 October 17th (2)
The Entity (1982)
A cracking supernatural thriller that seems to go under many radars nowadays. Based on the case of a real woman from Los Angeles who was attacked in her home by an invisible presence and raped multiple times across many months.
Barbara Hershey is terrific in what was a hugely challenging and demanding role as she's repeatedly sexually assaulted in various forms whilst basically creating and performing the sequences by herself. All of which are scary as hell with the attacks happening as a speaker shattering drum riff pounds round the room. Not once are the scenes exploitative or titillating but genuinely disturbing as the viewer feels they are part of the assault.
Away from the horror aspect this also takes into account the arguments of believers vs non-believers in the supernatural, science and psychology vs ESP. Much of the focus is on characters, dialogue and escalating tension as director Sydney J Furie creates and sustains an atmosphere of terror from the opening scenes and his refusal to not show the 'entity' of the title in any detail helps maintain this aura of utter unease.
The Entity is genuinely gripping from first to last with it's fear of the unknown, they really don't make supernatural movies like this anymore.
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