"We transmit, you receive."
The Empty Man is a 2020 horror film directed by David Prior (AM1200) based on a Boom! Studios graphic novel series of the same name. The film stars James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland, Stephen Root, Ron Canada, Joel Courtney, Robert Aramayo, and Sasha Frolova.
The movie follows James Lasombra (James Badge-Dale), a retired police officer who investigates the mysterious disappearances of a group of teenagers reportedly linked to an urban legend in the town known as The Empty Man.
The Empty Man provides examples of
- The Adjectival Man: The eponymous Empty Man.
- The Alcoholic: Lasombra is usually Drowning His Sorrows. In his first few scenes, he has empty beer bottles beside him.
- Ancient Evil: The previous Empty Man is seemingly this, judging by the remains the hikers find in the prologue.
- Apocalypse Cult: The Pontifex Society, according to their in-universe Wikipedia page.
- Arc Words:
- "We transmit, you receive", "itch in the brain", and "nothing is real".
- "Where were you?", in regards to Lasombra's Dark and Troubled Past.
- Bedtime Brainwashing: Paul ends up doing this to Ruthie on the second day in the prologue.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Amanda. After TheReveal, it turns out that she's actually one of the most overtly sadistic and malicious characters in the entire film.
- Black Speech: Certain people affected by The Empty Man are seemingly compelled to whisper... something... to other people. All that's audible is the tapping of their tongues and lips. Whatever this is, it causes several people who hear to kill themselves, and it causes Ruthie to commit a Murder-Suicide in the prologue. It's heavily implied that the whispering has other effects as well. The seemingly gibberish of the tapping of tongues and lips also ties to the Pontifex Institute's nihilistic view of reality that words have no meaning and ultimately all is gibberish. The same whispers emanate from the strange black cloths hanging in Amanda's and Lisa's rooms and the Pontifex Institute compound, but said whispers (and intermittent subtle blue glow) only emanate from the object during random intervals.
- Brown Note Being: When Paul encounters The previous Empty Man's remains in the prologue, he almost immediately becomes a host for The Empty Man.
- Bystander Syndrome: Lasombra kidnaps Garrett in broad daylight on the street. When he glances around to see if there are any witnesses, every single person is staring at their phone.
- Chekhov's Gun: The mace that Lasombra stocks in his security store gets used for a Vehicular Kidnapping.
- Church of Happyology: The Pontifex Institute passes themselves off as a self-empowerment group. They're actually a cult that is exploiting The Empty Man's power for, among other things, The Power of Creation.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The Pontifex Institute are using The Empty Man's power to experiment with this, up to and including the creation of thoughtforms.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Veers hard into this after Lasombra starts investigating The Pontifex Institute.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lasombra’s wife and son died in a tragic car crash while he was having an affair with Nora. It turns out this backstory was written for him by the Pontifex Institute.
- Dead Star Walking: Joel Courtney dies very early on.
- Deadly Bath: Davara Walsh is killed in the shower.
- Decoy Protagonist: The film has a lengthy prologue with four characters, three of whom die by the end of the prologue, and the film then picks up with our actual protagonist.
- Demonic Possession: Seemingly happens to Paul by the Empty Man in the prologue. In the end, it appears the same is will happen to James Lasombra.
- Dies Wide Open: Davara dies with her eyes open, and the Empty Man closes them.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title of course refers to the title monster, but it also refers to Lambrosa himself, who is not truly a man, but a Tulpa.
- Downer Ending: Lasombra is a Tulpa, everything he knows is a lie, and he ends up becoming The new Empty Man because, after learning all of this, he has no reason to fight it.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous: Davara dies in a sauna while completely naked.
- Due to the Dead: After killing Davara, the Empty Man closes her one remaining eye.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- The Other/The Between One, an entity "of pure black chaos" which uses The Empty Man as a transmitter to communicate with the cultists. It is unclear if the skeleton in the cave during the prologue is The Between One, or the previous Empty Man.
- Certain members of the "Noosphere" (the sum of all conscious thought) which includes the minds of inhuman things "ancient and angry."
- Empty Shell: Paul becomes this after being exposed to the Empty Man in 1995. Might have happened to Lasombra at the end of the film, after he kills Paul and becomes The Empty Man's new host.
- Establishing Character Moment: Lasombra is introduced jogging and then taking a break to smoke. This is a guy going through the motions of keeping it together but fraying at the edges. We then see him give some helpful security advice to a woman at his security store and then skip out for lunch to get drunk.
- Evil Phone: Lasombra gets a call from a mysterious source while talking with Nora.
- Existential Horror: Veers into it at the end with Lasombra, when he learns that he was a tulpa created by the cult with no free will or real existence.
- Eye Scream: Davara is repeatedly stabbed in the eye when she dies.
- Fighting from the Inside: When Paul is found by the other hikers, he tries to warn them that they will die if they touch him. He also sheds a Single Tear when his girlfriend, Ruthie, is compelled to kill the other hikers, then herself. His running away on the third day could also be him trying to get himself away from the other hikers before something happens.
- Foreshadowing:
- Amanda talks to Lasombra about the power of thought, before she goes missing. She's telling him how he was created.
- Paul is the only hiker who isn't afraid to cross the bridge in the prologue. Bridges end up becoming an important motif around The Empty Man, which is later described as a "bridge" between The Between One and The Pontifex Institute. Furthermore, as stated below the word "pontifex" is Latin for "bridge builder".
- After Paul is possessed by The Empty Man, Greg discovers his Self-Harm scars. It's later revealed that The Empty Man's power manifests most effectively "through the cracks of sorrow". This is why Lasombra was The Pontifex Society/Institute's first successful attempt at a thoughtform, and it's why both he and Paul became hosts for The Empty Man.
- In the first few scenes, Lasombra is seen near a number of empty beer bottles, which become a motif and a symbol of the cult.
- One of the questions on the Hidden Purpose Test at The Pontifex Institute is "The Brain Can Itch". Both Garrett and Amanda later describe The Empty Man's influence as an "itch in the brain".
- Lasombra is noticeably unaffected by the cultist's Black Speech both times he's exposed to it. This is because he was created, in part, by it.
- Although Lasombra wasn't around for it, he still has visions of the accident that killed his wife and son, seemingly having a pretty clear picture of what and how it happened. It's because the memories were implanted on him to make it as painful as possible.
- The Bystander Syndrome scene itself might be this, as by that point, Lasombra has already found out the body in the hospital and is nearing the end of his journey, and they don't need the people to react to him anymore.
- Genre Shift: The first 20 minutes are survival horror the middle part urban legend ghost story and the final portion is full-blown Cosmic Horror Story.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Learning that nothing is real except The Empty Man and "its reality" isn't too kind to the psyches of the Pontifex Institute cultists.
- Heroic Willpower: Defied. The Pontifex Institute gives Lasombra such a depressing backstory so that, when it's time for him to become the new Empty Man, he won't have the motivation to fight it and live for himself. It works.
- Humanoid Abomination: The remains in the prologue; a giant humanoid skeleton with massive hands and Spider Limbs. It is unclear if these remains belonged to the previous Empty Man or the eldritch abomination known as "The Other" aka "The Between One."
- Meaningful Name:
- "Pontifex" is a Latin word meaning "bridge builder". It's also an old term for a pontiff or bishop, or, a "bridge" between man and god; Pope Francis even uses "@Pontifex" as his Twitter handle. This fits with both Paul and Lasombra, who become hosts for The Empty Man, or, "bridges" between The Empty Man and the real world. It also fits with The Pontifex Institute, who operate as a Religion of Evil, and created Lasombra to be The Empty Man's new host, i.e. "building a bridge", and functioning as their spiritual leader a la the Pope.
- La sombra is Spanish for "the shadow", a hint that Lasombra is really a Tulpa.
- Metaphysical Fuel: The Pontifex Institute are using The Empty Man's power in their experiments. To continue doing this, they created Lasombra to replace The Empty Man's current, deteriorating host.
- Mirror Routine:
- After Lasombra is noticed by the cultists at the camp, they start copying his movements en masse.Lasombra: Yeah, no. (starts running as the cultists chase after him)
- The Empty Man also does this with one of the hikers in the prologue.
- After Lasombra is noticed by the cultists at the camp, they start copying his movements en masse.
- My Car Hates Me: Lasombra's otherwise perfectly serviceable car won't start right away when he's trying to flee from the Zerg Rush of cultists.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The promotional materials play up the Slender Man-esque elements of the film. This is mostly in the first half, the second half is more of a Cosmic Horror Story.
- Pet the Dog: Lasombra shows that he's a good guy by suggesting a better alternative of mace to a woman even though he'll get less money from the sale.
- Possession Burnout: Paul's body is deteriorating after being The Empty Man for so long.
- Prolonged Prologue: The prologue in Bhutan with the Decoy Protagonists takes about 23 minutes.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The Empty Man forces people to kill themselves, which they see as him killing them. Such deaths are accompanied by the phrase "The Empty Man made me do it" written in blood.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Lasombra starts suffering them shortly after blowing into an empty bottle on a bridge.
- Religion of Evil: The Pontifex Institute worship The Empty Man, who according to the cultist Garrett, acts as a transmitter or "prophet" for the Eldritch Abomination known as "The Other" or "The Between One." They are using its power to create thoughtforms.
- Rule of Three: People exposed to The Empty Man are affected over three days, and this three-day cycle happens three times; to the hikers in the prologue, to Amanda's friends (and fellow cultists) and, finally, to Lasombra himself.
- Sanity Slippage: Lasombra clearly starts losing it near the end, culminating in him crossing the Despair Event Horizon after discovering he's not even real.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the crowd of cultists spot Lasombra and start matching his footsteps, Lasombra mutters, "Yeah... no," and sprints away.
- Shout-Out:
- The phrase “We transmit, you receive” is a Call-Back to David Prior’s previous short film AM1200.
- Lasombra addresses Garret as "Neal Cassady" due to the young man's Beat Generation lingo.
- The police detective Lasombra meets with several times is named Villiers, a nod to The Great God Pan, which shares a few thematic similarities with the movie.
- A large poster for "The Misfits" hangs in Amanda's bedroom.
- Straw Nihilist: Amanda and the Pontifex Institute believe that loss is nonexistent, separateness is an illusion, that nothing is real to the world, and that The Empty Man, the "prophet" for an Eldritch Abomination will help humanity to discover the truth of life.
- Surreal Horror: The film dabbles in this a lot. When Lasombra discovers Pontifex cultists at the camp, the stars in the sky start to warp behind him as they complete their ritual. There's also the Mirror Routine when the cultists finally notice him.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Lasombra learns about tulpas early on, and sees the cult attempt to create some throughout the movie. By the end, he discovers he is one, with an actual file folder holding cutouts of generic news articles used to create his life story. The revelation is timed in such a way to incapacitate his resistance to The Empty Man's attempt to use him as a host.
- Tulpa: Lasombra was created as a new host for The Empty Man.
- Undead Abomination: The Empty Man may or may not be undead. At the very least, that's probably its' skeleton that Paul finds in the cave, but the Empty Man can't really be considered alive, being made up of thoughts.
- Vehicular Kidnapping: Lasombra maces and stuffs Garrett into his car.
- Zerg Rush: The cultists dancing around the fire ultimately rush after Lasombra in a big swarm.
