H.P. Lovecraft Meets Se7en In Modern Horror Cult Classic Finally Returning To Streaming

Published Sep 29, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft and Se7en have a must-watch horror film coming to streaming very soon. Despite nearly a century having passed since his death, Lovecraft remains one of the most influential and frequently adapted authors in horror history, with his Cthulhu mythology, in particular, inspiring everything from John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness to the record-breaking Minions & Monsters. Though based in an entirely different genre, David Fincher's Se7en also continues to have its presence felt as filmmakers try to recapture its definitive mix of a dark detective story and bleak visual iconography, including one movie that is about to reclaim a streaming home. Inspired by the Boom! Studios graphic novel of the same name, David Prior's The Empty Man centers on James Lasombra, a former detective in the Missouri area now working at a security hardware store, who is also still grieving the deaths of his wife and son in a car crash. When his friend's teenage daughter Amanda runs away, and some of her classmates begin disappearing, James finds himself thrust into a dark investigation with the only connective thread being the folk tale of The Empty Man. Led by 1923's James Badge Dale, alongside The Terror's Marin Ireland and Widow's Bay's Stephen Root, The Empty Man quickly found a spot in Hollywood's most infamous film releases as Disney, having freshly acquired 20th Century Fox, put the horror thriller in theaters with no real fanfare or marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though not as devastating as others that got the same treatment, the movie did ultimately become a box office failure, grossing just under $5 million against its $16 million production budget, and initially divided critics before steadily garnering much better reviews. The Empty Man Is Bringing Its Mix Of Mystery & Terror To Hulu Very Soon Now, nearly six years after its unceremonious theatrical debut, The Empty Man is making its way back to streaming on Hulu. Beginning October 1, the horror-thriller will return to the platform, having previously been available there in 2024 and 2025, but departing as part of routine content shuffling. Most recently, the horror-thriller has been available to stream on FuboTV. The decision to bring The Empty Man back to Hulu's library comes at the perfect time for a few reasons. For starters, by putting it back on the platform in October, it gives it an entirely new spotlight as viewers look for horror-driven content to celebrate the Halloween season. Additionally, the movie's range of availability continues to be limited, with Apple TV, Fandango At Home and Prime Video carrying the movie on their VOD stores, but it still rarely ever maintains a streaming presence. That isn't for a lack of trying on the part of writer/director/co-editor David Prior, who made his feature debut on The Empty Man. While speaking with ScreenRant for his episode in Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, he lamented the lack of a physical release for the film, teasing having developed a "beautiful 4K master" for a home media release, along with "half an hour of deleted scenes," but that the studio is reluctant to do so. Why The Empty Man Is Perfect For Lovecraft & Se7en Fans Despite it getting such a quiet release at the time, The Empty Man has followed in the footsteps of many other Lovecraftian tales by frequently being hailed a modern cult classic. Said to have been a product of 20th Century and Disney having doubts about the film due to poor test screenings, the horror-thriller didn't see many reviews in October 2020, but has since amassed enough to get a solid 73% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, meanwhile, remain divided as ever, with the film holding a 39% score on the review aggregate. As more and more viewers have taken to helping build the passionate cult following that the movie now has, many have cited the clear Lovecraftian influences throughout The Empty Man. From numerous characters embodying existential beliefs to the one consistent supernatural being seen in the film being reminiscent of the Nyarlathotep from the 1920 poem and larger Cthulhu Mythos, it's hard to deny Prior wanted to capture the same fear of the unknown Lovecraft was known for while tackling the ambiguous mystery of the source graphic novel. It's this supernatural layer that also makes The Empty Man a perfect viewing for fans of David Fincher's Se7en in how much it aims to eschew an atypical detective story. Prior, who previously worked with Fincher on a variety of his documentaries for his films, starts the proceedings as seemingly another teen slasher in the vein of Truth or Dare and Candyman with its urban legend-based spate of killings, but quickly begins to shift away as it gets into its surreal exploration of the nature of identity. With how often cult classics take time to attain a level of mainstream discussion, it will be interesting to see if the upcoming Hulu release finally pushes the horror-thriller into said space. Release Date October 23, 2020 Runtime 137 Minutes Director David Prior Writers David Prior, Cullen Bunn Main Genre Horror