“They will find more than evidence… they will find… The Entity.”

The year 1982 saw a slight influx of supernatural and paranormal themed films with the release of Poltergeist, One Dark Night, Amityville II: The Possession, and today’s trailer throwback The Entity.

The Entity is arguably the scariest and most intense supernatural film of that year, following the “true story” of Doris Bither‘s sexual assault at the hands of a spectre. The film was based off a book of the same name by Frank De Felitta, which was in turn inspired by Doris’ experiences. In later years, many have purported that Bither’s case was not, in fact, one of spectrophilia – but merely that the sexual angle was heightened in the adaptation process from life, to book, to screen – as “such a notion was intriguing to say the least” as one Dr. Barry Taff has stated.

The film remains a thoroughly nerve-racking experience that opens with a brutal attack, and then morphs into a James Cameron-esque finale as Carla Moran – modeled after Doris Blither – agrees to undergo a series of complicated tests at the local University. Barbera Hershey has an incredible performance here as Carla Moran, which completely sells the frightening and disturbing elements of the plot. While the bigger scope of the finale does betray the grounded reality of the initial attacks – well, as grounded as you can get when dealing with supernatural elements such as these – it is nonetheless easy to see why The Entity landed on Martin Scorsese‘s scariest horror films of all time list.