The Entity (1982)

Very up and down in its telling of an horrendous story. This is the loosely based on facts story of Carla Moran, a woman who was allegedly tormented and sexually molested by an invisible demon. Regardless of if the facts of the case are fictionalised for impact, or if indeed there is any basis of truth to the attacks in question, The Entity as a film fails to rise above average due to sloppy direction and a very poor script, whilst the score from Charles Bernstein is akin to being hit over the head repeatedly with a blunt instrument. That said, the film isn't a total wash out, there are genuine moments of dread in the piece, and most of the tension and fear is realised from a very credible performance from Barbara Hershey as Carla. The nature of the beast with this type of picture will always be open to either scoffing or a fear of the unknown, so to get the audience involved with a topic like this you really need your protagonist to be believable, Hershey manages to do this in spite of the character being hopelessly under written. There is no real urgency or understanding of feelings portrayed other than a few rushed sequences, it's kind of like poor Carla saying she's been attacked by a demon and her doctor going, oh OK, lets talk about it. If you believe in the paranormal etc is irrelevant, that The Entity isn't a terrifying story is sadly just a missed opportunity to not only scare, but to induce thought provoking conversation. 4/10