The Invisble Man Review

In an alternate reality, this iteration of The Invisible Man never saw the light of day. On May 23^rd, 2017 Universal announced The Dark Universe. A cinematic universe that would bring classic monsters back to cinemas in a big way. Whereas Marvel who set the precedent on how to run a cinematic universe by taking years to carefully craft and execute a universe of connecting heroes, Universal decided to try everything at once. With the announcement of the universe came the lineup of actors playing the iconic monsters. Javier Bardem as Frankensteins Monster, Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll, Sofia Boutella as The Mummy and Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man himself. On paper, it seemed a sure-fire hit. Unfortunately, any plans of The Dark Universe taking off came crashing down two months later when The Mummy hit cinemas. Instead of a classic retelling of the creature's story, The Mummy as a subpar Tom Cruise action film that has barely any of Sofia Boutella’s Mummy and a chalk dragging scene where Russell Crowe explains the universe. The Mummy was clunky, unnatural and straight-up awful. It was also a box office flop that caused Universal to pull the plug on The Dark Universe before it even started. Fast forward to June 28^th, 2019, Blumhouse announced that they were taking creative control from Universal and were going to produce fresh monster movies for them. Starting with Leigh Whannell’s version of The Invisible Man. A film that will make everyone grateful that The Mummy killed The Dark Universe.

Straight from the beginning of the film, it’s clear that Leigh Whannell isn’t here to make a generic monster movie. In fact, he isn’t making a monster movie at all. The Invisible Man is a story about abuse and the scars it leaves. Elizabeth Moss plays Cecilla who following her escape from her abusive husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is attempting to recover from her trauma. A process that is made all the harder when Adrian kills himself, a suicide that Cecilla believes to be fake. Following a series of unexplainable incidents, Cecilia is adamant that she is being stalked by a now invisible Adrian. Fans of horror will be pleased that this is a nail-biting experience. The feeling of being watched by someone who you can’t see is a fear that everyone on this planet has. Imagine if that fear inside your mind started to physically attack you. You don’t know where he is. You don’t fully know who he is. All you know is that your life is a living nightmare.

The theme of abuse is a tricky and uncomfortable subject to translate on-screen. To do those who have suffered in the past justice is essential as anything else should never see the light of day. The Invisible Man shows that the pain that abuse brings is scarier than anything imaginable. Leigh Whannell wisely chooses to open Cecilia's escape Adrian from Adrian. Many would have had a twenty-minute offensive opening where it shows what exactly Adrain did to her. Instead of trying to give the abuser a platform Whannell focuses his entire movie on Cecilia. We don’t need to see scenes of abuse. Everything is said through Elizabeth Moss’s performance. Her voice is shaky, her body is tightly compressed and her eyes are dark from a lack of sleep. Cecilia does not let her trauma define her at any stage of the film, she's out to get the justice that she and everyone else who has suffered at the hands of abusers deserve. 

Moss delivers a stunning performance. It’s a performance that uses subtlety to strike a huge reaction from the audience. We feel angry that there are women and men in the world who have been physically and emotionally abused by their partners. Partners who manipulate to appear superior to the person they are with. It is time for change. We need to listen to the people who’ve experienced the same pain as Cecilia. Toni Colette did it in 2018 with Hereditary, Lupita Nyong'o did it in 2019 with Us, now in 2020, Elizabeth Moss has once again shown that the horror genre is the place for actresses to deliver mesmerising performances. Gone are the days of the scream queen trope, we now live in a world where the horror genre is ruled by women. Horror is all the better. The genre is constantly showing time and time again that it is all in favour of promoting equality and diversity. When you mix in a director who’s flowing with creativity, you get a must-watch movie.

Leigh Whannell could have made anything following the success of Upgrade, a film that was a better Venom movie than Venom on a budget thirty times smaller. Instead of doing what many successful indie directors do and take on a franchise film Whannell decided to breathe life back into a classic movie monster. The Invisible Man is a character who can only work with a director that is careful in every decision he makes. Whannell uses his direction to make a character who we aren’t even sure is real, terrifying. Multiple times in the film he holds a shot on one location to make you wonder if there’s somewhere in the room. Whannell also chooses to slowly pan his camera across rooms in favour of quick cuts to give every room an unbearable tension. Creating an eerie atmosphere is essential to taking a horror movie to the next level, thanks to Whanell, The Invisible Man will make you sweat uncontrollably for the entire runtime. Fans of Upgrade will be pleased to see that his unique style during fight scenes retunes. If he Whannell keeps it going he will become one of the greats. The guy managed to make an Insidious prequel decent for crying out loud.

The Invisible Man has kick-started 2020 into second gear following a surprisingly slow start. The first great film of the year takes risks that seemed impossible following the calamity show known as The Mummy. Even with a few nitpicky plot holes, the film manages to keep you invested from start to finish. The film's message on abuse needs to be heard by all. If Whannell was to take control of the Universal monsters than maybe The Dark Universe will finally come together. Stranger things have happened. We may have failed with Colette and N’yongo, but we need to get Elizabeth Moss an Oscar nomination. A performance that will never let trust an empty room again. You never know who could be watching.

Overall Rating: 4/5

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