7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
Carla Moran awakens one night to find herself being beaten and raped by an unseen presence. Terrified of what's happening to her, and shunned by friends and family who think she's lost her mind, she seeks help from parapsychologists.
Starring: Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa, George Coe, Margaret BlyeHorror | 100% |
Supernatural | 16% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
I don't understand what's going on.
The Entity rises above the standards of recent "Horror" movie plots and characters and truly terrorizes its lead character and, by extension and
because the script is
smart and the acting fine, the audience. Director Sidney J. Furie (Iron Eagle) directs a story based on both the real-life experiences of Carla
Moran and a novel of her story written and adapted for the screen by Frank deFelitta. The picture challenges viewers to not only jump at scary sounds
and images, but to place themselves in the haunted home and body of the heroine, to think through the challenging scenarios and opposing
viewpoints, and yes, to cower in fear along the back wall or under the blanket, to truly feel the tingling, pulsating, body-numbing, mind-rattling
scares that await, rather than merely watch them unfold on the screen. The Entity moves beyond the Horror movie "boogyman"
villain and creates a terrifying, well, entity that's more frightening than men with razor-sharp fingers or machetes. This is true terror, and the most frightening part of all is the question
as to whether it's real or just a figment of an overactive and very troubled imagination.
Frightened.
The Entity haunts Blu-ray with a serviceable but forgettable and often disappointing high definition transfer. Nighttime and dark scenes suffer through some evident crush. Parts of the image appear a good deal soft, though others appear nearly razor-sharp. Some scenes look as if they've been somewhat scrubbed down, but others see light grain fluttering about the frame. Fine detail rarely impresses. The transfer yields detailing that's near the bottom of the acceptable level for a Blu-ray release, even for an aging catalogue title. The image is mostly flat and lifeless, never exploding off the screen and certainly never offering up sharp, well-defined details. Colors appear dim and slightly washed out. There's little vibrancy to the image. Granted, much of it takes place in lower-light levels, and those few times where it does go bright, it offers up a wider, more balanced color palette, the book store where Carla meets the paranormal academics being perhaps the best example, with that scene's brighter lighting and the multicolored book spines seen throughout the frame. The image does see a fairly steady stream of spots and pops, but they do not appear with so much frequency as to distract from the picture. It's clear that little effort was made for this Blu-ray release. That's a shame; the movie deserves better.
The Entity spooks up a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's effectively rattly but not all that sonically impressive. Music offers up a fair low end presence, but the midrange and highs lack precision clarity. The music is absolutely defined by the frightening, heavy, repetitive, shrieking, metallic, haunting, demonic refrain that accompanies the entity appearances and jolts the audience as much as the accompanying visuals. There's a definite lack of clarity to the refrain -- it's a bit mushy and rattly -- but in this case, the scraping, somewhat sloppy sound actually seems to enhance the element rather than detract from it. Light ambience and smaller sound effects are infrequent, but adequate, the best example being a ticking clock heard in otherwise quiet rooms. Louder effects -- most coming near the end of the film in the form of shattering glass and mechanical whirls and grinds -- are also absent crisp definition. Dialogue plays with reasonable definition and intelligibility, though it, too, succumbs to bouts of sonic sloppiness. Overall, a below-average track, bolstered by that sharp, scary refrain, yielding but a forgettable listen.
The Entity contains no supplements. A menu of any kind is not included. The optional English SDH subtitles must be selected via the player's options screen or remote control device.
The Entity rises above general genre schlock and recycled elements to create a truly immersing, complex, visually frightening, and psychologically grinding motion picture experience. The movie plays on the dichotomy between the real and the imagined, the fragility of the human psyche and the power of the imagination to conjure up truly grotesque and horrific things. Or, perhaps, it's all real. It's the fringe science of the paranormal against the hard(er) science of the human condition, with an innocent woman caught between, an innocent woman suffering either way. The movie's terror comes from both the unexplainable phenomena and the physical altercations alike. Wonderful acting and steady direction shape The Entity into a can't-miss experience. Unfortunately, Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release offers up no real reason to watch for anything other than the content of the film itself. Middling video and audio disappoint, and no supplements are included. Anchor Bay has once again, as has been the trend with these 20th Century Fox catalogue titles, foregone a simple pop-up menu, let alone a main menu. Then again, there's nothing to select aside from a single subtitle option (note to Anchor Bay: chapter selection is usually considered a given on even the most sparse and cheaply-produced Blu-ray release). The Blu-ray isn't worth much, but the movie is. Rent, or buy whenever the asking price plummets towards the cost the release commands.
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