What Happened to Doris? (Formerly titled An Entity Within)is a supernatural horror thriller directed by Nick Simon, taking inspiration from the alleged 1974 paranormal case involving Doris Bither, the California woman whose experiences became the basis for the novel and subsequent 1982 horror movie The Entity, which follows a single mother subjected to increasingly violent attacks by something she cannot see, and when nobody believes her, paranormal investigators become involved, turning one woman's terrifying ordeal into one of America's most notorious alleged haunting cases.
A Haunting That Became a Horror Movie
The story takes place in 1974, when Doris Bither lived in Culver City, California, with her children, where Bither reported being repeatedly attacked by invisible entities inside her home, and her claims eventually brought UCLA parapsychologists Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor to the house, where they spent around ten weeks investigating the alleged phenomena.
The original UCLA investigation produced reports of unusual phenomena, including strange lights and other unexplained occurrences, and the investigators also documented bruising on Bither, although the assault allegations themselves were not investigated as part of the paranormal research.
Some of the photographic evidence from the investigation have also been disputed, and there has never been a universally accepted explanation for what happened in the house, where the case eventually inspired Frank De Felitta's 1978 novel The Entity, which was adapted into the 1982 film starring Barbara Hershey.
Nick Simon Takes on a Famous Horror Story
Nick Simon directs the film, following previous horror work including The Girl in the Photographs and Untitled Horror Movie, with Heather Graham starring as Doris, alongside Mimi Rogers, Luke Baines, Candi Marie, Marcus Coloma and Morgan Peter Brown - the film is written by Thomas Fenton, with production credits including German Michael Torres, Steven Schneider, Jack Cotti, Stuart Davis, Geno Taylor and Missy Valdez.
Release Date
The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026, although a wider U.S. release date has not announced yet.
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