Entity, 2012.
Directed by Steve Stone.
Starring Dervla Kirwan, Charlotte Riley, Branko Tomovic, Rupert Hill, Oliver Jackson and Michael David Worden.
SYNOPSIS:
In 2010, a British TV crew headed to a remote Russian location to conduct a paranormal investigation in order to uncover the truth behind the grisly discovery of thirty two bodies, but after venturing into the isolated forest, they were never heard from again…
You get to a point when you realise that bad films aren’t the apparently poorly-made ones, they’re the boring ones. Then you (hopefully) get to a point when you stop being bothered by boring films and simply move on from them. But this doesn’t stop said films boring you while they’re playing (and I use the term very loosely). Entity is one of these painfully stillborn films, which it would be unfair to hate, but it’s impossible to enjoy. There’s simply nothing to recommend it. I’d call it unoriginal but that would suggest that it’s in any memorable based on its frame of reference. Even reviewing it is difficult.
Based partly in the found-footage trend and with added Creepy Soviet Psychic Science, the film follows a British TV crew deep into the grim, nondescript-Eastern-European countryside to seek out the history of some dead corpses, somewhere. Something like that, it’s hard to say for sure. That’s all well and good, there’s nothing wrong with a cheap, broadly-drawn excuse to go get scared in the woods and an abandoned medical facility.
The problem with Entity is that there’s nothing beyond that. It’s like reading a screenplay wizard from Microsoft Word. We have characters, we have settings, we have defined scenes – just – but there is so little interest garnered. No characters have compelling personalities, nor interesting dynamics with one another, and there’s no sense of intrigue created as to the secrets of the ‘entity’.
Said entity is nothing more than a few dozen loud bangs and screeching noises, all effective but not scary. There’s little skill needed to make an audience jolt in their seats; cutting to vaguely grotesque and shadowy close-ups and punching the soundtrack with piercing screams and deep thuds, all framed by the (apparently) eerie device of a psychic’s visions. And this is all we get with Entity, a prolonged series of noises, both visual and aural, and no tension – besides possibly that of asking yourself ‘will this be the final scene?’
I feel bad condemning a film which I’m sure was put together with due interest and passion, but what I saw felt like a desperate and almost cynical attempt to pack undemanding teenage arses into seats and give them a few (dozen) of the cheapest of thrills. And people aren’t that easy.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Stephen Glass
Originally published June 24, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
