The Empty Man

‘The Empty Man’ is a 2020 horror movie starring James Badge Dale (The Kitchen), Stephen Root (Office Space), Sasha Frolova (Red Sparrow), and Marin Ireland ( Sneaky Pete). The Empty Man is a supernatural spirit that is basically manifested from bad thoughts. You summon the empty man by blowing into an empty bottle on a bridge. The first day you hear the empty man, the second day you see him, and the third he gets you. When a group of disappearances occur, a one time detective looks into it, only to find out he may have bitten off more than he can chew.

I went and saw this one on Halloween night and what’s a better way to spend Halloween than watching a scary movie. ‘The Empty Man’ is an interesting one, it really doesn’t fit the horror genre. It’s more of a crime/mystery movie with a splash of supernatural substance thrown into it, it reminds me a little of ‘The Grudge’. The story is great and the acting is solid, the problem is the run time. It’s just shy of being a two and a half hour movie, which is crazy for a movie labeled a horror film, I can’t think of another one with that run length. Even a really scary one, if it’s not a very solid story, it’ll lose peoples interest. This is what happens with ‘The Empty Man’, it’s a great story but not strong enough for the run time. If they trimmed the fat, it would be an amazing film, but it’s about 45 min or so too long. Because of that it’s a mixed film that makes you just kind of shrug and say ehh at the end. I give it a 6/10