O Enigma do Mal

Actually, "The Entity" isn't a haunted house movie as much as it is a haunted person movie since the ghost or "the entity" only follows the main character around. What makes this movie darker than say "Poltergeist" is that we hardly ever see the demon that causes all the trouble. We only see what it does and that's raping its poor victim without remorse.

A story such as this could easily have become campy, especially since it was made in 1981. Surprisingly, "The Entity" still holds up very well. The performances are convincing, the characters are believable and the special effects are reduced to a minimum. The whole script comes dangerously close to losing its balance when in the last third of the movie a team of parapsychologists turns up and has some "really rad ideas" on how to destroy The Entity. However, thankfully the movie doesn't go too much over the top.

The weak points of "The Entity" are that it's not too scary and too long, both for the sake of maintaining veracity since this is supposedly based on a true story. As a horror movie it could have used better pacing and some jump scenes. The score is minimalist in that it's only a thunderous beat that kicks in as soon as The Entity turns up. What worked well in "The Thing" is a bit too little here. The same can be said about the ending. An open ending can be a good thing, but there should at least come a satisfying climax before it and at the end the main character's situation should have changed for better or for worse. "The Entity" kind of just stops without the heroine achieving anything.

A remake by Hideo Nakata is in the works and it seems to be a good idea to hand the project to an Asian director as the rawness of the story would probably get lost in the hands of an American. Here's one original movie that can be bettered as much as it could be worsened. We'll see what happens.

'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

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

I never heard about the case before (and I'm too lazy to do further research) but if this story, like it claims, is indeed based on factual events, then it really is one of the greatest supernatural mysteries in the history of mankind! Barbara Hershey stars, in what unquestionably is the role of her life, as the struggling mother of three children who gets (sexually) assaulted – repeatedly – by an invisible spirit everywhere she goes. The inexplicable attacks naturally affect Carla's social life and pretty soon her sanity as well. When seeking for help, Carla becomes the desired study-object of scientists in several different branches, but none of them really cares for the woman's growing agony, since they're all defending their own obnoxious "theories". The theme and background of this remarkable film are a bit similar to Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "Poltergeist", but that's pretty much where the comparison stops. The supernatural "horror" in Poltergeist is childish nonsense compared to the genuinely devastating and often disturbing footage featuring in this film by Sidney J. Furie. The scenes in which Hershey's character is defenselessly thrown around the room are truly rough and the sight of her being raped by something you cannot see makes you feel very, VERY uncomfortable. Despite the sleazy-sounding premise that, in the hands of other directors, easily could have resulted in an overly exploitative and graphic picture, "The Entity" is very suspenseful and compelling. I'm not even sure this movie fully qualifies as horror, as it feels a lot more like psychological drama and – at times – even like a portrait of pure feminist power. Carla Moran is such a strong woman and determined to survive this nightmare, whereas all the male characters in the story are either stubborn egoists or insensitive bastards. Their insufferable personalities are brilliantly illustrated by the camera's reluctance to picture them! The male characters in "The Entity" are often just voices off the screen or partial faces in sequences dominated by Barbara Hershey's image, which is a really efficient trick actually. You can't possibly develop sympathy or respect for someone you can't initially see and, by the time they fully appear on screen, it's too late already. The film delivers great shocks, surprises, uncanny music and special effects and the wholesome is overall very tense. Whether truthful or not, the screenplay approaches the bizarre supernatural events with great respect and inserts absolutely no humorist situations or satirical disbelief. It's a little hard to stomach sometimes and two hours of intense substance like this perhaps is too long, still, it's an impressive piece of 80's cinema.

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.