The Empty Man was not my favourite horror film of 2020- that honour goes to The Dark and the Wicked– however, for me, it is an obvious runner-up. And given time, I think The Empty Man will end up the most esteemed film of 2020 by horror fans. After all, the film’s troubled released and subsequent redemption makes the film a true underdog story, and who doesn’t want to root for an underdog.

If 2020 came and went, but you hadn’t heard of The Empty Man it is not really your fault. Director David Prior was near the end of filming his debut feature when the famous Disney acquisition of Fox happened. Turns out, The Empty Man would be the last film to begin with that famous 20^th Century Fox logo. When the House of the Mouse became boss, they rushed the film to completion, then continuously delayed its release. History has shown us that the entertainment mega-giant had little faith or leftover properties that it did not greenlight, and The Empty Man was a far cry from the family-friendly fare they wanted for their new streaming service. The delay was so long that Prior even believed his film simply got shelved. Then in October of 2020, with little marketing (and mis-marketed as a teen horror at that) The Empty Man was unceremoniously dumped into theaters while the world was suffering the effects of a global pandemic.

The film failed to impress at the box office, but a few critics and those with a taste for mature slow-burn horror tried singing its praises as loudly as possible. Soon after, the film became a favourite of podcasters and youtubers when the subject of underappreciated movies came up and it gained a bit of a cult following ever since. Now, its pretty much ensured that The Empty Man is going to find its way on every “hidden horror gems” list for the next twenty or so years.

The Empty Man follows four thirty somethings hiking in the mountains of Bhutan. At least it does for the first twenty-two minutes of what has to be one of the the best, and longest, prologues to ever be put at the start of a horror film. (Fun Fact: Twenty-two minutes is about the same length as a sitcom without the commercials.) I’d tell you about more it, but why spoil the fun.

With the lengthy prologue out of the way, The Empty Man, which is based on a graphic novel of the same name, only has one hour and fifty minutes left to dedicate to the main story. Wait…what? Why is The Empty Man so long? I don’t know…ask Disney. From what I’ve read, Prior did not have as much involvement with the final product as he would had liked once it entered post-production. But its length is also part of the fun. The Empty Man has a crazy, sprawling story that feels surprisingly epic. Unlike other films based off a graphic novel, nobody is going to say the pacing of The Empty Man feels rushed. And watching all the seemingly barely connected threads all pull suddenly together is an absolute joy.

The film revolves around James Lasombra (James Badge Dale), an ex-cop living in Missouri who is haunted by whispers asking, “Where were you?” James doesn’t seem particularly interested in interacting with people. He even eats alone on his birthday. But James does seem appreciative of a somewhat random visit he gets from Amanda (Sasha Frolova) his neighbour’s teenage daughter, who says she is checking in on him before talking strangely about how people can channel thoughts from a consciousness- all consciousness really- that exist outside of ourselves. Sweet girl. Little nuts. Too bad she is soon to go missing shortly after mysteriously writing “The Empty Man made me do it” in blood on the bathroom wall.

After seeing Amanda’s mother, Nora (Marin Ireland), in distress and deducing that the police are not interested in treating the incident more seriously than a teen acting out against her mother, James volunteers to search for Amanda. And so begins an investigation so Lovecraftian that its kind of amazing ol’ H.P. didn’t pen the script himself.

The Empty Man is a horror blender. It starts as a supernatural horror, but it does not take long for the presence of a death-cult to help take it to whole other cosmic level. Watching it conjures up memories of so many other different films. Candyman. Ringu. Kill List. The Endless. The Wailing. And, of course, it reminds me of “The Call of Cthulhu”.  Yet even feeling all these influences, I would never argue that The Empty Man does not pave out its own original path to terror.

Beyond the overt horror, Prior pacts The Empty Man full of little details that only add to its creepiness. Stephen Root plays a cult-preacher whose friendly demeanour and willingness to share is more unsettling than had he simply acted like the secretive cult-leader archetype. His talk is all cult nonsense, but he says it with a conviction and warmth that you actually get why vulnerable people might listen to him. In another scene, Sasha Frolova walks on and off a bed with such freakish surreal ease that I hit rewind to see it again. And James Badge Dale goes through the whole film with a look that conveys infinite sadness. No CGI necessary in these scenes. Even the audio track, despite the film’s troubled post-production history, are expertly done.

In the end, how you feel about The Empty Man will ultimately come down to how much you understand and accept its final reveal. It is an ending that has left many in the theaters confused, partly because it leaves ideas open to interpretation. (Again, this was marketed as a mainstream horror horror.) Truthfully, it took me about two days to untangle all the layers of the film because, for once, I couldn’t find a satisfying explanation online (you know, the lazy way) to give me the easy answers my very specific questions. (If you ask me, I’ll gladly tell you what I think. Those thoughts are not for here…cause you know…spoilers.) But despite its intentional ambiguity, Prior’s ending ultimately hammers home the theme of grief, loss and depression that The Empty Man is really all about.

Sure, The Empty Man could be a bit shorter, but I personally like it at this length. Ironically, considering Pior’s lack of involvement with the editing, it almost feels as if we got the Director’s Cut first. Few horror stories feel this monumental in its storytelling. As a director, David Prior’s films with the capability seasoned veteran and the industry has taken note. Since The Empty Man, Prior has been selected as one of the guest-directors of an episode on Guillermo del Toro’s coming anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities.  

Now that it has found its proper audience, The Empty Man is gaining a reputation for being one of the better adult horror films to come out over the last few decades. Give it a whirl and see for yourself. Regardless of how you feel about the film, there is no denying Prior work shows an ambition that is rarely seen in horror.

And that prologue is to die for.