the sound of scratching in the walls.
A girl calls 911 about a masked man on her lawn only to find that locked doors and windows cannot protect her.

Genre film festivals are loaded with short films good and bad, but all of them may as well disappear down a bottomless hole once the projector bulb goes dark, simply because there isn’t a profitable platform to ever present them to the public. Collecting those shorts into feature-length anthologies seems like a no-brainer, since that is the only way a distributor will ever release them, and the only way a non-festival audience will ever find them, not to mention that the movies are already produced and presumably paid for.

From that angle, “The Invoking 2” is to be applauded for taking such initiative and giving lower-profile short projects their turn in the spotlight. At the same time, viewers should know upfront that they are not in for a true sequel to “The Invoking,” whether that matters or not, and they also are not getting an original collection of films commissioned specifically for this project.

Similar to what Dread Central did with “Zombieworld” (review here), “The Invoking 2” combs various vaults from 2009 to 2014 to stitch together its patchwork quilt of scary stories. Re-presenting the previous list, these are the six shorts appearing in “The Invoking 2:”

U-Turn (2012) – Directed by Jamie DeWolf.
Insane (2014) – Directed by Adam O’Brien.
Alone (2014) – Directed by Jay Holben.
Do Not Disturb (2009) – Directed by Patrick Rea.
Natal (2013) – Directed by Corey Norman.
Melissa (2014) – Directed by Jamie Root.

For being a collection of disparate parts, these shorts fit together surprisingly well. There isn’t a mismatch of slapstick versus serious or competent versus cheap ping-ponging all over the place. I made it nearly halfway through the runtime before even realizing the movie wasn’t a formally unified anthology a la “V/H/S,” “ABCs of Death” (review here), or “A Christmas Horror Story” (review here). Credit producers Jesse Baget and Matt Medisch, the latter of whom co-produced the original “The Invoking,” for finding six films with similar looks, feels, and production values.

At only five minutes, “U-Turn” is okay enough as an opener. About the only note to offer is if you don’t see the twist before the main character does, you probably aren’t paying attention.

“Insane” includes effective CGI smoke effects accompanying its apparition, but 16 minutes if too long for its cliché parade. An abandoned sanitarium reportedly haunted by a nurse who birthed Satan’s son. A stray wheelchair sitting in a hallway. A creepy child’s doll discarded on a dusty floor. There’s even a brief “found footage” segment to make sure every trope gets a checkmark.

Too long also describes “Alone,” a two-minute story told in 12 about a woman shaken by sounds in her empty apartment. Watch with a sigh as Erin does dishes, rifles through her medicine cabinet, spies a neighbor checking the mail, draws a bath (twice), and then relaxes in the water. The eventual climax may be a metaphor about confronting inner demons, but the entire affair is too uninteresting to care about its meaning.

“Do Not Disturb” and “Natal” are the most full-bodied and best-produced segments, though “Natal” is undercut by a poor performance from its lead actress. Her dialogue delivery is more wooden than Pinocchio and additionally hindered by apparent ADR looping. She comes across as dreadfully dull, making it difficult to find a tether into her tale.

“Melissa” is over so fast that if you drop something at the start and look down to pick it up, you’ll be watching credits by the time your eyes return to the screen.

Overall, “The Invoking 2” is more underwhelming than it is thrilling. The filmmaking is fine, but the stories are forgettable. However, if other productions plan on taking the same approach to anthology crafting, they would do well to follow this movie’s template of at least finding shorts with similar tones and quality levels, instead of playing Dr. Frankenstein with whatever parts are readily available. Hopefully, they’ll also find more energetic shorts favoring lasting bite over mediocre bark.

Review Score: 50