The Empty Man (2020) Review

 

The Empty Man (2020)

The Empty Man follows James, a former cop, who comes across a secretive cult attempting to summon a terrifying supernatural entity, while in search for a missing girl. 

I had to let this one sit with me overnight and I still can’t figure out if it was good or not because it’s just so damn confusing. What it does right, it gets right in strides. But where it borrows from so many genres, folk stories, and actual occurrences, it’s hard to figure out what it’s trying to accomplish or where it stands, not to mention it’s a VERY loaded film that feels like several smaller movies in one. We’re kicked off with a stylistic and thrilling prologue in the snow mountains of South Asia (where your expectations skyrocket). But after 20 minutes we jump 25 years to the present, to a semi related story in Missouri. From here, they, rather reproachably, just start throwing random shit at the wall in hopes it will stick, with the manifestation of a monster, a shadowy cult, murderous teenagers (who might not be teenagers), urban legends, and plenty more, with the transition to each section far from seamless. And on top of all of that, three quarters of the movies is just the cult-y people waxing philosophically and speaking in infuriating vagaries. 

It’s one saving grace is James, who is easily one of the most competent horror protagonists I’ve ever seen. He is constantly making the exact decisions that 90% of the audience is usually yelling at their screens, making an already irritating movie a little less annoying due to his intelligent decisions. 

We actually get a pretty solid cast here, starring Aaron Poole, Sasha Frolova, Robert Aramayo, Stephen Root, Marin Ireland, and James Badge Dale. Dale, like I mentioned above, really crafts a root-able and interesting protagonist who does his best considering how convoluted of a movie this is, rescuing the back half a little bit from complete mediocrity. 

The Empty Man, directed by David Prior, is as ambiguous as ambiguous gets, leaving practically the whole movie up in the air for interpretation, and not in an artful way but in an infuriating way that just confuses the viewer in what had lots of promise as a horror film. 

5.6/10