Now, I wasn't familiar with this 1982 movie prior to stumbling upon by sheer random luck. I read the synopsis, and being an avid horror fan I did, of course, have to give it a chance.Supposedly based on real events, which does make the movie somewhat more interesting. Of course it is just a matter of how much was actually real, when it comes down to it."The Entity" had good acting performances and a good cast ensemble. The actors and actresses really took the characters and made them their own and it helped to portray some realistic characters.The attacks on Carla were essentially just the same over and over with very little variation, which made for it to be scary the first time then it just became trivial.The movie is actually faring surprisingly well with very little special effects, especially when taking the age of the movie into consideration.All in all, an entertaining movie for what it turned out to be. But this is hardly the type of movie that you will return to watch a second time.

The true story about a woman constantly raped and beaten by a ghost in the house. The visuals for the electricity ages, but the performance from Barbara Hershey and other forms of special effects are quite startling. It was very scary and intelligent. Intense and unexpected when the ghost would strike next. Exciting and powerful. Very well done.

although made in '82, this movie is an adaption of a '78 novel by horror novelist and Hollywood screenwriter Frank De Felitta, in turn based on an allegedly true story centering on events occurring in the mid '70's involving a woman called Doris Bither. Barbara Hershey does well as the victim Carla, and the acting overall is fine. Apparently Martin Scorsese found the movie very scary, but I found the shenanigans of the psychiatrist and the parapsychologists strange and amusing enough to detract from the frights. I can accept that back in the '70s, psychiatrists were more Freudian, domineering and intrusive in the lives of their patients than now, but the scene where the good Dr is shouting in the face of a traumatised rape victim about facing the abuse in her childhood made me cringe. But its the antics of the team of parapsychologists towards the end that really stretches credibility.Without giving away too much, the idea behind their experiment was interesting, but was handled poorly. Even in the '70's, ethical approval must be obtained from universities before experiments can be conducted, especially when exposing vulnerable people to very dangerous situations. Not to mention applications for funding this very elaborate experiment. All this takes months, and anyway an experiment of this nature would simply never be allowed. Presumably this experiment was in the novel, but there's no way it's part of the "true" story of Doris. It would've been more effective and credible if they had scaled the experiment down and conducted it in Carla's home...if you watch the movie you'll see what I mean! Overall the movie would also have worked better by expanding more on the poltergeist phenomena by going further into Carla's history and the history of her house(which according to the "true" story had a reputation of being haunted). Without the over-the-top finale, and with a less irritating soundtrack, I would've rated the movie an 8.

Way back in the 70s and 80s, when I was just a young feller, I enthusiastically devoured horror novels by the ton. The large majority of them were called "The (Noun)", and Frank de Fellita wrote several of them including The Entity, duly filmed in 1982.This purports to be an adaptation of true events whereby a young mother is repeatedly raped by an unseen demonic entity of some sort. Her appeals for help bring her the attentions of a psychologist who thinks it is all in her head, and parapsychologists who believe her. They, like us, have seen that it is real.The film does not present us with the question of whether she is doing this herself, there is no question that this is all genuine. The double drama is a) whether she can be saved, and b) who will win the rationality vs parapsychology battle.In a dramatic, but not particularly horrific, movie, Barbara Hershey is excellent as the terrified but defiant young woman. Ron Silver is massively annoying as the bull-headed psychologist. The special effects, good in their day, are now a bit hokey, especially the prosthetic body used to show invisible fingers at work. And the climax is a bit, "Oh. And...?"