ACI, 1981
starring: Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa and George Coe
directed by: Sidney J. Furie
the plot: Carla Moran (Hershey) is a single mom trying to juggle work, night school and raising her three kids. As she lies in bed late one night, she’s suddenly violently attacked by an unseen assailant. Her screams attract the attention of her teenage son Billy (Labiosa), who scours the house for the perpetrator. Billy doesn’t find anyone, and Carla wonders if she dreamed the whole thing. That is, until she’s attacked again and again—in the bathroom, in her car, in the living room. Convinced an invisible entity is stalking and raping her, Carla enlists the help of Dr. Phil Sneiderman (Silver). But Sneiderman doubts her story, instead believing that Carla is reliving memories from her traumatic childhood. As a last resort, Carla invites a team of parapsychologists into her home, against the protests of Sneiderman. As Carla and her family soon discover, the entity that’s after Carla is very real and cannot be easily stopped.

why it’s good: “The Entity” is pure, undiluted creep show from start to finish. Director Furie imbues the film with an impending sense of doom that doesn’t let up even when the credits roll. What Carla—and the viewer—slowly realizes is that she can be assaulted anywhere at any time. There are no safety nets in “The Entity,” and Furie doesn’t provide any of the usual visual or musical cues that precede the scary moments, giving the film an unpredictable, surprising edge. This effect is enhanced by Charles Berstein’s pounding guitar-based score, a piece of brutal music that hammers the viewer whenever Hershey’s character is attacked. But Hershey is the film’s foundation, giving Carla a perfect mixture of unbridled fear and a quiet, resolute strength.

Unfortunately, though, “The Entity” loses momentum. There’s a sort of ridiculous climax involving liquid nitrogen and a team of parapsychologists, but that’s to be expected in a film about ghostly rapists. The ending manages to be both extremely unsettling and a bit lame, undermining much of the fine character work done by Hershey earlier in the film.

why you should own it: Anchor Bay’s DVD features the full, uncut film as well as “The Entity Files,” a making-of documentary featuring an interview with Dr. Barry Taff, the parapsychologist who worked on the real-life case upon which the film is based.