After the Dark Universe – the planned MCU-style reboot of Universal Classic Monsters – began and died with the trash that is The Mummy, Universal Pictures decided to take a different approach with their modern reboots of these cinema monster properties. Instead of doing a forced and goofy shared universe, the studio now focused on making more thoughtful, standalone films. And the first to receive such treatment is The Invisible Man, which is co-produced with Blumhouse.
In this version, a woman in a toxic relationship named Cecilia “Cee” Kass (Elisabeth Moss) runs away from her manipulative and abusive boyfriend Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a revolutionary optics engineer and a wealthy businessman. Her ordeal with him has left her a paranoid mess, but it appears that she will finally find peace when, two weeks after she escaped, he commits suicide. Not only that, but he has also apparently left her $5 million in his will. However, as it turns out, her nightmare is only beginning. In the next days, it seems like an invisible tormentor – whom she suspects is her boyfriend, having faked his death – is bent on breaking her and making those around her believe that she’s going insane.
Not everything about this movie works. But as a whole, it’s efficient, gripping, and clever.
I really love it when thrillers manage to scare with less, and that’s exactly what this movie does. Special effects – mostly wire work and CGI – eventually come at play. But much of the tension in this movie is generated by terrific direction and visceral acting by Elisabeth Moss. A camera will just pan toward a spot in a room, and stay fixed on that for a while. Your imagination then starts filling in the blanks. The mere implication that the invisible villain could be there effortlessly produces an unsettling vibe that’s hard to get rid of.
Moreover, its techno and domestic thriller aspects – especially the latter kind – definitely put a fresh spin on H.G. Wells’ original concept. Grounding it on what’s arguably a valid real-life issue gives this movie a compelling layer of relatabilty.
All in all, The Invisible Man is a solid new vision for this property. And if this is any indication of the style and quality of upcoming Universal Classic Monsters reboot films, then this franchise is looking to be worth getting excited about.
Miscellaneous musings:
- That restaurant kill scene is dumb but awesome. Best part of this movie, in my opinion.
- The thing that genuinely gave me the heebie-jeebies in this movie is the design of the invisibility suit, which is sheer trypophobia fuel. If you don’t know the meaning of that word, do yourself a favor and don’t Google it – especially images of it.
- It was nice to see Leverage’s Alec Hardison, Aldis Hodge, have a role in this movie. I really found that exciting. I just love almost everyone and everything from that show.
- A cool alternate approach that this movie could have done is keeping the audience guessing until the climax if there’s indeed an invisible man or if everything is just happening in Cee’s head.
- Watching this reminded me of 2000’s Hollow Man, another movie inspired by H.G. Wells’ classic novel. It’s no classic. But it’s fun. I think I still enjoyed that movie more than this one.
- An interesting novel about an invisible man that I think deserves a shout-out is Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint. It’s smart and humorous. In fact, I enjoyed reading it more than H.G. Wells’ classic novel.
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