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Woman (Barbara Hershey) with three kids is assaulted and raped by discarnate entity -- a "spectral rapist" -- and seeks help from a psychiatrist, who thinks she's mentally ill, and paranormal investigators, who believe they've hit the motherlode of psychic phenomena. Based on the book by Frank De Felitta which in turn was based on a "true story," the case of Doris Bither. De Felitta, who also wrote the screenplay for this film, sides with the investigators (the attacks happen, they're real), in the process marginalizing the movie's best character, the psychiatrist, played by Ron Silver. Blueprint adaptation squeezes in as much of the novel as it can, but is poorly paced, somewhat monotonous, and, ultimately, not particularly scary. (Martin Scorcese, however, puts it at #4 on his list of the eleven "scariest films of all time.")
Woman (Barbara Hershey) with three kids is assaulted and raped by discarnate entity -- a "spectral rapist" -- and seeks help from a psychiatrist, who thinks she's mentally ill, and paranormal investigators, who believe they've hit the motherlode of psychic phenomena. Based on the book by Frank De Felitta which in turn was based on a "true story," the case of Doris Bither. De Felitta, who also wrote the screenplay for this film, sides with the investigators (the attacks happen, they're real), in the process marginalizing the movie's best character, the psychiatrist, played by Ron Silver. Blueprint adaptation squeezes in as much of the novel as it can, but is poorly paced, somewhat monotonous, and, ultimately, not particularly scary. (Martin Scorcese, however, puts it at #4 on his list of the eleven "scariest films of all time.")