- Directed by Sidney J. Furie
- Written by Frank De Felitta
- Stars Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 5 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODaJ7rVqvmA
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was inspired by true events. We’d say loosely based on true events at best. It’s a little on the long side, but it moves well and doesn’t seem excessive. There are interesting plays between the paranormal and science trying to explain it, with the most elaborate setup to catch a ghost since “Ghostbusters.”
Spoilery Synopsis
Carla Moran runs to her typing class. Afterward, she goes home and checks on her sleeping kids. Her oldest son, Billy, is a slob. She goes into the bedroom, where something invisible throws her on the bed and violently rapes her. She screams, and all three kids run in, terrified. There’s no one there and all the doors are locked. Was it just a bad dream?
Later the same night, things have calmed down and she’s alone in the bedroom again. There’s an earthquake and the room gets really cold. But it’s just the bedroom. Everyone runs to the car, but only Carla felt anything. Billy didn’t hear anything other than his mother screaming. The family goes to stay at Carla’s friend’s house for the night.
In the morning, she tells Cindy what happened, but it’s all a little hard to believe. The rapist was there, but then he vanished. Cindy wonders if Carla’s on drugs; maybe she needs to see a doctor. Cindy’s rude husband makes them all leave soon after. They stay out all day, but they have to go that evening. Cindy shows up, and they sleep in the same bed for safety; nothing happens that night.
On the way to work the next day, something invisible takes control of Carla’s car and drives like a maniac through heavy traffic. After that, she goes to Dr. Phil Sneideman, a psychiatrist who orders some tests. She then goes home and takes a bath, where she’s attacked again; we don’t see anyone else there with her.
She tells Phil that it felt like there was more than one attacker; three of them attacked her. She has bruises and bite marks in places that she couldn’t have bit herself. The doctor thinks it’s some kind of psychological trauma from her past. He drives her home and goes inside, looking around the house. He says she’s perfectly normal; she says, “There’s still something here.”
That night, she gets it again, right in front of Billy and the kids. Bill gets thrown around by something invisible as well. He appears to be attacked by electricity and then passes out.
She goes to talk to a whole panel of psychiatrists. She leaves, and the other doctors all think she’s hysterical, and the kids are as well. Dr. Phil Sneiderman isn’t convinced of their justifications.
Carla’s boyfriend, Jerry, comes home from his trip. He works on the road, and she wants to go with him, but that’s impossible. She takes a sedative before bedtime, and the ghost does things to her as she sleeps.
Phil wants Carla to check into the hospital for two weeks, and he’s very insistent. Rather than do that, she threatens to just cooperate with the ghost and give it what it wants. They argue about ghosts, demons, and imagination. That evening, she goes to Cindy’s house, and the ghost wrecks the place; it’s not just at her house anymore. Cindy and her husband see what happened, but they don’t see the ghost itself.
She meets Gene and Joe, some parapsychologists, at the bookstore and brings them home with her. They experience some weirdness right away and then set up with their ghost-detecting equipment. That night, the ghost is there, but he’s very weak. They soon bring in the whole parapsychology department, and Dr. Phil is not supportive and accuses Billy of pretending to battle the ghost, which he denies.
That night, Gene, Joe, and Dr. Cooley all see some strangeness, but it’s not especially violent. Just as they’re all wrapping up for the evening, Jerry returns unexpectedly and asks what all the people were there for. She tells him what’s been going on, and he’s skeptical. Then he walks in on her being pinned to the bed and that goes badly. Jerry and Phil talk, and Jerry wants out; the marriage is off.
Joe and Gene come up with a plan to “contain” the ghost. They build a whole fake house that looks just like Carla’s, only they control the electricity, and there are no ceilings; they can see everything. There’s also a protective area that seals shut to keep the ghost out and tons of liquid helium to freeze it. Phil shows up, and he thinks this whole setup is dangerous.
Night falls, and Carla goes to bed inside the fake house. Meanwhile, Phil and his boss make phone calls to get the experiment shut down. Everyone feels the room getting cold. The liquid helium starts spraying on its own, chasing Carla around the “house,” keeping her from the protective area. It freezes the glass in the protected area and it shatters easily.
She tells the ghost that she’s finished running; it should do what it wants. Phil drags her out before all the helium tanks explode and freeze everything solid. The ghost is briefly trapped, but it soon breaks out.
Carla goes home and the ghost is there waiting for her. She hears it speak this time. She goes outside to talk to the kids; she’s just gonna roll with it for now. The attacks continue…
Commentary
It’s supposedly based on a true story of a woman who claimed to be regularly raped by three ghosts. Every time the kids are on-screen, they’re shrill and screaming. It’s got a lot of personal drama and talking, but surprisingly little ghost action. It’s more about the conflict between psychology and parapsychology rather than ghosts.
It’s pretty long, mostly because it explores the topic pretty thoroughly, but overall, it was well done and holds up pretty well today.