Review - The Entity

I have a friend who is never scared by horror movies. Well, she met her match with The Entity ...

...I remember when we first watched this movie together. We were both in our early 20's and had our own separate apartments and each lived alone. We rented a bunch of old horror flicks and settled in for our night of fright. To this day she always comments on how terrified she was to go home alone that night ...

The basic premise of The Entity is that Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey), a single mom with three kids, suddenly finds herself being terrorized by an unseen entity whose idea of a good time is to violently rape and torment her. Despite the fact that her teenage son, boyfriend and others all witness attacks on Carla by this malevolent force, Carla's psychologist Dr. Sneiderman (Ron Silver) refuses to believe that this is really happening anywhere but in her mind.

Finally fed up with the Freudian answers she is getting from Sneiderman, Carla and her friend begin some research of their own. It is during this research that they meet up with some members of the parapsychology department from the university. They agree to help Carla "deal with her demons."

Barbara Hershey was very convincing as a strong-willed single mom who, when pushed to the edge, became empowered. Ron Silver also played his character very well, though he was a tad bit annoying in his stubbornness. But I guess if you are a man of science, you would want to believe any other scenario than that of your patient being raped by a violent, sexually deviant entity for which there is no scientific explanation.

To me the movie really worked - until the "Hollywood ending." There wasn't a need for it in my opinion and if anything it detracted from the feeling of reality that the movie had up until that point. While the ending is disappointing, it doesn't erase the efforts of the rest of the film. At the end of the day, The Entity is certainly worth seeing.

I asked my friend recently what scared her so much about The Entity. She said that it was basically the fact that The Entity was based on a true story. It actually happened to someone, therefore it stands to reason that it could happen to her. Point taken!

Buy the Book, The Entity, a novel by Frank De Felitta, from Amazon.com.

If you enjoyed The Entity, here are reviews of other recommended movies:

Haunted Prison
The Haunted

The Entity Movie Cast and Credits

Directed by
Sidney J. Furie

Writing credits
Frank De Felitta (novel)

Cast (in credits order)
Barbara Hershey .... Carla Moran
Ron Silver .... Phil Sneiderman
David Labiosa .... Billy
George Coe .... Dr. Weber
Margaret Blye .... Cindy Nash
Jacqueline Brookes .... Dr. Cooley
Richard Brestoff .... Gene Kraft
Michael Alldredge .... George Nash
Raymond Singer .... Joe Mehan
Allan Rich .... Dr. Walcott
Natasha Ryan .... Julie
Melanie Gaffin .... Kim
Alex Rocco .... Jerry Anderson
Sully Boyar .... Mr. Reisz
Tom Stern .... Woody Browne
Curt Lowens .... Dr. Wilkes
Paula Victor .... Dr. Chevalier
Lee Wilkof .... Dr. L. Hose
Deborah Stevenson .... Intern
Mark Weiner .... Intern
Lisa Gurley .... Receptionist
Chris Howell .... Guard
John Branagan .... Student
Daniel Furie .... Student
Amy Kirkpatrick .... Student
Todd Kutches .... Student
Pauline Lomas .... Student
Renee Neimark .... Nurse