L'Emprise

'The Entity' is a disturbing account of what are supposed to be true events, obviously they are the usual dramatisation's and alterations to the plot to heighten the viewing experience, but it's still a damn good film.

Barbara Hershey gives the performance of her life as the frightened character of Carla, who grows and evolves as the film moves forward. She is adequately supported by the rest of the cast who all play likable characters, except for the doctor; he just becomes annoying and ultimately ends up looking very stupid.

Unfortunately the special effects have not withstood the test of time very well, they aren't laughably bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they really do look pretty tired now.

Overall 'The Entity' is an under-rated film that is actually one of the best horror movies of the 80's. It has great tension that starts right from the word 'action', it successfully grabs your attention and doesn't let you go and it's very graphic and disturbing in the way a horror movie should be.

8/10 brilliant supernatural Horror

When any film incurs user-comments that are at a 180 degree variance from one to the next, the odds are it is the subject itself which is the catalyst behind the emotion. We have those who admire its technical expertise (at least for 1981) and who recall its fear-factor and professionalism to others who deplore the entire work, branding its laughable script and effects. The truth I suspect lies midway between these inconsistent comments.

To start with there are always going to be a significant percentage of the population who are affronted by the concept of a young girl being sexually assaulted by a ghost for a prolonged period of time....whether it actually happened or not. This, incidentally IS based on a true story that was itself the grounding for Frank De Felita's top selling book. If the notion is a distasteful one, the chances of you liking the film are slim HOWEVER technically adept it is. As it transpires, Barbara Hershey is remarkably good as Carla Moran, the young lady with a problem neither the Police, the Medical Profession or the supposed experts of the paranormal have much luck with. The rapes and sexual assaults are both graphic and quite worrying. Some loopy reviewer likened them to scenes in the SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID films! Huh? I think being taken apart by a psycho with a knife or hook is way THIS side of normal compared to being sexually molested in your own bed! but hey, thats just MY opinion!

For its day THE ENTITY was nearer the edge of hard-core horror than many of its contemporaries. I suspect those who claimed to have "laughed" at the entire thing are having themselves on or at least putting up a front for whatever reason. The film was not laughable! I can understand those who believed the film was exploitive and bordering on the distasteful - but hey, so was SILENCE OF THE LAMBS!

I believe you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this film (a) If you have never seen it or (b) If some reasonably heavy-duty horror scenes appeal to you!

All up I would rate this a 6.6 which probably errs on the side of conservativeness.

Carla(Barbara Hershey) is a mother living happily with his sons,when is spontaneously raped ,sexually molested and caught up by a ominous,devilish horror.And now a possessed mother is plunged by a demonic force into supernatural spirit that mistreat and beat her.Meanwhile numerous rare,mysterious things are happening and a parapsychologists try to help her to get the bottom of mystery and vanquish the malignant entity but her psychologist(Ron Silver)doesn't believe her.The movie is pàrtially based on a supposedly true events.

The film contains restless horror as when the invisible being attacks.Tension,creepy atmosphere,genuine chills,suspense is continued and appears lurking and menacing into house,rooms and car .Great loads of screams,shocks,exploitation and terror abound with the usual poltergeists phenomenon caused by the weird entity.It's recreated with magnificent make-up and high grade plethora special effects by the master Stan Winston which are frightening and horrifying the spectator.The eerie music(Charles Berstein) with an excessive utilizing of synthesizer adds sensation to the spooky atmosphere. The original ¨Exorcist¨(Friedkin)film spread a wave of demonic possessions movies that continues unabated nowadays ,¨Changeling¨, ¨Amytiville ¨(Stuart Rosemberg )¨are two further examples of this sub-genre following a great number of sequels,imitations and rip off.This is one of the highest horror movie of the 80s .The writing credits by the terror specialist FranK De Felitta.The motion picture is well directed by Sidney J. Furie

Carla Moran is violently raped by a seemingly invisible force. She tried to tell the people around her about what has happened but finds only resistance as her family and friends don't believe her as she didn't see who assaulted her especially when she says that her house was locked up when it happened and the assailant seemingly vanished into thin air.

Frank De Felitta's bestselling book based on a true story (the case of Doris Bither) translates very well to the big screen with Barbara Hershey cast as Carla doing a phenomenal job in invoking the terror of a woman going through something very real but undertaken by someone or something very unreal. Apparently Bette Midler, Sally Field, Jane Fonda and Jill Clayburgh were all offered the role but declined.

Sidney J. Furie's film stands alone as a one-off film of a one-off case that most people will have thought of as too much of a tall story to be true.

Carla not being believed can also be seen as an allegory of something that far too many women (and men) go through when they find the courage and strength to report a rape or sexual assault- that their horror isn't over yet as they try to seek justice whilst being met with an unfeeling and cruel judicial system that views their account with scepticism and disbelief. If it actually makes it to a court of law they will be made to relive their trauma. Those opposing them will try to disprove and belittle the magnitude of what they've been through. Or they will try to convince a jury that it didn't happen at all.

The film all too harrowingly shows the full horror of what Carla goes through when she is raped and does a great job of showing the trail of very disturbing signs when the spirit or entity is approaching (objects shaking, a certain odour that permeates the surroundings Moran is in, a very sudden drop in temperature). Hershey's performance, just like the film in general, never slides into TV movie melodramatics or sensationalism.

There needs to be special mention to Charles Bernstein's insistent, pulsating and truly shocking score that is perfect for the movie and it's subject matter. There are also echoes of the music he would write three years later for a new film called A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Also the special effects for the scenes in which Moran is molested by the invisible force are very effective indeed. For one sequence a body cast of Hershey was made that was manipulated by currents of air to make it look like the invisible entity was touching her. It succeeds eerily well. Stan Winston supervised the practical effects.

The effects also come into their own when Carla meets professionals who actually believe her story and work in the field of parapsychology. But to tell you more about this would make me tiptoe into spoiler territory...

When the film opened it was met with protests from those who thought that such a film was exploiting such a serious topic as rape. Hershey actually defended this claim and voiced that herself and the filmmakers had actually worked hard not to make the film exploitative and to display the true horror of sexual assault and rape.

All in all a terrifying film that still feels underrated and excluded from serious writings regarding 80's horror.

THE ENTITY

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)

Sound format: 6-track Dolby Stereo

(35mm and 70mm release prints)

A busy single mother (Barbara Hershey) is inexplicably targeted by a monstrous, invisible 'entity' which emerges from nowhere and begins to assault her on a regular basis.

Based on events recounted in Frank DeFelitta's bestselling book, Sidney J. Furie's compelling shocker takes all the dramatic liberties one might expect of a Hollywood production, though DeFelitta's script manages to establish a genuine conflict between intractable science (spearheaded by Ron Silver as Hershey's disbelieving psychiatrist) and open-minded parapsychology (led by warm-hearted Jacqueline Brookes). Furie uses dutch angles and vivid closeups to emphasize the human tragedy at the heart of the story, as Hershey struggles to come to terms with her fantastical situation, only to be torn between Silver's increasingly ludicrous 'rationalizations' (he concludes that her experiences amount to little more than a sublimated incestuous crush on her handsome teenage son, played by David Labiosa!) and the day-to-day reality of her encounters with paranormal forces. Thankfully, despite suggestions of Silver's romantic attraction to Hershey, director and screenwriter keep a tight rein on proceedings, stripping all non-essential business from the central narrative.

Giving one of her best performances, Hershey is deeply affecting as the simple woman caught up in extraordinary circumstances beyond her control, and Furie stages the various supernatural assaults with frightening intensity, underlined by Charles Bernstein's pounding music score which elevates proceedings to a whole new level of horror. Despite the sexual nature of the attacks, Furie resists an urge to indulge the audience's voyeurism, and aside from one brief nude scene (employing a fairly obvious body double) and a full-body appliance (courtesy of Stan Winston) to depict invisible fingers manipulating Hershey's torso, the film is quite restrained in its portrayal of this sensitive material. The climactic visual effects - supervised by William Cruse - are remarkably poor, but this minor blemish isn't enough to weaken the film's cumulative impact. Listen out for the entity's only line of 'dialogue', as creepy as it is obscene.