The Invisible Man (2020 Review)

The Invisible Man Reboots the Classic Universal Movie Monster as the Ultimate Gaslighter.

Let’s face it, of all the classic Universal movie monsters The Invisible Man has been the most neglected. Even the Phantom of the Opera got a big-screen musical remake in 2004, and we’ve been stuck clinging to Hallow Man as the “ultimate version” of the character for 20 years. Well, move over Kevin Bacon, because director/writer Leigh Whannell has taken the character from a gimmick to full-on nightmare fuel. The Invisible Man is a taut, edge of your seat thriller that manages to make you terrified of a character you barely see on screen. Thanks to solid performances, impressive camera work, and so much tension a knife can’t even get through it, The Invisible Man is going to be the horror film to beat this year.

The film updates the tale of the classic literary character from mad scientist to abusive gaslighter (still a mad scientist though). This time he’s played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen (as Adrian Griffin) who is a controlling narcissistic sociopath, but also a brilliant leader in the field of optics. This story isn’t about him though and instead focuses on his abusee, Cecelia Kass (Elisabeth Moss), who starts the film with a daring escape from his lavish compound. Terrified that Adrian will find her and hurt her, she hides with a friend of her sister, Detective James Lanier (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter (Storm Reid). When Cecilia hears that Adrian apparently killed himself she thinks that her nightmare might actually be over. It’s only beginning though as strange occurrences threaten her sanity and lead her to believe the impossible: Adrian is still alive and found a way to make himself invisible in order to continue tormenting her. 

I was a huge fan of Leigh Whannell’s first film, Upgrade, and I was looking forward to seeing what his keen directorial style could bring to this classic tale. He manages to make the character and concept even more terrifying as he tweaks the character from a run of the mill mad man to a 21st-century abuser and gaslighter. Realizing that a movie about a man terrorizing a woman to the point of threatening her sanity, Whannell switches focus from the villain to the victim and casts Elizabeth Moss, who gained fame from her role in The Hand Maiden’s Tale, a series that has clear parallels to this film. She proves to be the perfect choice to play a traumatized victim of abuse, and her performance is crucial to the success of The Invisible Man. This is because, shockingly, you don’t really actually see the villain that much. That means Moss has to sell the idea that she is being terrorized by something none of us can see. Moss knocks it out of the park though as she brilliantly portrays her character’s sanity slipping, forcing her to become desperate to prove that the impossible is real and she is not going crazy. 

The key to The Invisible Man is the suspense. The film has to work overtime to make audiences scared of essentially nothing and still manages to make it look effortless. Of course, Moss plays a big part in this with her reactions and wide-eyed terror. However, noise and lack thereof also goes a long way. Since we can’t see the villain, we’re forced to strain our ears like the characters, listening for any hint of where the threat could be lurking. Instead, we’re met with all the sounds that might help to cover his tracks. A breeze, waves crashing on a shore, even rain, they all become threats in their own way as they aid Adriane in his deadly game of cat and mouse. When he does strike, he does so with unrelenting brutality. There was a real risk that the scenes in which men are beaten senseless by an unseen force could have looked cheesy and comical. However, Whannell has an incredible eye for action and manages to make them horrifying as blood flies and people desperately try to defend themselves to no avail. 

At its heart, The Invisible Man is a movie about a relentless, psychopathic stalker: A man who will stop at nothing short of absolutely ruining his victim’s life. As great as Moss is, I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Griffin and the inner workings of his mind. We never actually get to see him at his worst and only hear others describe how awful he was. One of the golden rules of cinema is that you should always show and never simply tell. Because of that, I wanted to see at least one scene where Griffin loses control and makes the demented decision to psychologically torture Cecelia for leaving him. Not to validate him as an abuser, but to show his skewed and twisted his perspective is. I wanted the film to let us see that he is as insane as he hopes to make Cecelia. I understand that not including this was an attempt at making him a faceless representation of the invisible abuse that so many women suffer from and is seldom believed, and I actually “enjoyed” the way that concept was portrayed. However, I would have liked to have seen The Invisible Man show just how horrific this unseen monster really was.     

I fully applaud this new version of The Invisible Man. Gone is the stupid serum, replaced by an insanely creepy looking suit that manages to only make Adrian Griffin scarier when you can actually see him. Moss’s Cecelia proves to be one hell of a final girl as well, once she undergoes her own character arc and decides to fight back with everything she has. It’s a movie that I simultaneously loved and had a hard time watching at points since it shows the reality of the PTSD that comes with abuse. Even though I barely got to see Adrian on screen, I hated him for everything he put Cecelia through. I know from experience just how devastating gaslighting can be as it forces you to question your own sanity, and The Invisible Man captures that perfectly. It’s an incredibly well-made horror remake, and I hope Blumhouse will give more classic monster movies the same treatment.