Written by: David Prior
Starring: James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland, Stephen Root, Ron Canada, Robert Aramayo
Rating: [3.5/5]
Solving crimes comes with its own difficulties in finding the right witnesses, evidence, and suspects involved. The last thing any detective needs in the middle of it is a cult controlled by some strange supernatural being but the protagonist of this feature also somehow deals with that. Overly-ambitious and long but incredibly impactful as a whole, The Empty Man proves to be a whole meal of a film and one that will leave you thinking about it long after the final credits roll.
Still grieving from the loss of his wife and son, former detective James (James Badge Dale) seeks to help his neighbor in finding her missing daughter Amanda (Sasha Frovola). As he digs into her disappearance he learns she and others partook in a ritual set to unleash an entity called the Empty Man, which reveals a horrific development on what has been occurring in the town.
Coming in at nearly two hours and twenty minutes, The Empty Man sure pushes the envelope on the length a horror movie could withstand and maintain a strong narrative as well as its thrills. With that much time, there needs to be a concept or development making it worth continuing to follow and we do receive that in this feature in the way everything shifts on multiple occasions to an intriguing degree. Certainly not everything in this feature works, but it makes an impression and demonstrates the vision and ambition of the filmmaker.
The titular character of The Empty Man carries the ritualistic tendencies of other cult characters like Slender Man and others who can be summoned by doing a set of arbitrary actions. They then enter your life and wreak some havoc. The direction this film takes adds an extra wrinkle where this entity not only appears but somehow has developed this cult-like following amongst seemingly normal individuals in the town. This turn and change in the environment make for some bone-chilling moments throughout the feature as well as a look at a fairly gnarly-looking skeleton.
To get the negative out of the way, this feature takes different turns and one it adopts near the conclusion at a point gets a bit ridiculous. It seeks to upend everything we just watched in a way making absolutely no sense, which causes the runtime to feel even more stretched in the way it feels the need to explain everything happening. I suppose in this supernatural world anything can occur but the way the feature shifts and I daresay delivers a twist tries to leave an impact that probably looked much better on paper than the actual execution. This ultimately leads to a conclusion where you’re left scratching your head, but everything else happening before this finale more than makes up for its glaring deficiency.
One scene, in particular, involving cult members in the woods has this dreadful feeling attached to it whenever I even think about it. A scene shrouded in mystery and delivers a truly terrifying sequence delivering a truly satisfying scare not depending on the loud jolt of a jumpscare but on something organically built and well-executed. Very much the highlight and I’m sure anyone who has seen the film will agree. Rewatching the scene after finishing the film still gave me goosebumps.
This descent into discerning exactly what occurs with this cult makes for a fascinating journey where plenty of confusion exists but makes this a detective story where we try to figure it all out along with James. As a character, he does not necessarily carry much intrigue as he ultimately serves as our vessel to take in everything occurring in the feature. He’ll also serve as a vessel in another way if you catch my drift. It ultimately allows for the discoveries to have this sense of gratification but when we learn more about the cults of this entity, perhaps you would plead with James to get out of the situation.
While contending with a shaky ending, The Empty Man ensures to give the audience plenty to think about and quite the exhilarating ride from the onset of the story. Delivering a chilling cold open to the story and everything else James must undergo throughout the narrative allows for quite the ponderous thriller serving as both a detective procedural and an exploration of a cult under the control of some strange and terrifying entity. Certainly, one deserving of appreciation after its entire release fiasco as it hopefully can gain a cult-like following of its own.
Films with Josh 
