The Entity (1982)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Adam M

  
  I asked myself, could this really be good or just weird exploitation? Scorsese likes it. Maybe because the heroine is like a martyr for everyone who only has to live through traumas that can be explained without reference to the spiritual. It's as though she's been chosen… More
  I asked myself, could this really be good or just weird exploitation? Scorsese likes it. Maybe because the heroine is like a martyr for everyone who only has to live through traumas that can be explained without reference to the spiritual. It's as though she's been chosen for this miserable, unremitting, incurable fate from among her fellow mortals, chosen to be punished from the beyond, while the punishing force savors her mortal helplessness. In this case, the punishment coincides with all her vulnerabilities as an underprivileged single mother. The movie would have been ridiculous without Barbara Hershey's sensitive performance and Stephen Burum's camera angles and perfect framings. They both must have put in a lot of energy. The movie's horror is unisex, since the evil entity has no clear limits in a way the genre hasn't prepared us for. The evil is free to leave her bedroom and follow her around, basically stalking her, threatening her at every turn, seemingly capable of killing or torturing her at whim, with no definite intention. Not sure about the outrageous line of dialogue the ghost had... It seems like a gift to Molly Haskell's thesis about women in the movies. The Entity is a good symbol for the patriarchy though, the invisible, ubiquitous rapist interfering with the progress of a woman's life, while very few believe her.

• Drew S

  
  Okay, so. Barbara Hershey gets raped by a ghost. It's sinister and unnerving and really, really works, between the bizarre industrial soundtrack (which basically sounds like a machine operating very loudly and in two-second bursts) and her appropriately horrified performance. As… More
  Okay, so. Barbara Hershey gets raped by a ghost. It's sinister and unnerving and really, really works, between the bizarre industrial soundtrack (which basically sounds like a machine operating very loudly and in two-second bursts) and her appropriately horrified performance. As we learn more about Carla Moran's troubled past, a sexual abuse victim turned wild child who is literally unable to escape the ghosts of her past, the sense of mystery heightens. Her clashes with her psychiatrist, an unlikely alliance forged with a duo of parapsychologists, and her own financial and motherhood struggles promise a multilayered narrative full of conflict. Aaaand it all goes downhill from there. She gets raped again. And again. In front of her kids. In her friend's house. She gets ghost-fondled while her boyfriend's around, in a scene which is quite clearly aiming for titillation, which is absolutely repugnant. I mean, really, did we HAVE to see her breasts being pushed upon by invisible fingers? I started getting the feeling more and more as The Entity went on that it was just a lurid B-movie, feigning its interest in Carla's psychology insofar as that it lets it film her getting raped some more. I think rape has its place in cinema as a narrative device, but this movie exploits that, and watching it started to make me feel really dirty. Even outside its potentially sordid intentions, the story itself absolutely falls apart. There's simply nowhere for it to go, let alone for two fucking hours. Her psychiatrist turns into an unbelievable douchebag, the kind you see in movies that is obtuse and stubborn and cruel solely to keep the plot moving. Her children become unimportant, her job falls by the wayside, and by the time we get to the ridiculous ending, nothing really seems to matter anymore. Apparently The Entity was based on a true story, in which case it was a terrible story to pick; if this is a cinematic sensationalization, I can't imagine how little there was to its factual base. Hershey's efforts are noble, but she can't buoy this, and after an intriguing first half hour The Entity flies off course. Skip it.

• Lee ?

  
  Well I didn't exactly expect to have the crap scared out of me when I put this in my DVD player but that's exactly what happened! This fact-based supernatural drama is kind of a cross between The Exorcist and Poltergeist and if watched seriously you'll likely find this… More
  Well I didn't exactly expect to have the crap scared out of me when I put this in my DVD player but that's exactly what happened! This fact-based supernatural drama is kind of a cross between The Exorcist and Poltergeist and if watched seriously you'll likely find this a scary, hair-raising frightener. But there are some cheesy effects that may cause you to chuckle. If you enjoy supernatural flicks than this is worth a watch... in the dark!

• AJ V

  
  A powerful true story of paranormal activity, I loved this movie, and I highly recommend it.

• Robert C

  
  As a kid I read the book and saw the film and was thoroughly freaked out by them both. As an adult with a much better grasp on what the term "based on a true story" actually means, I it wasn't nearly quite a traumatic. Having said that, there are still some… More
  As a kid I read the book and saw the film and was thoroughly freaked out by them both. As an adult with a much better grasp on what the term "based on a true story" actually means, I it wasn't nearly quite a traumatic. Having said that, there are still some pretty shocking scenes here and sexual/violent content as well. That coupled with the (Argento-esque) music is really effective in gettng the pulse racing.

• Luke B

  
  Entity is one horror is is very affective at creating the chills and uncomfortable atmosphere a horror should have. The rapes Hershey goes through are brutal and sudden. One of the best parts of this film is Hershey's acceptance that she may indeed be crazy. Unlike other horror… More
  Entity is one horror is is very affective at creating the chills and uncomfortable atmosphere a horror should have. The rapes Hershey goes through are brutal and sudden. One of the best parts of this film is Hershey's acceptance that she may indeed be crazy. Unlike other horror films where the lead blubbers on "I'm not crazy, I saw something" Hershey seeks psychiatric help. However when it becomes apparent that she isn't crazy it becomes annoying at her narrow minded doctors conviction that she is crazy. I really hated him and could only sigh whenever he showed up. It may have been a much better psychological drama where we don't see the attacks so that it really is up in the air about what is real and what isn't. Since we are shown the attacks in all their glory, it simply means that the film takes ages to get to where we as the audience already are. The ending also goes for a big action set piece instead of something more secluded and creepy, and don't get me started on the music. It consists of literally one note during the ghostly attacks. Dom Dom Dom Dom...AAAAHHH it's infuriating. Still this is mostly a very well handled and difficult film.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Barbara Hershey naked.

• xGary X

  
  Creepy ghost story about a young woman who is stalked by a poltergeist, based on the urban legend of "entity rape". A palpable sense of genuine menace is produced, and to this day I can't figure out how some of the inventive effects were done.

• Dr Blood  

  
  Very exploitive and probably miles away from the supposedly true story which inspired it but still very creepy and effective.

• Lady D

  
  A much older film than I'd expected it to be and not scary like people had made it out to be, however the story through the eyes of the main character is a frustrating one trying to prove that the events are really happening and dealing with the situation at the same time.… More
  A much older film than I'd expected it to be and not scary like people had made it out to be, however the story through the eyes of the main character is a frustrating one trying to prove that the events are really happening and dealing with the situation at the same time. What's even more amazing is that this is apparently based on a true story. Worth the watch.

• Brett W

  
  They should have called this movie "people going out of their way to not believe in really obvious paranormal activity". And now, a list of stuff that's awesome about 'Entity'. 1. Mo Green freaking out and running away. 2. Pre-plastic surgery Barbara Hershey.… More
  They should have called this movie "people going out of their way to not believe in really obvious paranormal activity". And now, a list of stuff that's awesome about 'Entity'. 1. Mo Green freaking out and running away. 2. Pre-plastic surgery Barbara Hershey. 3. Casper the friendly rapist. 4. The ridiculously anti-climactic ending. 5. The cool "groping" effects. 6. The doctor who tries really hard to be Al Pacino. 7. The awesome industrial sound effect score that plays every time "the entity" does his dirty deed.

• John M

  
  ¨The Entity¨ is a decent psychological horror thriller that is supposedly based on true events. The direction is stylish and totally works for this horror movie, the acting is very believable specially by Barbara Hershey (who looks great naked) and the cinematography is simply good… More
  ¨The Entity¨ is a decent psychological horror thriller that is supposedly based on true events. The direction is stylish and totally works for this horror movie, the acting is very believable specially by Barbara Hershey (who looks great naked) and the cinematography is simply good BUT the movie turns Interesting at times, but boring at others, because the story has almost nowhere to go and it progresses very slowly. Fairly good horror entry.

• Dimitris S

  
  What a guilty pleasure that is (nope,I am not referring to miss Hershey's recklessly dramatized and innocently bewildered by-mistake ghost/object of affection relationship),folks,b-movie as an urban myth.

• Lee K

  
  i have to rank this movie as one of the top 5 scariest movies of all time in my opinion.

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