- Audience-Alienating Premise: The film was marketed similarly to Slender Man and The Bye Bye Man, which drove a lot of people away because of how poorly those films were received. It also confused a lot of the people that did end up seeing it, because they weren't expecting a Cosmic Horror Story.
- Awesome Music: The score, composed by Christopher Young (who also composed Hellraiser) and Lustmord, is very unsettling, not unlike the music of Silent Hill. "Portents of Doom"
, The Empty Man's Leitmotif, is a particularly nasty standout. - Cult Classic: The film has recently developed an audience amongst horror fans and Letterboxd due to its unique blend of 1970s horror, J-horror and cosmic horror. While effectively invisible during its theatrical release, it gained some additional attention upon its arrival on HBO and HBO Max. In spite of decidedly poor initial reviews, the Rotten Tomatoes score had rebounded in the year following its release to a Fresh score of 76%.
- Jerkass Woobie: Lasombra is a gruff alcoholic, but he's generally shown to be amiable enough and a good guy who doesn't deserve what happens to him. The Reveal pushes him into being a straight-up The Woobie.
- One-Scene Wonder: Stephen Root has a memorable scene as Arthur Parsons, the leader of the Pontifex Institute.
- Signature Scene: In the prologue where Greg finds a large Beksiński-like skeleton embedded into the cave wall while Paul is in trance by its spirit.
- Special Effects Failure: Some of the shots in the prologue are noticeably greenscreened.
- Spiritual Adaptation: Probably a better Slender Man movie than the actual Slender Man movie.
- Tear Jerker: Lasombra's mental breakdown after he discovers he's merely a tulpa with no free will.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Multiple reviews, even the more positive ones, have mentioned that the Prolonged Prologue in Bhutan would have made a perfectly good film on its own.
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