‘The Invisible Man’ Review
The demise of Universal’s planned monster movie shared universe is one of the best things that has happened to blockbuster cinema in recent years. After all, no one needs to see the Mummy or Dracula as action stars. This fortuitous turn of events caused Universal to shift their plan to low-budget reboots of their classic monster franchises with a focus on horror rather than spectacle. The first of these, Saw co-creator Leigh Whannel’s The Invisible Man, is an auspicious start and one of the best movies of 2020.
The original story by HG Wells follows an optics scientist named Griffin who manages to turn himself invisible and, upon realizing he can’t change back, descends into madness and embarks on a crime spree. Whannel, who wrote and directed the film, makes some clever changes to the story, shifting the focus to a new protagonist, Cecilia Kass, and her attempts to escape her abusive relationship with the psychopathic and controlling Griffin. These narrative changes add depth to the story and make it more than a simple pot-boiler. The movie becomes a thematically resonant work about power and abuse in relationships, and the many ways people attempt to control their partners that often go unseen (unseen, get it?) by outside observers. While the story dips a little too far into cliche during the second half, it works very well for the most part and manages to keep the viewer engaged while also integrating fun elements of science fiction.
Elizabeth Moss’ performance as Cecilia is a show stealer here. Female leads delivering jaw dropping and overlooked performances in horror movies is something of a trend lately, with Toni Collette and Lupita Nyongo both lighting up the screen before being ignored during awards season in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Moss plays a woman on the verge of madness and perfectly captures her character’s manic fear, catatonic resignation, and eventual reemergence as a person with agency. She also goes all-out physically, as she must navigate several tricky scenes where she violently wrestles with her invisible nemesis. The fight scenes are reminiscent of Bruce Campbell’s work in Evil Dead 2 when he fights his own possessed hand, although Invisible Man delivers just as much in thrills as Evil Dead delivers in laughs.
The other shining star in this film is the direction. While many of the scary ideas utilized in the film are not too different from the many other horror movies that have an invisible villain, the direction fills every second of screen time with tension and dread. The first half of the film is a masterclass in how to create tension and induce terror with minimal tools. Whannel masterfully uses deliberate camera moves and clever compositions to build tension. Many of the shots contain large swaths of empty space, suggesting the possibility of an evil presence that we can’t see without ever allowing the viewer to feel safe. Simple choices like this give the movie an incredibly tense atmosphere that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. The audio track also does a lot of work here, complimenting the empty space with subtle queues like footsteps, breathing, and the shifting of wind, trees, and fabric. These audio signals are often so subtle that they lead the viewer and the main character to question whether or not they actually heard those noises or if they are just being paranoid.
Today’s film landscape is rather bleak, as the major studios seem laser-focused on regurgitating the same trash over and over again, but The Invisible Man is a hopeful sign that with the right talent behind the camera, studios can do something clever and inventive with their existing IP. It remains to be seen if the films to follow will be as good, or if this will move the filmmaking system toward more original projects and away from reboots and sequels, but The Invisible Man is a damn good movie and well worth your time.
