The Empty Man (2020) - Movie Review
What do you get when a brilliant cast of character actors is given a script to perform which is a mix of Nietzscheistic /Nihilistic philosophy with a dash of the secret and a splash of the work of Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Noriko’s Dinner Table)?
One of my favorite movies in a long time!
No, not just because I got to use big words on my starter question.
Not entirely…
After the raging turdstorm of films I had to watch in 2022, 2023 has started off with back to back bangers. The Night House restored my faith in the artistry of cinema and The Empty Man restored my faith in nothingness.
It’s a one-two punch of awesome that I needed in these trying times.
I hate my day job and the world is on the brink of WWIII, but it doesn’t matter because—the Empty Man says so.
That basically sums up the movie.
Thanks for reading.
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Just kidding!
I had you didn’t I?
Uh huh, sure tough guy/girl/nonbinary.
For reals this time…
…The Empty Man is puedo-supernatural horror / mystery brought to us by writer/director David Prior based on the acclaimed graphic novels by Cullen Bunn.
Two more nobodies, am I right?
The only thing of note Prior has done prior—pun INTENDED, was directing a an episode of Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix. However, seeing as the directors of those episode were hand picked by Guillermo del Toro, I’d say he has a bright future. And even though The Empty Man has been savaged by reviewers, I think it’s an amazing coming out party for a young director on the rise.
The film focuses on James Lasombra, a former detective with the St. Louis police department whose in the midst of grieving the loss of his wife and child. Having retreated into the bottom of a bottle, he has given up on life. He spends his days toiling away in his security shop and drinking himself to sleep at night. That is until Amanda, the daughter of his best friend goes missing along with all of her friends from school. The only link between their disappearances are the strange black posters advertising the Pontifex Institute. Although when James visits the institute, everyone seems to know him, and they want him to stay. As bodies begin to pile up and James finds his sanity tested by the myth of a newfound boogeyman, will he solve the mystery in time to save Amanda or will he be the next victim of the Empty Man?
If I’d been told that Soderbergh had shot this film, I would have believed it. The film is shot clean with subtle filters and an organic grit that makes it feel real.
You know the type of movies that feel lived in?
This is one of those.
Also, the special effects both practical and digital are executed to perfection. The majority of them are old school camera techniques and slight of hand, but the oldies are the goodies as far as I’m concerned. This film capitalizes on the cornerstone of both Hitchcock and Lovecraft’s works—the fear of the unknown.
It’s what you don’t see that truly terrifies you.
In that respect, sound design becomes important and this film spares no expense. I watched the film with Dolby 7.1 Atmos headphones and it was a treat. Ghostly footsteps, breaths from the dark, and the sudden changes in the score all were crisp and perfectly blended to create an aural soundscape similar to the greatness heard in The Night House.
This film is all about trying to figure out what’s real and what’s not. Are you hearing something in reality or in your imagination? Can you trust anything you're seeing?
It’s a slow burn with flare ups. This is a thinking person’s movie, but it doesn’t spare on the shocks. There are multiple scenes where I jumped. Not because of a cheap jump scare, but because the atmosphere was built to such a level that when the violence was revealed it was almost too much to handle.
This is why I reference Sion Sono, as this is the closest western film I’ve seen come to the brilliance of the nihilistic scripture that is Suicide Club.
The cast is lead by one of the sub-villains from Iron Man 3, also known as James Badge Dale. Dale is a fantastic character actor, which is why you see him popping up in everything, just never as the lead. He’s got leading man looks, but he’s so much more than that. He portrays the sense of loss and devastation his character feels with such wanton abandon, I feel like he needed to go to therapy just after filming.
The rest of the cast is filled with stellar performers of which you’d recognize their faces, but wouldn’t be able to remember their names. People like the great Stephen Root, Ron Canada, and Marin Ireland. Everyone in this movie acts their asses off. The fact that there’s no big star isn’t a hinderance, but a help—as it makes the movie more believable.
Many times a big leading star can ruin a film just by being, well, themselves.
In this you have an ensemble of selfless performers who believe in what they’re saying—Stephen Root and Sasha Frolova especially.
I can’t recommend this movie enough.
It’s currently streaming on Disney+.
Now…
…without further ado.
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Okay, this is going to be a marathon.
The film starts out with the ascension of Paul in the Himalayas, as his friends are killed in a brutal murder suicide. His sacrifice of everything he loves was the ticket to the opening the gate which allowed him to become the transmitter the Pontifex Institute was looking for.
Which, to the viewer made you think that he was The Empty Man.
However, he’s not. He’s the transmitter, the one who gives the instructions. The one who guides the faithless to perfect oblivion. He provided the way in which to manifest The Empty Man, but it took many tries.
As you see in the film, the 13th Manifestation was a failure in which a group of kids at the camp manifested a six armed demonlike figure—very similar to that of the skeleton at the beginning of the movie. This is another trick as this creature is not a demon or monster—even though it appears to have killed the people who manifested it—it was a mistake.
Manifestation, in the world of the film, takes extreme concentration and planning. It isn’t something to be attempted lightly, or by someone who lacks proper imagination and drive.
Enter Amanda, an artist whose artwork we see at the beginning of the film. She has an eye for detail for decoration, and a heartless desire to be a success within Pontifex.
Thus, she did her ritual of manifestation utilizing the lives of all of her friends from school. She lured them out to that bridge and twisted their arms until they all unknowingly offered themselves up as sacrifices to the cause. None of them were true acolytes of the Pontifex Institute. They were marks, conned into being led to slaughter by Amanda and her ritual.
You see the previous rituals didn’t follow to true instruction of the Transmitter. Much like the sacrifice of his loved ones opened him up to his divine purpose. To manifest a new transmitter, even greater sacrifices were required.
Thus Amanda tricked those kids into calling upon the powers of oblivion and thus the darkness came. A dozen hung under an overpass, one stabbed herself in the face until dying, and poof—one James Lasombra.
LaSombra meaning: One you embraces the Darkness—a true predator.
If you watch the movie back, you’ll see many of the films scare scenes reflect James being born into the world. That night on the bridge is the mirror image of the day James visited. They were are separate sides of the veil, but in communication through sound and thought.
Much like when James is in the rafters of the Pontifex institute and also on the ground floor simultaneously.
Amanda was completing the manifestation.
Everything we saw James go through was a story Amanda wrote. You see the evidence in the folders in the cabin. Every detail and tragedy of his life was mapped out based on a real person who looked nothing like him.
James isn’t actually real until the final few minutes of the film, once he’s crossed over.
Amanda’s initial visit at the beginning of the film was a mediation, no it was more akin to a germination. James was an embryo, clawing itself to the surface. In solving the mystery of who and what is was, he pierced through..
He was what mystics call a Homunculus or Golem. Most often made from clay, these creatures are fashioned for a specific task or purpose. They are birthed through complex and often grotesque ceremonies that involve blood, urine, and other bodily fluids.
However, in Modern Satanic philosophy, it has been posited that a homunculus could be manifested through the use of extreme thought and spiritual energies. Read up on the death of the rocket scientist Alan Parsons for a good idea of how such experiment have turned out.
I love a movie that allows me to delve back into my occult studies from seminary.
If you read the spoilers without watching the movie, shame on you.
However, I’m sure it makes even less sense without seeing the movie, so—go watch it.
