Lately, there have been daily recommendations for The Empty Man on HBO Max. With each passing day, it seems to be receiving more recommendations. It's a very interesting phenomenon. It took me back to late 1999/early 2000 when The Ring was being talked about so much.
The Empty Man was directed and written by David Prior. It was based on the comic by Cullen Bunn and Vanesa R. Del Rey. If you would have told me that it was based off a comic, I honestly wouldn't have known. I have yet to check it out. However, after viewing the film, I am super interested to see how different it is.
So the tale of The Empty Man, when you are alone on a bridge at night. If you find a bottle and blow into it and think of The Empty Man. You will summon him. On the first day, you will hear him. On the second day, you will see him. On the third day, he will find you. It's a children's story. A fable. One that cannot possibly be real. However, this film goes on to make you think long and hard on this.
We are introduced to four travellers in Bhutan - Greg, Ruthie, Fiona and Paul. Paul begins to hear a whistling sound. It's drawing him in. While attempting to investigate, Paul falls into a cave. Greg rescues Paul after witnessing him staring at a strange skeleton, but before he does - Paul gives a warning "If you touch me, you will die.".
They uncover a small house that's been abandoned. With Paul now comatose, the others begin to worry. With each passing moment, the weather takes a turn for the worse. They are stranded.
The next day, Ruthie sees a strange figure and is chased by it. The strange figure is a spirit of the strange skeleton from the cave. Later that night while Ruthie is asleep, Paul begins to whisper things into her ear.
The next day, Paul is missing. After searching, they find Paul sitting at the bridge. He is attempting to summon The Empty Man. Ruthie now is hearing the whistling. It's drawing closer...closer... Ruthie attacks her friends and sends herself backwards into the abyss...leaving Paul there alone.
This opening...man is it a perfect film. It could have been cut and released as a short. It is so good. So pure. I was hooked onto every minute of what was happening. And that alone was only the first twenty minutes to the film. This was a 2 hr and 17 minutes film.
The film the opens up and we meet our main character, James Lasombra (James Badge Dale). He's a former cop and is still grieving over his late wife and son. He's working at a security store. He comes home to find a young girl, Amanda (Sasha Frolov), checking on him. She's the daughter of a friend of the family, Nora (Marin Ireland).
The next day, Amanda has gone missing. The only thing remaining was a phrase written on the bathroom wall "The Empty Man Made Me Do It". James begins trying to uncover the events of what happened to Amanda and where is she.
Now, I'm not going to spoil what happens next. That was be a massive disservice to this film. The film is a special one. It's one that kept me thinking about it long after. I have even went over a few of the articles with David Prior. He had mentioned that there are more than one way to view the film. And I definitely agree with it. The film has replayability that changes the way you see it with each rewatch.
I know when I go for a rewatch the film will be different.
Each person that watches the film will be able to take something different away from it. For me, this is the first film in a long long while that I will say broke my brain. I was trying to figure out what was happening and found myself lost in it likes James.
In a sense, this film has an Alice in Wonderland quality to it. The further James goes into things, the more the story spins in a different direction. Or there were times where I found myself pulled in different directions. This resulted in a journey that I never expected.
By the end, I was left open jawed. This is a film that I will remember for a long while after. It is one that I definitely feel like it was underrated when it was released last October. However, it is finding it's audience and continuing to do so each day. Here's to hoping one day that we will get a physical media release of this.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
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