The Empty Man (7/10) - Entertaining horror mixing different well-known topics.

This movie felt like different stories being mixed together and creating a very complex plot with important twists throughout the story. At the beginning, it seemed as if the story was going to be a different version of well-known curses related to paranormal figures such as Bloody Mary of Slender Man. That’s what I thought after watching the first scenes.

Then, cult elements are added into the mix, and now there is not just 1 paranormal figure but also a group of people that appear to know a lot about this particular occult topic. Later on, in the second half of the film the plot takes another turn and some similarities with the movie Hereditary start to appear.

Once the movie ended, I understood why the movie had a length of more than 2 hours. It seemed weird to me to find a horror movie with such a length but after watching its complex plot unfold it was clear that a regular length of 90 minutes wouldn’t be enough.

Despite its length the movie wasn’t boring but it did felt slow at times. It doesn’t have many horror scenes, but there is 1 particular scene that justifies the use of the horror genre. I didn’t find it terrifying but truth be told, nowadays I hardly find horror movie/series that actually scare me. I think the last time this happened was when I watched The Haunting of Hill House in the first episodes a couple of years ago.

The film has gorgeous imagery at times, it is an extremely well accomplished production and the performances from the cast was great. The only thing that could be criticized might be its length, which can be considered excessive, and the fact the plot appeared simple at the beginning but gets more and more complex as the movie advances and the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper until a game-changer twist is revealed in the end.

Since I am a horror fan, I decided to watch the movie despite its bad reviews and I enjoyed it. I think most horror fans will enjoy this film too. If you are looking for a mix of typical horror approaches (paranormal being with curse, weird cult, Hereditary-like hunting) then this unique movie will be worth watching.

The best

• I enjoyed the unique plot.
• Good imagery.
• Great performance from the cast.

The worst

• Its length.
• It felt slow at times.

More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5867314/ Review: AAA In numbers: 7/10