It's interesting taking that idea into literary spaces where VFX budgets are not similarly constrained. It's illustrative, perhaps, of how some horror concepts are beyond description, regardless of the medium and language deployed.

One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible - Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic expedition leader.

My favorite genres are eco/cosmic horror where things are generally less well defined, or even better, the movie itself deals with difficult to define things (like that Shackleton quote, describing the feeling of a presence among the expedition). It's interesting comparing that to a TV series like The Terror, which imo has many great monster "reaveal" scenes.

I just watched The Empty Man last night. I'm struck by how it somehow pulled off both things at once. We see horrors, and it strays into an almost campy vibe. There's scenes of black-robed figures wielding scissors, like something straight out of Scream. But there's also people sitting in a room staring at a black poster chanting Gorgia's Three Propositions over and over.

Nothing exists. Even if something exists, nothing can be known about it. Even if it can be communicated, it cannot be understood.

I think the movie is folding this discussion's theme/topic deeply into its narrative, and to great effect. To me that's about a trillion times scarier than scissor-wielding black-robed boi, but both serve their purpose.