The Empty Man - 2020 - 6/10
From Bhutan to Missouri, the soft, wind-blown note draws those susceptible.
An ex-cop is asked by a friend to look for her missing daughter.
What he finds are her best friends, murdered or suicides.
Investigating deeper, he finds a cult like group, Pontifex, and the word tulpa.
While never officially warned off, he is increasingly spooked.
This is a flawed film. The cult, the philosophy, worldview, are creepy and bear an odd echo.
Here is the inverse of aspiration, the embrace of nothingness.
Yet, the driving force, the “empty man”, is ridiculous and out of place.
Buried within this is a fantastic, eerie gem, but the beastie is beneath stupid.