Summary
- Martin Scorsese named The Haunting his favorite horror film, but The Entity offers genuine terror with its real-life story and chilling scenes.
- The Entity's setting in a California-modern house contributes to its unnerving tone, making it especially terrifying for viewers.
- The film tackles themes of male aggression and female victimhood, culminating in a powerful, symbolic ending that highlights the resilience of women.
Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, and while Cape Fear and Shutter Island are the rare films of his that are horror adjacent, you can't say that a lot of his movies aren't scary. Would you want to live in the world of Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, or Goodfellas? If anyone is going to understand what makes a movie terrifying, it's Scorsese. So, with that in mind, in 2015 he named his top 11 horror films for the Daily Beast. The Haunting is Scorsese's favorite horror film, with much older black-and-white entries like The Isle of the Dead, The Uninvited, and Dead of Night in his top five, but coming in at number four was a move a little more modern. 1982's The Entity gets lost in an era of similar films like The Exorcist, The Omen, and The Amityville Horror, but it deserves to be recognized for being just as frightening as those examples. It's a stellar film, not just because of Barbara Hershey's lead performance, but also due to the fact that it's based on a real-life story so shocking that you don't want to believe it could be true.
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The Entity
R
Drama Horror- Release Date
- September 30, 1982
- Runtime
- 125 Minutes
- Director
- Sidney J. Furie
- Writers
- Frank De Felitta
Cast
-
Barbara Hershey
Carla Moran, a hard-working single mother, is raped in her bedroom by someone — or something — that she cannot see. Despite skeptical psychiatrists, she is repeatedly attacked by this invisible force. Could this be a case of hysteria or something more horrific?
- Main Genre
- Horror
'The Entity' Is Based on the Real Life Story of Doris Bither
Many may argue that the best horror movies are based on the deep fears of our own imagination, while others will tell you that nothing is more frightening than a piece of fiction based on a real-life incident. Some of the best horror movies are spawned from our unfortunate reality, with Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs all finding their roots in the sickening crimes of serial killer Ed Gein. The Amityville Horror, a film often compared to The Entity, was formed from the supposed real events of the Lutz family encountering the supernatural when they moved into the DeFeo murder house.
The Entity is based on real-life claims as well, formed from the recollections of a woman named Doris Bither of Culver City, California. Before there was ever a movie based on what she said happened to her, there was a 1978 book of the same name written by Frank De Felitta, just as The Amityville Horror first started as a book by Jan Anson. While Bither's claims can't be verified, what she reported to have experienced is incomprehensible. According to Bither, who was a divorced mother of four young children with a history of abuse, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a ghost in 1974. Bither alleged that the entity even threw her across a room into a wall, and her children said they saw a human-shaped semi-transparent apparition in the home. Unable to call the police because they wouldn't believe her, a friend of Bither's went to parapsychologists Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor for help. Taff documented the investigation in his book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below, writing that over the ten-week investigation, objects moved on their own, apparitions were observed, and cold and stench spots were in the home. Unfortunately, none of this was ever caught on camera, and Doris Bither's claims remained just that.
In 'The Entity,' Barbara Hershey's Carla Is Repeatedly Assaulted by an Invisible Force
It's easy to see how the story gained traction with the general public. This wasn't just another story about a haunting, which would have already been enough to draw intrigue, but a story about a woman being sexually assaulted by an invisible man. Whether you believed Doris Bither or not, it got your attention, and if you took the time to imagine the possibility of such a thing, the hopelessness of it was chilling. Frank De Felitta adapted the screenplay of his book for the 1982 film, which was directed by Sidney J. Furie. In The Entity, Doris Bither's name is changed to Carla Moran, but she remains a single mother with an abusive past living in California. The role of Carla went to 32-year-old Barbara Hershey who, despite her young age, was a veteran of TV and film, beginning her career in the '60s. Furie wastes no time with the horror, as we barely have a setup before we are shown Carla being raped in her own home by someone who isn't even there.
The Entity could have been a film that left Carla's claims more in a gray area, allowing the viewer to believe that she might be mentally ill or faking the abuse; but instead, we get to see the horror and know with certainty that Carla isn't making it up. Not only do we see apparitions and witness objects move, but the bruises of the repeated torment are there as well. The Entity's most chilling scene has Carla in her own bed when she is again attacked by the invisible force. At times, we can remove ourselves from the disgusting images because we can only see Carla's reactions and don't see what the attacker is doing. However, in this moment, through the use of practical effects, Carla's clothes are ripped off, her body exposed, and Furie shows us the invisible hands touching her, with her skin moving under the weight of unseen groping fingers. It's a sight that can't be shaken.
Related
The Most Intense 10 Minutes in a Martin Scorsese Movie Aren't What You Think
Take that, 'Goodfellas.'
Similar films of the time feel bigger in ways because of their setting and characters, but that also puts some distance between the viewer and the scares. The Amityville Horror occurs in a large, beautiful home next to the ocean where a mass murder once occurred, The Exorcist happens to the daughter of a famous Hollywood actress, and The Omen's victim is a powerful politician. The Entity strikes fear through its simplicity. Carla Moran is anyone, just a person struggling through the day-to-day like the rest of us in a small, normal house. That's part of the reason why it creeped out Martin Scorsese so much, who told the Daily Beast that The Entity is a "truly terrifying picture." He credited the film's "banal settings" and "California-modern house" with "accentuating the unnerving quality" of the tone.
'The Entity' Is Important for Both Men and Women To Watch
The aforementioned The Exorcist is often credited as the scariest horror film ever made, and while it is an all-time classic, we can't exactly feel young Regan's (Linda Blair) pain because she is possessed. The demon has taken over her body and the girl is trapped and hidden, but The Entity is much different. Although not in the same way, it is also a possession film, with the invisible force possessing Carla through the physical power it uses on her. It can hurt her, it can take over her body for its pleasure while leaving her mind intact, and it knows it can get away with it because no one will ever believe its victim.
Indeed, no one believes Carla, who is sent to a psychiatrist named Dr. Phil Sneiderman (Ron Silver). While Dr. Sneiderman is a good person who wants to help Carla, she is the victim of a male aggressor and has to now turn to a male rescuer. The ending has Dr. Sneiderman see the entity, and only then does he go from questioning to trusting what Carla has told him. The man has to see it with his own eyes to believe the woman. Another doctor, also a man, sees the same thing, but he refuses to believe it, living in denial. It's an analogy of what women have to deal with and the two ways men often react when they hear about sexual assault.
The very last scene of The Entity might be the scariest and the most powerful. Back at home on a sunny day, Carla hopes that maybe her nightmare is over. She goes back inside her wrecked home all alone and inspects the rooms, but jumps when the front door slams shut on its own. It's then that the entity speaks in a guttural male voice, saying "Welcome home, c**t." It's the worst word a man can call a woman and the entity draws it out, using its full power against her. Carla doesn't scream or run away in fear; instead, her jaw now set, she walks toward the door where the voice came from and opens it. Outside, her young family waits. She smiles and goes to them, refusing to be a victim and give her aggressor the power it craves for a second longer. As the camera pulls away, The Entity ends with a crawl across the screen, letting us know how the real woman behind the movie is doing today. The last line reads, "The attacks, though decreased in both frequency and intensity...continue." It's something she will have to learn to live with. Carla's happy ending is one not where she's no longer assaulted at all, but one where she is instead assaulted less. The worst kind of horror is in that recognition and acceptance.
The Entity is available to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.
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