Review of The Entity (1982) by Bryan G — 17 Mar 2010

I have a bit of a confession to spill before I go into this review. I had never heard of the film The Entity before, and might have gone a while before hearing about it. It wasn't until watching Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds again, and hearing a particular music cue where my discovery of this film started. During the scene where everyone is discussing whether or not to use Shosanna's theater, Hans Landa (who was responsible for the death of Shosanna's family) enters, and a scary little theme plays briefly as Shosanna realizes who this man is. Well, that song came from The Entity and hearing how creepy it sounded I wanted to know what sort of film went along with it.

Sidney J. Furie's The Entity, based on the novel of the same name by Frank De Felitta (who also wrote the screenplay), is the alleged true story about a woman who became the target of one malevolent spirit. Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey) is home one night, doing her nightly routine before bed when she is suddenly thrown across the room, a pillow is pushed on her face and she is raped. The problem is that the assailant isn't visible, leading her to believe that it was a ghost that assaulted her. Naturally, this isn't something people are quick to believe.

Usually when a movie like this tosses around the idea that the person being haunted might be delusional, that spells disaster for the film. But The Entity does a pretty good job with this. It is established that Carla has had a difficult life. She was molested by her father, ran-away from home and has been in one destructive relationship after the other. But the film doesn't go overboard with this, and manages to add some decent character development with all of it.

The Entity stands as one of the best haunted house movies ever made. While the movie occasionally uses special effects that weren't needed, the movie relatively stays low-key with its ghost activity. The scenes where Carla is attacked are well staged, and very frightening to get through. Hershey was great in the role, and able to garner sympathy from the audience. The film does a great job at keeping her grounded, and as realistic as possible, making her situation all the more horrific.

About the only part where The Entity gets a little silly is towards the end, when Carla teams up with a team of paranormal specialists who think they can physically trap this evil spirit. But aside from that, The Entity is a really good haunted house flick. And the score by Charles Bernstein, who also composed the music for A Nightmare on Elm Street, is very fitting for this film. The Entity ends on a rather bleak note, but it felt right for the film. A surprisingly awesome horror experience.