The Entity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the South Park episode, see The Entity (South Park).
- For the science fiction story by Poul Anderson and John Gergen, see The Entity (Anderson).
| The Entity | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Sidney J. Furie |
| Produced by | Harold Schneider |
| Written by | Frank de Felitta (novel and screenplay) |
| Starring | Barbara Hershey Ron Silver David Labiosa Margaret Blye |
| Music by | Charles Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Stephen H. Burum |
| Editing by | Frank J. Urioste |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | February 4th, 1983 |
| Running time | 125 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Entity was a 1981 horror film starring Barbara Hershey as Carla Moran, a California woman who was tormented by an unseen entity.
The film is allegedly based on the life of the real Carlotta Moran, who claims to continue to be assaulted by an invisible being, though with lesser frequency and intensity (more recently it is claimed she no longer suffers from physical attacks, but still experiences visual phenomena such as those seen in the movie)[citation needed]. It opened to major critical panning and was called misogynistic and unnecessarily sexually graphic.
A remake of the movie is being planned by Japanese director Hideo Nakata. [citation needed]
There is also a novel of the same name written by Frank De Felitta (first published in 1978), which provides a more detailed account of Carla (or Carlotta) Moran's supposed experiences.
[edit] Plot
In the film, Carla lives with her children in a home in Los Angeles. One evening, she is violently raped by an unseen being, and the molestations and attacks continue. She goes to a local college campus to seek counseling from a therapist (played by Ron Silver) because she suspects she is suffering from some sort of mental illness. He concurs, suggesting that she is manifesting hallucinated experiences based on a fear of sex, possibly instilled in Carla by her upbringing.
However, after another rape, she seeks solace at the home of friends who witness paranormal phenomena. Finally assured of the legitimacy of her experiences, Carla seeks help from a paranormal research team. They accompany Carla to her home to try and help, and it seems that they succeed. Unfortunately, when a lover comes to stay the night, he leaves the room briefly only to return and find Carla nude and pinned to the bed by an unseen force. Her breasts are pulsating rhythmically, as if being massaged by unseen hands, while she begs him for help.
Eventually the team of parapsychologists come up with a plan. They set up a home-like location with guns prepared to spray everything with liquid helium. They presume that since the being can manipulate physical things, it must have physical mass, and ergo can be frozen. Unfortunately, the being does strike and is so powerful that it takes control of these spray nozzles and attempts to kill Carla with the helium. Ultimately she faces off with it, (though she can't see it) stating that it can kill her, torture her, but it will never rape her again. In an act of fury, the being bursts the liquid helium tanks and freezes itself, revealing that it is absolutely gigantic in size. All this is witnessed by Carla's psychiatrist, who until now did not believe she was telling the truth.
Ultimately, Carla decides to move out of the house with her family and drives away.
