THE INVOKING 3: PARANORMAL DIMENSIONS (2016)

Studio:       Ruthless Studios
Director:    Chris Martens, David Weathers, Calvin Main, Patrick Rea, Kendal Sinn, Ruben Rodriguez, Lee Matthews
Writer:       Pablo Castrillio, Anthony Fanelli
Producer:  Jesse Baget, Steve Barton, Andrea Monier
Stars:     Johnathan Brugal, Garret Marchbank, John Kyle Sutton, Tessa Netting, Margaret Ying Drake, Kurt Hanover, Sally Spurgeon, Jill Szoo, Leandro Arvelo, Jenna Kildosher, Charlotte Armstrong

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Nine short stories tell tales of paranormal experiences involving creatures, urban legends, haunted houses, and horror.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

“The Dark Comes Quick” – March 15th, 2014 – Mictal Mines, San Luis Potosi, Mexico – 3:06am – With Eddie operating a camera, associate professor Julian Lovell and his friend Cooper search for an underground Aztec temple. All three men end up murdered by a band of savage warriors and a monstrous creature.

“The Dweller” – Collingswood, New Jersey – 4:45pm – Alice discovers that a creature lives within the walls and cupboards of her apartment.

“Selfies” – New York – 5:35pm – A woman taking selfies on the street sees a man without a mouth stalking her in the photographs. The man later emerges from her bedroom mirror and takes her phone. The woman wakes without her mouth. The man takes a selfie of the two of them in which he is seen smiling.

“Prisoner at Bannons” – Banner’s Lookout, Lawrence, KS – 12:00am – Newscaster Ginger and her cameraman Lewis accompany Elgin and Carol Grace to the woods where supernatural creatures have arranged to exchange the couple’s kidnapped daughter Maggie for a creature child that Elgin captured. After the exchange, two gunmen working for Elgin ambush and kill the creatures. On the drive home, Maggie reveals that the creatures were only trying to protect her from the monsters that chased her into the woods. Maggie points to a bright light in the sky as the group is beset by unseen extraterrestrials.

“La Dama de Blanco” – Highway to Puerto Piritu, Venezuela – 4:44am – A group of partying friends on a late night road trip plays a dangerous game while speeding on a road rumored to be haunted by The Lady in White, the ghost of a woman who died in a tragic traffic accident. The ghostly woman enters their car and when the driver sees her face reflected in the rearview mirror, the vehicle crashes, killing everyone.

“She Is Not My Sister” – Prague – 1:22pm – Mike rejects his stepsister Karin after his mother remarries. Karin discovers a hopscotch game on the playground outside that leads to another dimension. She returns possessed and insists that Mike return with her through the portal or else he will never see Karin again. Mike smilingly refuses by saying, “she is not my sister.” Karin becomes a pile of bloody clothing.

“Heartbreak and the Dead” – Barrow Home in Jersey City, NJ – 3:00pm – After mourning the strangled man in her bathroom, a woman commits suicide by exploding her gas stove as word breaks of a viral outbreak sweeping the country.

“Bedroom Window” – Akron, OH – 7:15am – Looking for clues regarding their missing son Tyler, Amanda and Steve watch video from a camera in Tyler’s bedroom and see a creature emerge who points the boy to a glowing light outside. As the parents grieve, the same creature starts stalking them from a closet.

“3am” – Brecon Beacons, Wales, UK – 3:00am – Living alone, Georgia is regularly haunted by strange noises and occurrences in her home, particularly every night at 3am. The incidents culminate when Georgia plays a strange jack-in-the-box and a creature emerges from the shadows behind her.

---

Review:

“The Invoking 3: Paranormal Dimensions,” or “Poltergeist Dimensions” if you prefer since the DVD box and title screen can’t agree on a subtitle, follows the format of “The Invoking 2” in that it is a mixed nuts anthology of nine unrelated horror shorts having nothing to do with the original “The Invoking” (review here).  According to the review I just glanced at as a refresher, I saw “The Invoking 2” (review here) twelve months ago, yet even under penalty of immolation I could not tell you a single thing about it off the top of my head.  I suspect in another twelve months time, probably less, the same will be true of “The Invoking 3.”

“The Invoking 3” starts off with “found footage,” unequivocally the wrong foot for endearment to fans fatigued on first-person frights.  Text tells us it is 3:06am, although a character claims it is 2:31am in one more instance of film and framing not being aligned.  A university professor who looks like he could barely pass for a T.A. enlists two buddies to help search for an underground Aztec temple in some Mexican mines.  They get what they came for and then some in a predictable piece that is at least to the point, if light on substance.

In “The Dweller,” Alice discovers that a monster lives within the walls of her apartment.  This segment has so little to it that the preceding sentence is both synopsis and spoiler.

Wordless “Selfies” completes the collection’s first third.  A mouthless man haunts a woman’s photographs until he finds not only a way into her world, but also a way to finally smile.  There isn’t much more to say because “Selfies” doesn’t have much more going on.

The fourth short takes place at Bannon’s Lookout, or Banner’s Lookout depending on if you believe the intertitle introduction or the dialogue.  If there is an “Invoking 4,” maybe someone can hire a proofreader to correct all of the sloppy text that is consistently inconsistent.  “Prisoner at Bannons” has some throwback “Tales from the Darkside” charm with its lo-fi production value for an EC Comics monster mash.  It’s cheap and cheesy, yet weirdly wacky enough to be entertaining.

We’re off to Puerto Piiritu (sic), Venezuela for “La Dama de Blanco.”  Wait, don’t they mean Puerto Piritu?  Question: Can this movie go five minutes without a misspelling?  Answer: No, it can’t.  Get a load of how many e’s are used to spell “Home” two segments later.  Anyway, “La Dama de Blanco” has more minutes than it needs, but is among the better developed bits in “The Invoking 3.”  Being based on an urban legend helps sell the spookiness and its relative depth makes it another standout.

“She Is Not My Sister” continues the foreign flavor with a moody interlude about a brother and stepsister who uncover a playground portal that leads to possession.  It all adds up to a sinister hook, as many good horror shorts often do, though the breadcrumbs leading there are equally intriguing.

After three solid segments, “The Invoking 3” dips back into a valley starting with “Heartbreak and the Dead,” a poorly produced piece with more premises than are useful for the plot.  “Heartbreak and the Dead” is a melancholic stinger about a mourning lover with a secret that feels an inexplicable urge to tack on an apocalyptic outbreak backdrop it doesn’t really need.

Just when “Bedroom Window” appears to be going in an intriguingly dark direction, it stops.  Good start.  Empty follow-through.

“3A.M.” wraps up as another woman home alone haunted by a figure in the darkness short.  After the widespread awareness of “Lights Out,” it’s going to be a long time before this oft-used concept feels fresh or frightening again.

The trio concluding “The Invoking 3” is as unremarkable as the trio opening the collection.  The “in between” three are the only shorts with clear beginnings, middles, and ends.  Everything else is all setup, little story.  “The Invoking 3: Paranormal/Poltergeist Dimensions” gets a good gust of energy from that midsection, though overall it’s an anthology with more middling misses than memorable hits.

Review Score:  50

---