20 Horror Movies That Weren't What Anyone Expected

10. The Empty Man

There was desperately little hype about The Empty Man leading up to its release - from its generic title to its nothingburger marketing and the fact that Fox clearly sent it out to die, there was no reason to expect anything more than another intensely forgettable supernatural horror film.

But The Empty Man is so, so much more than that.

Director David Prior's film about an ex-cop's investigation of a missing girl splinters off in a number of unexpected and fascinating directions. 

From a mesmerising opening sequence, which could easily function as a God-tier short film in its own right, The Empty Man continually toys with what viewers are primed to expect from this type of movie.

It's a film that continually reinvents itself across its 137-minute runtime, having far more in common with late-period David Lynch than goofy urban legend movies like Slender Man or The Bye Bye Man.

And frankly, we should've expected more from a filmmaker who spent a decade shadowing David Fincher as his behind-the-scenes documentarian.