Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 12 (The Empty Man)

(CW: suicide)

This was... quite the unexpected piece. I didn't know anything about it going in, so it was certainly an experience. The best summation I can give is that it's very heavy, and I mean that in at least two ways. Certainly the CW up above tells you that there are obvious moments with some heft to them, and there's certainly this pervasive aura around the film as you watch it, especially when you don't know shit about shit going on in the movie. That heft doubles when you get to the heady philosophical and alchemical concepts teeming just below the surface. Combine that real anxiety with the sense of confusion, and Cowboy Bebop at their computer said it best: you're gonna carry that weight. God, anime references, I really am starting to lean back into my old wheelhouse. Let's transition to another topic, quick.

The first 20 minutes of this movie are some wild shit. They could almost be a short horror film in one of those anthology packages. I almost feel bad that I'm going to "ruin" them for a mythical unspoiled viewer who's never seen this movie and now wants to, but I guess I'll hedge my bets and say, go see the movie? Spoiler warning, there are spoilers? I'm not going to go in a spoiler panic and say nothing in my attempt to keep you unspoiled. Who do you think I am? Chris Chibnall? Oh God this blog becomes a Doctor Who blog again in a week. Anyway, 20 minutes of The Empty Man! There's hiking in Bhutan, and a dude falls into a hole and finds a skeleton and becomes catatonic from the experience because something supernatural is happening. With the protagonists all huddled in a cabin and worried about what to do, I expected some sort of Evil Dead experience wherein these people slowly hate each other because humanity is the worst, you know the drill. Well they do get pissy with each other, and one goes way too far in bitching about the catatonic guy's self-harm issues. Before we can get into full Midsommar territory one of the pals stabs the other two to death and throws them off a cliff before jumping herself. Wait, didn't I say we weren't going full Midsommar? Oh Jesus. 

All of that happened 23 years before the movie, by the way, in 1995. Now it's 2018 and we're following a completely different dude. The movie will eventually tie itself back to the weird prologue, but it will take its time in doing so. This is only half a criticism. The Empty Man is a pretty slow and methodical spooky movie, but I can roll with that. I like Star Trek The Motion Picture, for God's sakes. What I like is that you're never sure what's happening, or what hooks to hang your thematic hat on. Is "The Empty Man" going to be some mental health metaphor, given the movie is trading on the theme of suicide? Certainly, the grisly visage of hanged teens all in a row with the dying message "THE EMPTY MAN MADE ME DO IT" could lend credence to that. Our ex-cop everyman protagonist is investigating a disapperance which leads to this string of suicides, or murders made to look like suicides. There really is a spooky boogeyman who we see get at least one of the teens. Strange stuff. As the movie takes you along by the hand, it delves into some real wild shit. Shit I can hardly comprehend, but let's cut through it and get to the heart of it. The big reveal, the main hook of the movie as its twist. Last chance to back out from spoilers.

Existential nihilism and the concept of ideas being made real. There's a spooky doomsday cult worshipping the Empty Man, and they're also existential nihilists who don't believe in any inherent good in the world? The Empty Man, then, is some sort of manifestation of that meaninglessness that drives some to death and others to worship. There is some real gonzo philosophical shit under the hood of this movie, a space engine I don't get. The part I do get is the cult fucking made the protagonist up. Literally willed him into existence as an idea given form three days beforehand, specifically so he can be the next host for the Empty Man. They gave him a tragic backstory for their nihilism and hopelessness to make a stronger cohesive idea and let him loose, eventually knowing he'd become the next host. That's how the movie ends. It's... something. Even though I just told you the big thing by now if you're reading it, maybe check out the movie to see what you make of it. That's just what I made of it, I'm very tired, and now I'm going to lie down and watch something more in my wheelhouse.