The Empty Man
Came out; 2020
Time; 2 hour 17 minutes
Watched on; On Demand
Rating; R for violence, disturbing images, language, some sexuality and nudity
IMDB Rating; 5.7/10
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
James Badge Dale as James Lasombra
Marin Ireland as Nora Quail
Sasha Frolova as Amanda Quail
Samantha Logan as Davara Walsh
Storyline;
On the trail of a missing girl, an ex-cop comes across a secretive group attempting to summon a terrifying supernatural entity
Thoughts;
The opening to this movie takes forever. It also starts off very strong. It seems like this is going to be a rather crazy movie. Cut to the opening credits, the movie then goes to a different place and time.
We meet former Detective James Lasombra. This movie pretty much revolves around him, his neighbor Noral Quail and her daughter Amanda Quail. I only listed the main characters above although there are tons of people in this movie.
It becomes a bit hard to understand as the movie runs forever.
Plot Summary; CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert
Ura
Valley, Bhutan, 1995 - Four friends - Greg (Evan Jonigkeit), Paul
(Aaron Poole), Fiona (Jessica Matten), and Ruthie (Virginia Kull) -
are hiking on a mountain to reach a spot they have been searching for
a while. A text reading "DAY ONE" appears. After he blows
into what looks like a flute instrument, Paul then seems to hear
something calling to him. He walks until he falls down a crevice.
Greg goes in to rescue him and finds Paul sitting down facing a
bizarre-looking skeleton while muttering something to himself. The
skeleton appears to move slightly, but Greg gets Paul out in time.
The friends carry Paul out and spot a nearby house with nobody in it,
so they stay there for now.
On Day Two, Paul's condition
doesn't appear to get better, as he is just lying around in silence.
Outside, Ruthie appears to see a figure in the ongoing snowstorm. As
she steps back, the figure matches her footsteps before starting to
charge toward her, but she runs back inside the house and shuts the
door. When she hears pounding outside, she continues to block the
door until she hears Greg and Fiona. Ruthie asks them if they heard
or saw anyone outside, but they deny it. As Ruthie is sleeping later,
it appears as though Paul is whispering something in her ear.
Day
Three - Greg, Fiona, and Ruthie bring Paul with them as they continue
their hike in the area. Ruthie appears dazed until she takes out a
knife and stabs Greg and Fiona, throwing their bodies over the edge
of the cliff before she throws herself off, leaving Paul by himself
while he simply blows into the flute instrument.
Jump to
Missouri in 2018 where former detective James Lasombra (James Badge
Dale) is working in a security store. He frequently hears a voice
saying "Where were you?" since it has been a year after his
wife Allison (Tanya van Graan) and son Henry died in a car accident.
He frequently looks out for teenager Amanda Quail (Sasha Frolova), as
he is friends with her mother Nora (Marin Ireland). Amanda hasn't had
a good relationship with Nora since her father passed away, so she
looks to James as an alternate figure.
Amanda soon appears to
have run away, and Nora calls James for help. They find a message on
her mirror written in blood, "The Empty Man made me do it."
After official detectives take on the case, James decides to do a
little investigation of his own.
James visits the high school
to find Amanda's friend Devara Walsh (Samantha Logan). She sits in
his car and tells her about a couple nights ago when she and Amanda,
plus friends Brandon (Joel Courtney), Julianne (Marijke
Bezhuidenhout), Meyer (Connor Dowds), Lisa (Jamie-Lee Money), and
Duncan (Owen Teague), were walking across the nearby bridge where
Amanda decided to summon The Empty Man, an urban legend that takes
three days to appear. On the first day, those who summon him will
hear him calling to them. On the second day, he makes his presence
known to them. On the third day, he finds them. The teens all blew
into a bottle as per tradition. Devara also remembers seeing Amanda
whispering in Brandon's ear similar to how Paul whispered to Ruthie.
Devara thinks she sees The Empty Man in the woods before she leaves
James's car.
Later that night, James goes by the bridge to
continue looking into Amanda's disappearance. He finds the bottle
that they were using and he blows into it. James then walks down a
ladder that leads underneath the bridge where he comes across the
hanged corpses of Brandon, Julianne, Meyer, Lisa, and Duncan. The
same message from Amanda's mirror is also written. Meanwhile, Devara
enters a spa, and when it is foggy enough, The Empty Man attacks,
stabbing her with a pair of scissors but making it look like she was
stabbing herself. It is officially ruled as a suicide, but James
finds the circumstances too unnatural to be believable.
It is
now Day One for James. He looks further into the origin of The Empty
Man. He reads into a cult called the Pontifix Institute that has
beliefs originating from places like Bhutan, which would explain how
the four friends came across Empty Man there. James goes to the
Institute's location, where leader Arthur Parsons (Stephen Root)
speaks before a whole crowd. Afterwards, he talks to James and
references Empty Man, referring to him as an entity that provides his
followers with what they desire as long as they do his bidding.
Day
Two - James starts following people associated with the Institute. He
is led to a hospital where an older Paul is sitting in a vegetative
state, but the people entering his room appear to be bowing and
chanting something to him. The other detectives chastise James for
getting involved in the case when he is retired. He later visits
Nora, who is still worried about her daughter. James asks her if
Amanda knew about the two of them apparently being together, but Nora
says no.
James is led into the woods where he finds what looks
like the entire cult hooded like Empty Man, stepping toward him
closer and closer before they chase him. James runs to his car and
escapes from the cult.
On Day Three, James finds Amanda, who
is acting under the influence of the cult and Empty Man. She explains
to James that an "empty man, with nothing to lose or gain is the
perfect vessel to project Empty Man's messages. She starts repeating
"Where were you?" to James, as he is forced to relive the
trauma that has been haunting him. On the night that Allison and
Henry were killed, he was engaging in an affair with Nora. He has
since blamed himself for not being there to have prevented
it.
James, now fully drained of his consciousness and
humanity, goes into the hospital to Paul's room. He unloads his gun
into Paul's head. The doctors and nurses, all members of the cult,
look to James as their new Empty Man.
