The

The On the surface, there isn't much that's frightening about Culver City, California.

In the 1970s, it was a place where suburban life and the bright lights of Hollywood came together.

Known for its impressive collection of movie studios,

it was also home to about 40,000 members of the working class.

And when the film opens, we meet single mother Carla Moran,

played by Barbara Hershey,

who lives in one of Culver City's small bungalows with her three kids, older son Billy and younger

daughters Julie and Kim. Carla is a woman who is at the end of her rope in more ways than one. She's

struggling to try and raise her kids on her small salary. She's attending night school, hoping for a

better job, and her life is just

about to turn into a nightmare like nothing she could have ever imagined. After coming home from her

night school secretarial class, Carla is violently raped by some sort of invisible assailant. She's, of

course, unable to see. The terror of the attack, followed by

the destruction of the room she's in, forces Carla to flee with her children to the home of her

best friend Cindy, played by Margaret Bly. But this is only a temporary fix. Carla can't afford a motel

and can't afford to move, so the family has to go home,

but the attack was not a one-time event.

The next day, as Carla is on her way to work, she's nearly killed when her car mysteriously

goes out of control in traffic.

Urged by Cindy to see a doctor, Carla meets with psychiatrist Dr. Phil Snyderman, played by

Ron Silver, and tentatively agrees to therapy. But Snyderman doesn't believe in the supernatural.

...