La Entidad

LA ENTIDAD AKA THE ENTITY is a Peruvian entry into the found footage genre, a story about a group of students pursuing a film project for school who are unexpectedly pulled into the ambit of an ancient demonic curse.

This kind of story has been told by now countless times in found footage movies, but the angle of the protagonists wanting to make a film about reaction videos is new. In one scene at the beginning, they show a reaction video of severely distraught audience members without showing what they are watching. I thought to myself what might induce such a strong emotional reaction, and to the movie's credit, it actually delivers on giving a convincing explanation by the end.

Beside this, the strongest aspect of this film is the atmospheric footage of the cemetery, thanks to its exquisitely creepy architecture. It made me realize that if a horror movie features such a location, great care should be taken in selecting a good one: not all cemeteries are equally well suited for horror!

Unfortunately, the movie is dragged down by the generic nature of the story and the nonsensical explanation provided. Many scenes reminded me of previous and better horror movies, curiously all of them older, such as THE EXORCIST (1973), SALEM'S LOT (1979), THE FOG (1980), and THE RING (2005).

There is some social commentary buried in the movie concerning Peru's history and religion, but not much is made with it. For example, the story origin practically begs for at least one non-christian character in order for the film to explore the scope of the curse, but apparently Peruvians are all Catholic.

There is a twist, but it is telegraphed early and it really doesn't add up: if it is taken seriously, then the ex should not have any exes!

The special effects were not great but not bad either; the movie had potential but failed to realize it, mainly due to an unimaginative screenplay.

The actors in the film played their part great. I like the character Benjamin since he was the joker of the bunch. Throughout the whole movie you're trying to figure out what's going on. About halfway if you pay attention you can tell who's going to die and who's not. This reminds me of the movie The Ring. Wish they showed the monster more and in full detail. What we got was grainy shots or an invisible force.

"La Entidad" is well shot, well acted, and most of the special effects are decent. The story had potential, as did the twist, but it quickly becomes repetitive and easy to predict.

There is next to no variation in the scary parts. The same thing just happens over and over and over again to the point where you become desensitized. It loses all effectiveness before the halfway point. Clearly, the creators had a good idea for a premise but should have spent more time fleshing out the script.

Another case of a half-baked feature length found footage film that should have only been about 45-50 minutes long.

Another thing that bothered me was that nearly every time the camera cuts to another POV or scene, there is a quiet burst of digital white noise. It got annoying really quickly and served absolutely no purpose. Also, the sound of the entity was not mixed into the audio well. It was clearly just digital effects added in post. There is a way to make it seem like its actually happening within the world of the movie, but it was just your typical "spooky whispering" with lots of reverb and cliche monster noises slapped on top of the recorded audio.

Not terrible, but kind of a waste of time.

The concept does play on familiar and popular themes in this branch of the horror genre, the more classic, Gothic tales of evil begetting evil, but instead of feeling redundant, "The Entity" is entertaining. The cast are very committed to their characters, and give decent performances. There are times when they come off as more "acting" than authentic but it isn't enough to bring down the atmosphere that Eduardo Schuldt creates in "The Entity". Plus there is enough of those reactionary scenes mixed in with the character building moments to keep things thrilling. Some characters are more captivating than others, I was partial toward Benjamin, and Lucas.

The special effects are the expected blend of spooky, paranormal CGI and practical gore which really work well in "The Entity". The demon is never defined to the level that becomes hokey, or ridiculous. It actually maintains a creepy, shadowy presence reminiscent of haunting stories. Only you can tell this isn't some vengeful spirit, it is a demonic "thing" that is blood thirsty. The gore is visceral and somewhat celebrated in the scenes surrounding deaths of the doomed cast. A real plus for "The Entity".

Overall I enjoyed "The Entity". The very beginning gives an impression of "oh another found footage horror" so I was quick to not think I was going to like the film. However within 20 minutes I was already digging the atmosphere, the themes, and the controlled, well constructed way that Eduardo Schuldt utilizes the blend of video diary, found footage within the "film student" concept. True at times it doesn't quite feel all that compliant with traditional found footage style, the shots aren't as grainy or choppy as you normally get, everything seems pretty HD here and too concise, but the movie was entertaining, thrilling and full of screams and blood so I was happy.

My initial reaction to a foreign language, found footage style film was one of disinterest & after the first few minutes of watching it, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about continuing. But I'm glad I did. I can always tell that I'm watching a good foreign language film when I forget that I'm reading the subtitles because I'm so wrapped up in the plot. Don't get me wrong, the film isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. It doesn't really add anything new to an already too common genre of horror. But it works. The cast do a good job & the plot managed to keep my interest throughout. If you're like myself & are willing to give any horror film a go, then I'd recommend checking this out. It won't win any awards but it's a hell of a lot better than some of the recent found footage horrors I've seen of late.