Something evil is after Carla Moran, and it will stop at nothing to get her.
Directed by Sidney J. Furie.
Written by Frank De Felitta.
Based on a true story that happened to a woman called Doris Bither in the 70s.
Described by the director, Sidney J. Furie, as a “supernatural suspense movie”, The Entity stars Barbara Hershey as single mom and minister’s daughter Carla Moran. Carla lives with her son Billy (David Labiosa) and two daughters, Julie (Natasha Ryan) and Kim (Melanie Gaffin).
Carla is raped by the entity and flees the house with her children, seeking refuge at her friend Cindy’s apartment. The next morning she tells Cindy (Margaret Blye) what happened and Cindy suggests that she see a psychiatrist, Carla is reluctant. The family return home and Cindy comes to stay to support Carla.
When the entity forces Carla to lose control of her car she decides to meet with Dr. Phil Sneiderman (Ron Silver). Dr. Sneiderman quizzes the understandably distraught Carla.
Carla is raped again and examined for marks. Again, she has to try and explain what happened to Dr. Sneiderman. Dr. Sneiderman thinks she’s suffering from psychological problems, delusions.
The next time Carla is attacked, Billy experiences the entity firsthand when he tries to help his mom and it breaks his wrist. Interestingly the real-life Carla Moran’s son broke his arm when he was trying to help his mom. Spooky! Carla meets with Dr. Sneiderman and a team of typically sceptical doctors, the most arrogant of which, Dr. Weber (George Coe), thinks Carla’s simply “masturbating”. Very helpful.
Carla spends some time with her lover Jerry (Alex Rocco) and continues to be abused by the entity which even manages to give her an unwanted orgasm in her sleep. Dr. Sneiderman continues to try and reason with Carla, upsetting her when he suggests she may have repressed desires for her own son.
When Cindy and her husband George (Michael Alldredge) witness activity themselves, Carla and Cindy go to a bookstore to do some research. There, Cindy meets two parapsychologists, Joe Mehan (Raymond Singer) and Gene Kraft (Richard Brestoff), who begin an investigation in her home.
A superb film. I particularly like the pounding music that announces the presence of the entity. It’s a very interesting story and well-acted, Hershey and Silver are both great in their roles. It’s two hours long so the story and acting are all the more impressive in that it never drags. It does contain fairly intense scenes of supernatural rape and they’re really well done. The conclusion is satisfying and utterly chilling in the final moments.
The Entity is one of two Frank De Felitta novels to be made into a film in the 70s/80s, the other being Audrey Rose (1977). I love that film too.
Also stars Allan Rich as Dr. Walcott and Jacqueline Brookes as Dr. Cooley.
In my next review I’ll be looking at Dinner with a Vampire (1987), one of four feature length films which constituted Italian TV series Brivido Giallo, all of which were directed by Lamberto Bava. Till then…
Other films fans of The Entity may enjoy:
The Exorcist (1973)
Audrey Rose (1977)
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Poltergeist (1982)
