The Empty Man’s Twist Ending Explained (What Are Tulpas?)

The 2020 horror may have a hard-to-decipher twist ending, but with The Empty Man explained the deeper layers of its ambiguous finale, vague plot, and the real Tulpa meaning all become clear. The Empty Man was originally shot in 2017 but shelved for a few years when distributor 20th Century Studios was worried the adaptation of Cullen Bunn’s 2014 graphic novel would potentially confuse audiences. Sure enough, when The Empty Man did arrive in October 2020 most reviewers dismissed the intriguing psychological horror as a convoluted yet paradoxically over-familiar facsimile of The Bye Bye Man, Slender Man, and numerous (supposedly) similar genre efforts.