Disney Is Letting Fox Sneak A Horror Movie Into Theaters As Halloween Approaches

As All Hallows' Eve closes in, many of us are wading into our collections of horror movies looking for a good, wholesome scare. The scariest option, though, might be to head into a movie theater to see the new supernatural horror film The Empty Man, which hits the big screen next week.

The Empty Man, based on a comic from Boom! Studios, tells the story of ex-cop James Lasombra (James Badge Dale) as he searches for a missing girl and comes across "a secretive group attempting to summon a terrifying supernatural entity." As the trailer describes, all it takes to summon the Empty Man is finding an empty bottle on a bridge, and then blowing into that bottle while you think about him.

The story sounds pretty straightforward, but perhaps more interesting is the fact that this movie hits theaters on October 23 when so many movies are being pushed into 2021 or shifted to streaming services. The Empty Man is a holdover from before Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox. The studio first optioned the comic book in 2016, and the movie was initially scheduled to hit theaters on August 7, 2020.

The Empty Man is written and directed by David Prior, who makes his feature directorial debut with this movie; Prior has been directing and producing shorts and video documentaries since 2000. It also stars Stephen Root, Joey Courtney, Marin Ireland, Ron Canada, Sasha Frolova, and Robert Aramayo.