The Chilling Cosmic Horror of ‘The Empty Man’ 5 Years Later
There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not so-called “cult classics” can exist in the streaming era. In a world where nearly every film ever made is available to watch at the click of a button, and where niche online communities can unite fans of even the most obscure international releases, how can we say […]
There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not so-called “cult classics” can exist in the streaming era. In a world where nearly every film ever made is available to watch at the click of a button, and where niche online communities can unite fans of even the most obscure international releases, how can we say that an easily accessible modern feature is part of the same underground movement as something like The Rocky Horror Picture Show when it’s just as easily viewed as the latest Avengers flick?
However, what many critics fail to realize is that this overwhelming availability of niche films is also responsible for burying potential hits underneath an ever-growing sea of similar releases. That’s why, at least to me, a modern cult classic isn’t necessarily a movie that cultivates a passionate fan-base through alternative means of distribution, but rather an easily accessible gem rescued from obscurity by online word-of-mouth.
My personal favorite example of this phenomenon happens to be David Prior’s criminally underseen The Empty Man, a cosmic horror tour-de-force that’s only ever really mentioned in whispers among lonely internet forums. And with the film celebrating a full five years since it was unceremoniously dumped into a handful of theaters by an uncaring studio, I think this is the perfect opportunity to look back on a hidden gem that came very close to becoming a modern genre classic.
Before The Empty Man, writer and director David Prior worked on behind-the-scenes documentaries for Hollywood big-shots like David Fincher and Michael Bay. It was only when Prior stumbled onto Cullen Bunn’s 2014 comic-book series The Empty Man that the filmmaker realized he had something special in his hands. While the Boom! Studios graphic novel chronicles the investigation of a mysterious global pandemic that causes people to commit suicide and leave messages blaming a metaphysical entity known only as “The Empty Man,” Prior envisioned a hypothetical adaptation as a smaller-scale prequel that would take place before the memetic disease became a worldwide threat.
Production on this weird little comic-book movie actually began way back in 2016, with Prior partnering with Mark Roybal – the then-vice-president of productions at 20th Century Fox – in order to secure a hefty budget of $16 million. Unfortunately, it seemed like the universe itself was hellbent on sabotaging the picture, as a restructuring of Fox’s executive hierarchy, tax rebate deadlines and even bad weather ended up contributing to a long and painful production that wasn’t even allowed to use its entire budget.
“Three weeks ago, a mother fed her newborn infant to a pack of stray dogs. She said the baby had been whispering to her.”
The Empty Man was just barely completed in late 2017 when production hit the biggest hurdle yet: the acquisition of Fox by the Walt Disney Corporation. Due to negative test screenings (which presented a rushed assembly cut of the film that was cobbled together immediately after filming), the higher-ups decided to shelve the picture entirely and refused to let Prior complete a more polished version of the flick. That’s how The Empty Man ended up trapped in distribution hell until Disney finally decided to dump it into a handful of theaters in October of 2020.
Of course, the final nail in the film’s proverbial coffin came in the form of the real horror of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic. With zero marketing push and audiences unwilling to risk their safety in order to watch what appeared to be yet another urban-legend-inspired thriller in the vein of The Bye-Bye Man or even Sony’s infamous Slender-Man adaptation, it’s no surprise that The Empty Man was soon forgotten.
And yet, despite setback after setback, a handful of critics and influencers began to discover this hidden gem as they plowed through their streaming backlog during lockdown, with their recommendations soon spreading to other horror fans much like the Empty Man himself. That’s how I eventually stumbled onto the flick and realized that its unique blend of Lovecraftian existentialism and complex mythology was right up my alley.
If you haven’t seen the film, The Empty Man opens with a lengthy prologue following a group of climbers who encounter cosmic terror in the mountain ranges of Bhutan. The rest of the story then focuses on traumatized ex-cop James Lasombra (James Badge Dale) as he investigates the disappearance of a young woman who vanished after engaging with a local urban legend. James’ investigation eventually leads him down a multi-layered rabbit hole featuring new age cults, the concept of Tulpas (living thought-forms) and even his own personal demons as our main character slowly realizes that reality itself may not be what it seems.
Having grown up on a steady diet of H.P. Lovecraft and online Creepypastas, I was enthralled by Prior’s chilling epic from the very first minute. Elements like that initial encounter with the inhuman skeleton in the mountains (something that feels more like a deleted scene from one of Lovecraft’s latter-day novellas than anything you’d see in Bunn’s original comic) and the neo-noir setup reminiscent of a Harry D’Amour story make it feel like The Empty Man was tailor-made for fans of intricate narratives that inevitably bleed into real life.
That’s why I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the film has so much in common with the Slender-Man Mythos. Not necessarily because Prior is attempting to recreate these DIY mysteries about obsessed protagonists and secretive cults, but because he’s interested in emulating that unique feeling you get when you’re experiencing one of these stories for the first time and end up falling into a dark rabbit hole filled with layered meta-narrative
“We’re each of us blind in our way. Distractions rob us of focus. Technology robs us of memory. Repetition robs us of comprehension.”
It actually makes a lot of sense for the film to focus heavily on Tulpas, as supernatural thoughtforms used to be a common way for online creators to blur the lines between reality and hyper-fiction back when Creepypastas and horror ARGs still ruled the internet (something you can learn more about by watching Alex Hera’s excellent Slenderverse documentaries). I won’t get into spoilers in case you haven’t yet seen the film, but that mind-shattering reveal about our main character is a perfect example of using meta-fiction to create genuine terror.
Of course, that’s not even mentioning the film’s excellent use of atmosphere. Not only is the photography impeccable, but the detailed production design really helps sell the idea that this localized mystery will soon evolve into an apocalyptic ordeal – and I especially appreciate the rainy ambience that permeates the second half of the picture. Hell, even the flick’s soundtrack kicks ass, with the eerie music being the product of a collaboration between veteran composer Christopher Young and infamous dark industrial musician Lustmord.
At the end of the day, The Empty Man is far from a perfect experience, as the film clearly needed to be cut down to a more manageable runtime and the experience would have benefited from some exposition-focused ADR (I’m also not a fan of the antagonist’s ghostly design during the hallucinatory chase sequences), but I believe these minor faults are more than compensated by the sheer amount of passion that went into telling a such an intricate story without the whole thing devolving into nonsense. And in a world where most movie monsters have been repurposed as metaphors for trauma, the idea of an eldritch being infecting our very thoughts is pretty badass.
That’s why I’m not surprised that the film continues to find more fans among hardcore horror enthusiasts, with The Empty Man even inspiring a handful of recent productions also focused on meta-horror. It’s just a shame that this still happens to be Prior’s only feature film, as I’d love to see what he could come up with next if given the chance.
It almost feels appropriate that a film about the dangerous side of storytelling would itself become something of an online legend, with quite a few eccentric fans suggesting that the flick’s troubled production was the result of a genuine curse, but I actually find it inspiring that audiences can be trusted to actively seek out a genuinely interesting movie even if studios do everything in their power to bury it. So if you’re a fan of mind-bending investigative horror in the vein of In the Mouth of Madness and Lord of Illusions – or if you’re curious to see if Hollywood could ever successfully tackle the complex mythology of online horror legends, I’d highly recommend giving The Empty Man a chance.
