No good will come of this.
CW: jump scares, suicide
Well. I don't know what to say really apart from wow.
This was apparently caught up in development hell due to changes at 20th Century Fox, the pandemic shutdown and then pressure to make a cut in a fraction of the expected time for test audiences because of a tax rebate deadline. When the test audience responses came in negatively it was semi-abandoned. So The Empty Man we have is that rough cut with the minimal of rework after the test screenings and it got zero marketing.
It is astonishing.
The précis I've given it makes it sound very run of the mill but it's not. This is proper unsettling slow burn cosmic horror that draws an entirely believable picture of a modern cult. The first 20 minutes is like it's from another unrelated movie but it quickly becomes clear it's not.
Filled with existential dread this is a must watch for anybody who likes Benson & Moorhead etc. while a lot of other people will think it's dull plodding tosh. 9/10 or 1/10 a new cult horror classic.