After staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist uses his power to become invisible to stalk and terrorise his ex-girlfriend. When the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fight back.
The Invisible Man is incredible. There I said it. Leigh Whannell expertly elevates a classic Universal Monster staple to the 21st century by twisting it into a horrifying Hitchcockian techno-thriller. Once again, Whannell knocks it out of the park, proving that ‘Saw’ and ‘Upgrade’ were no flukes, further solidifying his immense talent. Taking on the legacy of the Universal Monsters is no doubt a daunting task – particularly as we’ve watched the demise of recent adaptations, but Whannell navigates the territory with reverence and mastery.
The perspective is flipped, with the story following Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss), an architect who flees an abusive long-term relationship with optics tech mogul, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), escaping their high-tech home in the dead of night, rescued by her bewildered sister who has no previous knowledge of the horrors which Cecelia has been enduring. She hides out in the home of her childhood friend, James (Aldis Hodge), a local detective and his precocious daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). Tormented by the experience, Cecelia struggles to reconcile her past whilst attempting to integrate back into ordinary society and rebuild a semblance of her life. After a triggering encounter, Cecelia’s sister arrives to deliver life-altering news – Adrian is dead. This news should bring peace, but Cecelia is paranoid, still haunted by her abuse. A series of spooky events ensue, such as a pan suddenly catching alight or Cecelia’s architecture portfolio sheets mysteriously disappearing during an important job interview – tension mounts as Cecelia begins to realise that she’s been stalked by an unseen entity, which she is wholly convinced is Adrian, and nobody believes her. The bizarre occurrences and her insistent, panicked rhetoric are making her look unstable, and that’s exactly what Adrian wants. Up until this point, we were teased with possibility and suggestion – then about midway through, the film completely gives into itself and spirals into total madness and mayhem and it is truly awesome.
Elizabeth Moss is a total powerhouse – I cannot stress this enough. After excelling in emotionally complex roles such as ‘Top of the Lake’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘The Invisible Man’ gives her ground to showcase her incredible talent. She commands every scene with stifling attention. Her performance is incredibly nuanced – her frenzied emotions are electrically palpable. Occasionally the camera will pan to obscure places or angles – lingering on the blank wall above Cecelia’s head or purposefully panning to a cluttered corner. It’s in moments like these we see that Moss and her performance’s perfect marriage to Whannell’s direction is the real star of the show.
This review was meant to be up before the world went banana sandwich over COVID-19, but alas, college and work got in the way so I urge you; if your country is currently under lockdown and you weren’t able to catch The Invisible Man in cinemas before everything went to hell in a handbasket, then PLEASE do yourself a favour and preorder it on DVD or Blu-ray. I can’t stress it enough – I LOVE this movie. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a stressful yet fulfilling cinema visit in my entire life. I yelped, I cowered, I hollered along with every other person in the theatre – it was totally unifying and cathartic.
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