Before Poltergeist or Ghostbusters, director Sidney Furie presented us with a tale of graphically-brutal horror in the form of a supernatural antagonist in The Entity. During a time when the genre was laden with slasher films, Furie skirted the line between a ghost story (the entity is mobile and not location dependent) and demonic possession (the entity is separate from its victim). In so doing, The Entity is an engaging tale of the battle between hard science and new age logic brought to the forefront by one of Barbara Hershey’s greatest performances.
Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey) awakens one night to find herself being raped by an unseen entity. The violent visitations increase in severity and frequency as Carla’s friend, Cindy Nash (Margaret Blye), flippantly dismisses her claims. She then seeks help from psychologist Phil Sneiderman (Ron Silver), who readily diagnoses the situation as a case of Freudian regression and sublimated guilt. Desperate, Carla contacts two parapsychologists, Doctors Weber (George Coe) and Cooley (Jacqueline Brookes), who endeavor to resolve her dilemma while attempting to thwart the efforts of Sneiderman.
Director Sidney Furie is very delicate with the subject matter, not in creating an ambiguity based upon whether or not the supernatural assailant is real or merely a figment of Carla’s imagination, but rather in how he forces his audience sway to and fro between the rationales for the malevolent presence given by psychology and parapsychology. His challenge becomes convoluted by his refusal to present neutral characters for both parties in order for the audience to approach Carla’s situation objectively. Rather, he issues well-rounded individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses which, consequently, muddies the water so to speak in regard to how the audience perceives the various parties’ assessments of the entity. Also, Furie establishes and maintains a diligent pace which reinforces Barbara’s assiduous drive toward a resolution.
However, there are a handful of heavily distracting weakness with the film. First, there is a scene midway through the film which consists of special effects depicting ethereal lightning as it strikes Carla’s son, Billy (David Labiosa). The work is excessively dated and fails to retain the intensity of the film. The ending, in its presentation and its writing, detracts from the power the production had laboriously spent constructing. Perhaps it is an attempt to disprove the existence of the paranormal (which would negate the effectiveness of the film). Yet, if this was the intent, Furie could have been more creative in providing a more stable, plausible resolution to his otherwise haunting tale (though based on a true story, the work diverges from its source material liberally). This is not to say that the climax negates the film. The work as a whole has a lasting effect due to two primary factors. One, Barbara Hershey’s acting is superb considering she must convincingly portray being molested by an invisible rapist throughout the film. Thankfully, Furie never presents such scenes gratuitously. Instead, with each incidence, our bond with Carla becomes more sympathetic and thus, the audience’s reaction to the diametrically-opposed warring factions yearning to help Carla becomes quite personal as a consequence. Two, Charles Bernstein’s grueling industrial score, which pounds the viewer’s ears during each rape, is devastating and masterfully effective. As soon as the hammer blows begin after the first visitation, the viewer automatically winces in reluctant anticipation of what is to come. Some have deemed it overbearing in its repetition, however, I would quickly retort this is the metaphorical intent.
The Entity is a solid effort which, unfortunately, took a turn for the narrative worst during the final scenes of the film. However, the premise is captivating and retains the viewer’s attention due to Sidney Furie’s pertinacious pacing and Barbara Hershey’s stunningly brave but nonetheless convincing portrayal of a woman being repeatedly raped by an invisible attacker and her efforts to rid herself of her predicament.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with Director David DeFalco (Chaos) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Nathan Baesel (Behind the Mask: ROLV) - January 22, 2015
- An Interview with Bentley Little - January 22, 2015
- So You Want to Be a Movie Critic, Heh? - January 22, 2015
- Fearful Meditations: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Horror Cinema - January 22, 2015
- I Can’t Discuss Glen Morgan’s New Film, [Censored] [Censored], Because Liberty Counsel Says It’s Rude: Race, Religious Tolerance, Ethics, and Aesthetics and the 21st Century Holiday Horror Film - January 22, 2015
- Roger Ebert’s Bloody Ax: An Examination of the Film Critic’s Elitist Dismissal of the Horror Film by Michael “Egregious” Gurnow - January 22, 2015
- Defending the King: An Examination of Academia’s Reaction to Stephen King Being Awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters - January 22, 2015
- Zarathustra . . . Cthulhu . Meursault: Existential Futility in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” - January 22, 2015
- The Evil - January 18, 2015
