The Empty Man (2020) - Held my attention

I don't know whether it says something about me, or Hollywood's output in general that one of the best 'ratings' I can give a film is whether it can actually hold my attention for an hour and a half (assuming Hollywood ever puts out a ninety minutes film any more!).  I've seen so many horror films over my life that most of them just kind of merge into one bog monster stalking one big group of annoying teenagers.

It's about an ex cop who helps investigate when a close friend's daughter goes missing.  He soon discovers she's been messing around with the supernatural, which leads him to yet more disturbing revelations.

First of all, is it just me or is having a male lead in a horror film quite a new thing these days?  It seems that roughly since Naomi Watts starred in the US remake of 'The Ring' way back in 2002, it's always a woman who gets caught up in this sort of supernatural tale and has to get to the bottom of it?  This change alone actually seemed to give a tried and tested formula an air of originality.

All the performances are fine and all actors do their best with what they're given.  No the dialogue will never win any Oscars, but everyone generally behaves in ways you'd expect and you shouldn't find yourself shouting at the screen when characters do insanely stupid things which leads to their (or someone's) inevitable death.  I won't go into the rest of the story too much as there are some things (dare I call them 'plot twists?') that you might not see coming and I don't want to spoil the movie for you.

If it does have one major flaw, it's the same flaw that 99% of modern films seem to suffer from and I've already eluded to.  It's probably a bit too long.  I'm guessing you could probably edit this down closer to an hour and a half and not lose too much.  However, it clocks in at over two hours which does mean it tends to drag in places.

Although 'The Empty Man' hardly shatters any glass ceilings in terms of creativity or content there is definitely enough there to make it deserving of a couple of hours of your life.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that