Are You With Us? The Entity
By Ryan Mazie
January 30, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Doesn’t it suck to be the one who hates a movie that everybody loves or loves a movie everybody hates (looking at you Armond White for giving Toy Story 3 a thumbs down but Jack and Jill a thumbs up)? I felt this way after watching The Entity. Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite directors and seeing this movie ranked on his top-horror film list, I always had it lingering on my Netflix queue. With Daniel Radcliffe’s haunted house movie, The Woman In Black, coming out this weekend, I felt like this was the perfect type to bump The Entity to the top of the list.
I looked at my watch in amazement, seeing that it wasn’t even only three minutes in and Barbara Hershey was being raped by some invisible figure - just as startled as Hershey’s character Carla Moran. She's a young mother of three with a spirit that has the hots for her. I was shaken again when the same invisible hands raped her again… seven minutes later.
Teetering on exploitation, somehow The Entity, as a testament to the tasteful directing (well, somewhat tasteful – we see a whole lot of Hershey) and strong acting, never feels dirty. Somewhat reminiscent of Paranormal Activity, but with a never-seen ghost that wants sex instead of blood, The Entity is paradoxically ahead and for its time. Ahead in the terms of unseen monsters lurking in quaint households, but in its time for showing full frontal molestation and still being released mainstream (oh, the non-PC era of the '80s), The Entity is an oddball horror flick.
Based off of De Felitta’s same-name novel (which judging by the Amazon ratings, he is a better book writer than scriptwriter), The Entity follows Carla and her children, jumping house to house, yet not being able to shake off the evil presence.
Ron Silver (Ali, Reversal of Fortune) stars as Carla’s psychologist, the most sloppily written character. At first a proposed love interest who is never fully developed, he plays the non-specter villain who is determined to have Carla institutionalized. The problem is that the attacks on Carla are from other people’s perspectives, making it no question if it is a matter of sanity, leading to boring conversations that lead to nothing the audience doesn’t already know (at 125 minutes, The Entity is quite lengthy for the horror genre which usually has in-and-out running times).
B-movie director Sidney J. Furie (his one big film is Superman IV) solidly constructs the film, which excels during the fright scenes. With tension and some moments of fear, Furie angles the shots to get the maximum jolt out of the jump scares that aren’t cheaply achieved. Furie works to build the audience’s trust as he slowly breaks away from the typical horror film structure into a third act that seemingly belongs in a different movie, much like this year’s Insidious, which also has a role played by Barbara Hershey. Unlike Insidious (my favorite horror movie last year), the third act is The Entity’s strongest point, having all of the many characters introduced come together for a finale that results in a big payoff.
The only major mistake Furie makes is approving the horribly obnoxious score. Instead of screeching violins, the soundtrack is filled with rocking guitars, making you not jump out of your seat, but tap your foot. The questionable music distracted my emotions. While my eyes were telling me to be scared, my ears were telling me to relax.
Even with a script that goes all over the place in terms of quality, Barbara Hershey delivers a performance way above the rest of the film’s standards. While the other cast members do a fine job, Hershey is the only memorable part. Playing the role of Carla with an unexpected weakness to begin with; it only makes the finale more satisfying as she grows into a stronger character. While being raped by an invisible ghost (to rock music) may be laughable, Hershey’s commitment makes the multiple sequences (showing just how repetitive the script is) tense and disturbing.
Positively received and shot for pennies, The Entity possessed theaters in the US starting February 4, 1983. Filmed in '82, Fox pushed the film up from being squashed by another specter-filled scary flick, Poltergeist. When The Entity was released, instead of capitalizing on ghost-mania that The Amityville Horror and the Spielberg produced house horror started, it just seemed like a knock-off. In the end, while churning a profit, it wasn’t a game changer, wrapping up with $13.3 million ($33.6 million today).
The Entity has gained a minor cult following for its notable special effects; more specifically, how they managed to make Barbara Hershey’s breasts look like invisible hands were groping them. Admittedly, it is impressive even today. Another notable thing is how the ghost remains invisible, making a shaking mirror and blown open doors just as scary as a multi-million dollar CGI creature creation (something I can appreciate, believing for the most case when it comes to horror – the cheaper, the better).
Representing the virtues of the supernatural horror genre: cheap, spooky, no CGI, and R-rated; The Entity was the counterpoint to the late-90s/early-00s obsession with PG-13 horror that carried a heavy price tag. However, with the success of Saw, Paranormal Activity, Insidious and the found-footage trend where the most expensive thing about the movie is the camera, The Entity is not with us in terms of needing a film that produces low-budget scares around a ghost. In fact, the film, while disturbing, is lacking the scare quotient, given that we have seen most of what has happened in other horror films today. While not necessarily fair, that is the nature of the horror genre – when you have seen one, you have seen them all.
Having some admirable qualities, The Entity is more for horror buffs to dissect scenes that have influenced the genre rather than watch it as a whole.
While Barbara Hershey may have been held captivated by the evil spirit following her, The Entity has all too loose of a grip over the audience.
Verdict: Not With Us
4 out of 10