Popular reviews

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  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★ 21

  The first "Where did this come from?" surprise I've seen in a year. Maybe years. Ostensibly a sub-Conjuring modern horror adapted from non-Marvel or DC IP (Boom! Studios, in this case), the movie was directed by David Prior, an editor and filmmaker whose most prominent credits appear to be making-of Blu-Ray bonus feature documentaries on David Fincher films like Zodiac and The Social Network. Why or how he got a chance with this film isn't really clear, but it does feel like the sort of small miracle that's been rubbed out of the Hollywood system of late. And unlike, say, Don't Breathe, Lights Out or other contemporaneous mid-level horror hits, there is no wink here. This one was filmed in…

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  Review by David Sims ★★★★ 13

  The first hour is so freakin confident and enthralling that I forgave some of the meandering in the middle. Jimmy Badge Dale vs. a less whimsical Babadook, told without cheap jumps or frenzied edits. A perfect 20 minute ghost story opening that practically functions as its own short film. What's not to love!!!! Wish I'd seen it in a theater!!!

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 26

  83

  Absurd to think that this was ever considered marketable in the current horror landscape, but the fox/disney merger made it easy for The Empty Man to get swept under the rug. It's a shame, because this 138 minute horror epic is a testimony to the influences of J-horror, particularly Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and cosmic, ontological dread, pulsating within the aesthetic parameters of prestige television ala Mindhunter (considering the director used to work with Fincher, it makes too much sense). So unique is its execution that you'll forgive some rough patches in its plotting. Beginning with a 20 minute prologue that merely plants the seeds for a mythological origin, it's not too far removed from a 'creepypasta' premise or an allegory…

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  Review by Jim Cummings 14

  The Cinematography and editing are on point.
  Sorry, some of y’all recommended this to me months ago and I only just watched it.
  The opening is so wonderful.

  It’s so confirming of indie cinema to see a big horror movie without big actors in it. Like squid game’s success, it always acts as solid proof that audiences don’t care so long as the filmmaking is great.
  The trailer made it look like a Netflix, standard algorithm-driven teen horror movie that was trying to be cool. Boy is this movie not that.
  The film impersonates that now all too familiar sanitized and tame horror glaze, but it is a Trojan horse for a whole bunch of other stuff.
  When something graphic happened,…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 7

  thought + concentration + time = flesh

  A surprisingly nasty, occult creepypasta procedural filled with a real ambitious sense of stillness, rhythm, and texture that bleeds into this strange, practically cosmic horror story about the mind vs. body, the conceptual vs. tangible, the vastness of space vs. a tape recording. Prior loads it with stylish lowlight digital filmmaking trickery and a deliberate structural patience that contributes to this existential tone and tempo that is genuinely odd and frightening and captures what is meant to feel like the last, horrible days of a pre-determined husk. Wish I had gotten around to this before finalizing my top 10 genre movies of 2020. Would've been on the list.

  Full discussion on my podcast SLEAZOIDS here.

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  Review by Emma Stefansky 3

  I hope this does not happen to me

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★

  Has absolutely no business being as long and ponderous as it is, especially given the destination, but then again the length and ponderousness is exactly what makes it distinctive. A little bit Fincher, a little bit Benson & Moorhead.

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  Review by Adam Nayman ★★★★ 3

  A genuine oddity - a movie made with studio resources and fluent in the language of studio product that keeps refusing to conform to studio formulas. It’s not that THE EMPTY MAN is original, exactly - it’s derivative of about a dozen well known horror movies, including several of your favourites- but the specific arrangement of elements and incidents is confident, uncompromising and finally extremely satisfying.

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★ 3

  "I grew up in San Francisco."

  Goddamn, David Prior's The Empty Man rips incredibly hard. It really flew under the radar last year but I’m calling it now that it's going to become a cult classic in just a few short years. This is a supernatural mystery procedural that drips with unsettling atmosphere & existential dread with elements of cosmic mythos, J-horror and ’70s paranoia. It's confidently directed at every turn, shot incredibly well and also this is rare modern horror movie that has the ambitions and scale of a epic, you just don't see movies in this genre done with this kind of scope anymore.
  And that prologue rules!

  
  It would make a great double bill with Angel Heart (1987).

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  Review by Chris ★½ 5

  Aptly named because it certainly left me feeling empty.

  I don't get the underground buzz that this has received at all; the scatter-brained merging of occult mystery, cosmic horror and police procedural is so half-baked on every front that it falls to pieces as soon as its ideas start to solidify. The root of the narrative has potential as some sort of paranormal puzzle, but it just descends into stupidity the longer it goes on before reaching a third act where it thinks simply overloading the senses with hyperactive editing and bewildering twists (so many horror films fly off the rails like this) will distract from the dearth of interesting content and the moronic conclusion. It's like David Prior decided…

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★½ 9

  Highly above average horror movie, so much better than I was expecting. What begins as a hiking adventure in Bhutan that takes a turn becomes a teenage suicide pact in suburban America, becomes an apocalyptic death cult led by Stephen Root, channeling deep, vast and ancient Elder Gods. Everything I look for in a movie! This one works its way to several genuinely frightening and unsettling moments. Very glad I checked this one out.

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  Review by Chris Evangelista ★★★★ 2

  This makes absolutely no sense and it’s also kind of amazing.