{"id":43193,"date":"2026-09-20T23:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T06:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/?p=43193"},"modified":"2026-09-20T23:11:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T06:11:49","slug":"what-happened-to-doris-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/reviews\/movies\/what-happened-to-doris-review\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS? \u2014 Everyone Remembers the Entity. It\u2019s Time to Remember Doris."},"content":{"rendered":"

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More than half a century after the alleged events that made a modest Culver City home the site of one of the most notorious paranormal investigations of the 1970s, the legend of \u201cThe Entity\u201d has proved more durable than the memory of the woman at its center. Director Nick Simon aims to change that with WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS?, shifting the focus away from the mythology surrounding the case and back onto Doris Bither and the family who lived through it.<\/p>\n

The events surrounding Bither have already provided fodder for both page and screen, most notably Frank DeFelitta’s 1978 novel The Entity<\/em> and the 1982 Sidney J. Furie-directed film of the same name starring Barbara Hershey. But working from a screenplay by Thomas Fenton, Simon isn’t interested in remaking The Entity<\/em>. His focus is Doris, played here by Heather Graham, a single mother raising three children\u2014teenage Ricky, budding young filmmaker Brian, and elementary-school-age Sylvia\u2014while trying to hold together a household that increasingly seems determined to tear itself apart. Literally.<\/p>\n

Doris hears things. She sees things. Objects move. Cabinets open. Pots and pans fly. Strange figures appear and disappear. Bruises cover her body. And most terrifyingly, Doris claims she is being sexually assaulted by an unseen male entity.<\/p>\n

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Initially, nobody wants to believe her.\u00a0\u00a0That includes UCLA parapsychology researchers Dr. Gordon (Marcus Coloma) and Dr. Taylor (Morgan Peter Brown), whose early explanations run the gamut from drugs and alcohol to loneliness, the stress of single motherhood, nightmares and an overactive imagination. In other words, almost anything except the possibility that the woman sitting in front of them might actually be telling the truth. But skepticism becomes increasingly difficult to maintain once Gordon and Taylor start experiencing inexplicable events themselves.<\/p>\n

Simon and Fenton wisely leave just enough uncertainty surrounding Doris that we’re occasionally left questioning her reliability even as the evidence mounts and others begin seeing and hearing what she does. Graham walks that line beautifully. She gives Doris an emotional volatility befitting a woman under siege without turning her into a screaming horror-movie archetype. Fear, exhaustion, anger and flashes of humor coexist with an underlying resilience. Graham keeps Doris human when the material could easily have turned her into nothing more than a paranormal case study.<\/p>\n

What a joy to see Mimi Rogers as Dr. Lillian Ross, head of UCLA’s Parapsychology Department and the film’s calming counterbalance to both Doris and her male colleagues. Rogers brings Ross an authoritative stoicism and professionalism coupled with genuine compassion, something particularly evident when she excoriates Gordon and Taylor for omitting Doris’s allegations of rape from their report despite having seen the extensive bruising on her body, not to mention their illegible handwriting.<\/p>\n

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The chemistry between Rogers and Graham is lovely, particularly in the quieter moments. One involving Doris’s less-than-stellar knitting skills opens a tantalizing window onto Ross herself when she mentions a daughter who apparently died. Doris senses the loss without being told. Ross’s reaction, coupled with her reluctance to participate in field investigations, raises intriguing questions about her past and whether something unexplained may have drawn her into parapsychology in the first place. Unfortunately, Fenton’s script never follows that thread. It’s a missed opportunity, particularly given how effectively Rogers makes us want to know more about this woman.<\/p>\n

Providing some welcome levity are Coloma and Brown. General Hospital<\/em> fans will immediately recognize Marcus Coloma, the former Nikolas Cassadine, although they may initially question that identification thanks to costume designer Autumn Steed introducing Gordon in a screaming yellow plaid 1970s suit. It’s almost impossible to take paranormal pronouncements seriously while looking at it, which makes it all the more amusing.<\/p>\n

Coloma and Brown have an easy rapport, with Brown’s Taylor adopting the posture of the more serious academic while working on his book\u2014even dictating portions of it while sitting inside Doris’s house waiting for something supernatural to happen. There’s more than a little Specs and Tucker from Insidious in the pair’s dynamic, although here they serve an important structural purpose as skeptics forced to reassess what they think they know.<\/p>\n

But some of the most interesting work in WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS? happens behind the camera, particularly with editor Christine Armstrong and the film’s sound team. In a story built around something that cannot always be seen, Armstrong’s editing and the meticulous sound work make the unseen impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

Armstrong establishes that power early. In one particularly effective sequence, young Sylvia awakens Ricky while repeatedly talking about \u201cThe Man\u201d as violent sounds suggest Doris’s bedroom is being torn apart. Blink-and-you-miss-them images of a pale male figure punctuate the sequence like visual shards. Armstrong doesn’t allow us enough time to study what we’re seeing; she lets the image register almost subliminally before it’s gone. As the story progresses and the Entity becomes increasingly corporeal, her editing evolves with it.<\/p>\n

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Equally essential is sound designer T.J. Jacques, re-recording mixer Bret Killoran, and Foley editor\/mixer Ryan Maguire. Moans, groans, wind, bangs, crashes, screams and seemingly ordinary household sounds are layered and mixed to give the house an identity of its own. Of particular note is the use of silence. Simon and his sound team understand that sometimes the most frightening sound is no sound at all. Silence creates anticipation; when that silence is suddenly shattered, the resulting shock lands that much harder.<\/p>\n

Cinematographer Lucia Zavarcikova keeps the lensing relatively straightforward, allowing performance, editing, sound and VFX to drive the supernatural elements, while production designer Mars Feehery and set dresser Taylor Jean immerse us in 1974. The film’s Bither house is substantially larger and more picturesque than the modest real Culver City residence, but the interiors feel appropriately lived-in. Each child’s bedroom establishes an individual personality, even with Ricky and Brian sharing a room. Ricky is the privacy-seeking rock-and-roll teenager while Brian is rarely separated from his movie camera. Sylvia, meanwhile, has her beloved stuffed bunny, Franklin.<\/p>\n

Never underestimate a little girl and her stuffed bunny in a paranormal horror movie.<\/p>\n

Simon makes particularly good use of Brian’s filmmaking interest through interstitial home-movie footage. Bright, happy and filled with ordinary family life, those images contrast sharply with the increasing darkness inside the house. They also remind us that beneath the paranormal spectacle is a family whose everyday existence is being dismantled.<\/p>\n

And then there’s Franklin.<\/p>\n

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Without spoiling all of the increasingly wild third act, suffice it to say that the little stuffed bunny earns his keep. So does Armstrong, whose editing becomes increasingly aggressive and agile as Doris’s most intimate encounter with the Entity escalates into full-blown family terror. Sound, VFX and cutting converge in a climax that is creepy, frightening and, thanks to one unexpectedly useful flaming rabbit, deliciously bonkers.<\/p>\n

Importantly, Simon knows when to temper the horror. Lighter character moments give the audience room to breathe without breaking tone, while the female perspective remains front and center. It’s also notable that many of the key craftspeople shaping that perspective are women, including Zavarcikova, Armstrong, Feehery, set dresser Taylor Jean and costume designer Steed. Even young Sylvia is afforded a point of view as she repeatedly sees and senses things the adults around her dismiss.<\/p>\n

Composer Nima Fakhrara’s score is less distinctive. It services the film without calling much attention to itself, but given the strength and specificity of the sound design, perhaps that’s for the best. This is a film where the creak, bang, breath or sudden absence of sound matters more than a musical cue telling us to be afraid.<\/p>\n

And then Simon leaves us with a wicked little button involving olives.<\/p>\n

Earlier, while martinis are being prepared at friend Kandy’s house, Doris recoils at the sight of olives, noting that she only ate them while pregnant. Remember that.<\/p>\n

Simon does.<\/p>\n

While WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS? can’t answer the supernatural questions surrounding Bither\u2014and wisely doesn’t try to prove or disprove them\u2014it does accomplish something more interesting. It takes a story remembered primarily as \u201cThe Entity Case\u201d and returns a measure of identity to the woman whose name became secondary to the phenomenon allegedly tormenting her.<\/p>\n

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More than fifty years later, “The Entity” remains part of horror lore while Doris Bither herself has largely faded from cultural memory.<\/p>\n

Nick Simon’s film asks us to remember her.\u00a0\u00a0And perhaps that’s the more important answer to WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS?<\/p>\n

Director Nick Simon<\/p>\n

Written by Thomas Fenton<\/p>\n

Cast:\u00a0 Heather Graham, Mimi Rogers, Marcus Coloma, Morgan Peter Brown, Daniel Ferrell, Kayden Alexander Koshelev, Island Austin, Candi Marie, and Kevin Keppy<\/p>\n

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by debbie elias, 09\/20\/2026<\/p>\n

WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS? had its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20th and will be streaming on October 1st.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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