Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey) is a single mother living with her three children.
One night, an invisible attacker assaults Carla in her room.
Disbelieved by everyone she expects to help her, Carla seeks out a group of university researchers who just might be able to rid her of her supernatural tormentor for good…
I remember seeing the DVD cover for this movie in a store.
The next reference was Martin Scorsese mentioning it as one of the scariest movies he had ever seen.
Released the same year as Poltergeist, The Entity bares a few surface similarities, mostly the idea of a family beset by supernatural goings on in a house.
The differences are significant.
While she has a family, our heroine is the target and victim of the spectre.
And the titular antagonist is not interested in protecting its environment, like the ghosts of the Tobe Hooper movie. It is given no origins, but it’s motive is clear.
It wants to assault the lead character. Nothing more or less. It wants to possess her body. It is just an abuser.
And to the film’s credit, the entity itself is never nailed down, in terms of its genus or as a personality.
The entity remains frightening because of the lack of definition. Even after the introduction of paranormal investigators, the antagonist remains unknowable.
That lack of definition is intentional because the film’s real horror comes from the reaction and the aftereffects of the attacks:
Carla’s home becomes alien, no one believes her, and she feels powerless to protect herself or control her own life.
That sense of powerlessness also feels more structural and societal than supernatural.
As more characters become aware of the entity, the struggle between the scepticism over paranormal events becomes a reflection of the way society minimises sexual assault and mental trauma.
It is also a not-so-subtle critique of the way people treat non-traditional family structures - other characters treat Carla, a single mother, as a failure. This is most overtly rendered when her doctor (Ron Silver) develops a theory involving incest and family abuse, robbing her of any agency.
The film is ultimately about male characters who think they know what is best for Carla and her family. No one listens to or trusts her. It is not for nothing that the most cathartic moment of the film is when Carla finally meets someone who believes her.
Spelling it out so bluntly makes it sound like the movie is just a metaphor, but a lot of credit has to go to Barbara Hershey.
Her performance is so visceral and dynamic. She tracks this character’s psyche, the sense of terror and rage and sheer frustration.
In a movie with such a high concept, she grounds the film in the reality of this woman’s experience.
Director Sidney J Furie is another important ingredient.
Most well known for The Ipcress File, he later directed the Iron Eagle series and Superman IV for Cannon.
Belaying those above credits, he shows a deft touch here.
Like Ipcress, he utilises a lot of off-kilter angles and bizarre compositions to turn the home into an uncanny space - it is effective, and turns the scenes where Carla is attacked into disorienting experiences.
There is a frenzy to the editing and the compositions that avoids shots of nudity. It all has the feeling of a nightmare.
By refusing to give context or form to the attacker, unsettling any sense of geography, and in keeping the camera focused on Hershey’s face, the filmmaker aligns the viewer with the character - maybe not in her place, but without any sense of remove.
These scenes never come off as exploitative. The camera never lingers on her body, apart from one scene involving the unsettling image of invisible fingers gripping Hershey’s skin.
While the effects are impressive, and it shares some familiar conventions, The Entity never comes across as a straight genre entry. That includes the final jump scare.
After Carrie, it is a trope that a lot of horror movies copy, but it does not play the same way as that final jolt.
It feels more like a reflection of the character’s trauma. There is no definitive end or cure. It is a battle that must be fought every day. And Hershey’s Carla is strong enough for that fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment