The Empty Man

A surreal & haunting supernatural horror that's steeped in myth & smeared with pure cosmic dread, The Empty Man is an ingeniously layered & gradually escalating nightmare that ranks amongst the most audacious horror entries in recent years. Invoking an ominous atmosphere from its opening moments and ratcheting up the suspense with terrific use of genre elements, it's a shame that this gem flew under the radar last year.

Written & directed by David Prior in his feature film debut, the film opens with a neatly crafted & downright effective prologue that paves a strong enough foundation for its main story. Prior takes his time with the premise and allows the foreboding aura to envelop the surroundings in a natural fashion and doesn't hurry through the proceedings. Its consistent scares, unsettling vibe, occult elements & existential themes further amplify our interest in it.

Adding more sinister touches to the viewing experience are its clinical camerawork, brooding score, eerie sound design, methodical editing, arresting mythology & disturbing imagery. The first half of the film is top-notch storytelling. It is in the remaining half that it begins to falter a bit and becomes entangled in its own ideas. Performances are convincing, with James Badge Dale aptly articulating his character's confusion, fear & uncertainty about his own reality.

Overall, The Empty Man brims with a menacing quality, is unrelenting in its intensity, and has all the makings of a cult classic, something it is destined to become in the years to come. An impressive start to David Prior's feature filmmaking career, his debut feature exhibits his firm grip on elements of horror & mystery and is anything but an empty cinematic experience. It's the studio's fault that they couldn't figure out how to market this ambitious ontological terror but sooner or later, The Empty Man will find its audience.

I basically goes from awesome to a bit less awesome, then way awesome, to wtf. In a nutshell.

"The Empty Man" is way better compared to the average horror movie that is released nowadays. It has a lot of good ideas, that unfortunately could not be properly developed. The result is an extremely disjointed film, that does not know what to achieve.

The intro lasts more than 20 minutes, which is quite a long time, and does not connect to the main plot until the very last minutes, so why even bother to create such a complex storyline, if it is not used more during the movie? James Lasombra, the main character is an ex cop, that experienced a big trauma and tries to cope with it. I really liked the slow burner approach, as we discover his story, building a lot of suspense and tension. This kept me glued to the screen until the very end. I really enjoyed the idea of the cult, able to summon the Empty Man, but it is not properly established: how this organization managed to call this demon? What is their story? Do they have something to do with all the deaths shown? Because nothing of this is explained, by the end I had more questions than answers. They should have developed more this aspect, because it feels that there are missing pieces. In defense of the movie I have to say that I liked the beginning and the middle sections. How the mistery is developed, the investigation around murders that unveils little by little really dark and sick secrets.

From a mere technical perspective this is a piece of art. There are no cheap jumps scares, which is good, as I am really tired of this useless technique. How the tension is built with subtle and extremely effective noises. Whoever handled camera movements, photography and lighting just nailed it. It was a while that I was not watching a horror shot in this way, with a magnificent sound design and soundtrack. Special effects are amazing and they feel realistic. Hollywood should really take some notes and release more stuff like this.

I enjoy when filmmakers tries to push boundaries and want to experiment, especially when there is a big studio behind. I think that some things are left without a resolution on purpose, so the audience can give his own interpretation about the ending. The problem is that too much is unexplained and this generate a lot of plot holes. Even with its flaws, "The Empty Man" is still a really nice film with solid acting. If you are a horror lover, please give it a chance, you might be surprised.

Hard to determine if this was a good movie or if I even liked it because I had no clue what was actually happening.

I saw this without watching the trailer or without reading anything bah it. Well, the pacing is its biggest issue but the movie is complemented with good acting, good lighting and a moody n surrealistic atmosphere.

The movie is captivating n creepy at times.

The first 22 mins is amazingly shot with oodles of atmosphere n some creepy stuff.

At first i thot this might be another rip off of Candyman, Boogeyman, Bye Bye Man, Slender Man, etc.