The Escape

Bipolar Mania 2: The Escape is a 2010 Mystery-Thriller film, directed by Howie James. It is the second installment of the Bipolar Mania Saga, and sequel to The Ghost (2010). The film was originally released in August, 2010, but was remastered and released March 2012. The main reason for re-releasing was for poor editing and some unexplainable parts. These errors were all fixed. It stars Shirley Mulvihill, Mia Foster, Avery Taylor, and Howie James.

The film was followed by The Travel Through Time (2013), which was the third and final film of the saga.

Plot
The film opens in a nightmare that Meg Lewis (Avery Taylor) experiences while in bed with her other siblings and a friend (Lucas Hatten). In the nightmare, the kids are shown in bed. The camera zooms in on a ghostly picture hung on the bedroom wall, featuring a woman named Elizabeth. As she sends a wave of cold air toward the kids, Meg sits up and notices the situation. The rest of the kids start to notice the picture, as the ghost of Elizabeth lets out an evil laugh. This scares the kids, and they let out squeals. At the end of the scene, there is a close up of Meg's eye opening wide as she waked up, startled from the dream.

The kids wake up at dawn, scared to sleep any longer. As they make it to the bottom of the stairs, they realize that Josh (Sam Aposhian) has gone missing too, like their mom. He decided to sleep on the couch the night before, because of his strong fear of the picture in the bedroom. Once they see that Josh is no longer on the couch, they sit down. As soon as they sit down, the atmosphere gets darker and more ghostly. The turn to see a giant glowing hole in the wall, which may be the ghosts' home. Meg goes unconcious from fear, and falls into a deep sleep. She begins to dream again.

In her dream, Rita (Mia Foster) and Joey (Howie James) arrive at a campsite called The Owl River Resort. Soon after, Rita mysteriously dissappears from the car. Joey then comes across an older woman named Gimnette (Shirley Mulvihill) and a seemingly familiar looking girl named Dehlihlah (Mia Foster). They say that they are friends and are camping there. Joey tells them about Rita going missing, telling them her description. Immediately, Dehlihlah admits to seeing her across the street, and she then dissappeared. Joey, confused, goes to grab his luggage.

After Gimnette and Dehlihlah go for a walk, they get back to their campsite. Joey comes running back, scared. He explains that he was at the Sugar Shack, a coffee house at the campground, and that he was chased by a ghost that was drinking tea. Dehlihlah says that she has seen ghosts in there before. So she decides to go see what is going on in there.

After Dehlihlah gets back, she says she saw about 5 ghosts drinking beverages. Gimnette says she doesn't believe her, and takes Dehlihlah back to see for herself. When they get there, Gimnette sees no ghosts, but Dehlihlah does. Apparently, Dehlihlah is a long lost Lewis, only she was adopted as an infant.

Dehlihlah grabs Gimnette quickly and pulls her out of the Sugar Shack. She follows, questioning Dehlihlah why she ran away. Dehlihlah is confused, because she doesn't realized that Gimnette doesn't have the ability to see ghosts.

In the next scene, the group sits together at the campsite, and soon experience something paranormal. A twig strangely scratches at their backs. Gimn then has an experience in which her shoe flies off on its own, and she hears strange sounds, such as bushes rustling. Then Dehlihlah calls out that she just saw Rita.

A strange looking ghost chases Rita down the road, but Rita then dissappears with the ghost. Dehlihlah and Joey go inside the lounge to talk about what happened with Gimnette. Right then, Dehlihlah falls to the floor as a wave of energy pushes her. Joey notices, and wakes her up. As they are about to leave, they her more strange noises, such as banging on doors. They leave, and on the way out, a kitchen towel clings on to Joey and he strugles to get it off. It goes over his head, and Joey gets possesed. He chases Dehlihlah away.

After, Joey recoveres with no memory of the situation. Him and Dehlihlah go outside and notice ghost writing on the pavement. Then as Dehlihlah is walking, she is pushed down again onto the grass. She stands up and tries to regain her energy by walking up the road. The atmosphere turns ghostly, and there are a few flashbacks to different points in the film as the dream ends. Meg then awakens in a completely different location then when she fell asleep: A campsite.

Meg exclaims that she has gotten the answer of how to find her mom from the dream. Her and Rita proceed looking for their mom at their summer house. As they try to look for her, there is a rustling in the bushes. They go try to see what is going on. As they begin to creep toward the bush, an apparition jumps up, scaring both Rita and Meg. They run away from the figure. But they turn around and it appears to be their neighbor who played a prank on them.

Later on inside the house, Meg and Rita wake up from a short nap and go to do the laundry. They walk to the laundry room, which is at the end of a dark hall. Meg touches the door to make sure nothing strange happens. But the door creeks open, and a glowing arm quickly turns the lights off. Meg walks in, wondering why her jacket is in there. She turns and looks behind the door, and has a strange vision of a ghost popping out at both of them. They run away and hide in a guest bedroom. An arm similar to the one that turned off the light in the laundry room appears in the doorway. But instead of the ghost, joey walks in with a towel over his arm. He was just going to 'check' on them. The films credits roll, and stated that the story will be continued.

Cast
Avery Taylor as Meg Lewis

Mia Foster as Rita Lewis and Dehlihlah Lewis

Howie James as Joey Lewis

Shirley Mulvihill as Gimnette Norman

Lucas Hatten as Meg's Friend

Andrew Hatten as Meg's Friend's Brother

Production
The idea for The Escape was formed shortly after the first film was made. It was because the first film wasn't good enough to stand on its own. It needed more of a story behind it. This led to making The Escape.

The Lewis' house was at the Foster Films Headquarters, located in Puyallup, Washington. The Campsite was filmed at a house in Lake Forest Park, Washington. The summer house was located near Badger Mountain in Kennewick, Washington.

The picture of the women named Elizabeth was actually a real person who is related to the siblings in real life. She died a long time ago, though.

DVD Release
This film was released along with the three other films in the saga on the Bipolar Mania Saga DVD. This included the bonus feature 'Interviews and Commentary with Shirley Mulvihill'. There were also bonus features for the other films on the DVD.