Horror Movie Review: Entity (2012)

Bland in name, bland in nature. Entity is a supernatural horror movie that plays it incredibly safe to the point of boredom. The few things it does right can’t make-up for all the things it does wrong.

Directed by Steve Stone, Entity stars Dervla Kirwan, Charlotte Riley, and Branko Tomovic. The story surrounds the film crew of a British television show called Darkest Secrets. They are investigating a 1998 discovery of 34 bodies that were found in a shallow mass grave in a remote Siberian forest.

The investigation is headed up by host Kate (Riley), her two crew members and psychic Ruth (Kirwan). Alongside their guide and local author, Yuri (Tomovic) the group find the location and discover it is linked to a nearby abandoned military facility.

Upon arrival, Ruth senses the facility is not a place they want to be but the others urge her on. Once inside, Ruth makes contact with a presence that is identified as a prisoner who was part of the dead. Abused and tortured by the soldiers, the presence is filled with rage and is going to take it out on anyone that comes inside.

Sub-standard paranormal horror, Entity lacks originality, excitement or scares. The story has been told a hundred times and this movie offers nothing fresh in that department. The hope that once things get going in the facility, we might see something more than ghostly-goings-on quickly evaporates.

It plays out exactly as you might expect, even a twist in one character’s motivations can be seen coming a mile away. Not the fault of the cast, everyone does a serviceable job. It’s just a movie that lacks depth both in the story and the overall character motivations.

It could be scary; it has one or two creepy shots but the decision to have the movie shot in two different ways really harms immersion. Switching from TV movie style visuals to found footage constantly, sometimes when nothing is actually happening is incredibly jarring. Are we supposed to buy into the found-footage realism? How, when the next shot is completely different?

That, and the general malaise that the story creates results in a miss of a movie. There are so many better paranormal horrors out there, why waste your time with something sub-par?