The Invisible Man (2020)

“I’m not crazy.”

Cecilia

Those who regularly read my reviews might know that I very rarely see horror films, especially in the theaters. I’m one of those who watches through my knees and forgets to breathe if it gets too intense, but The Invisible Man (1933) is one of my favorite classic monster films and I was intrigued by it, especially once I found out that Blumhouse was involved. I remember when Universal began to build “The Dark Universe” that an Invisible Man film starring Johnny Depp was coming down the pipe, but after The Mummy (2017) failed so tragically I thought it was cancelled. It was in a way, we will never see that version of The Invisible Man, but I don’t think it would’ve been very good if it was anything like The Mummy. What remained of that idea got recycled from potentially an action film into a full on horror film, and it is no longer a part of the cancelled “Dark Universe.”

Straight from the opening titles, this movie feels like an older-style monster film and that immediately got me engaged. Without going into spoilers, it’s got a very slow build that only makes the anticipation of the finale more and more intense as time goes on. We follow Cecilia Kass (Elizabeth Moss) down her spiral into paranoia as she believes her abusive ex-boyfriend, Adrian Griffin, is stalking her even though it’s been shown that he committed suicide and is no longer a threat. As she pieces the puzzle together, we can feel her frustration when everyone else thinks she’s going insane until it’s up to her to take matters into her own hands. Elizabeth Moss does a fantastic job in this film considering she’s doing most of the action scenes totally by herself, she truly makes us believe that she believes there’s someone else in the room with her even though the audience can’t see him.

The camera work and sound design in this movie were unexpectedly good. There are several long takes where the camera tracks from Cecilia to a door, pauses for several seconds, and then pans back to Cecilia. We’re never 100% sure where Adrian is, and we don’t always know he’s even actually there for sure. If you listen closely you’ll sometimes hear his footsteps, or hear him shifting his weight on the floor, but it’s extremely unsettling when you can’t hear him at all. My eyes were always hugging the edge of every shot in this film, you always feel like he’s standing just over her shoulder, or right behind her, but again you’re never completely sure of your suspicions until its too late.

The Invisible Man I believe is a solid reboot that takes the original material and does something new with it. I thought it was scary (it doesn’t take much for me, so maybe it’s not as scary as I thought it was) and very suspenseful with a slow but purposeful build. There’s a single scene in the movie that I thought didn’t line up with certain character motives and that took away from the movie to me, but the rest I thought was very skillfully done. The Invisible Man gets a 8.5/10 from me, and I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a good scary movie. It is rated R for “some strong bloody violence, and language” and goes into some touchy themes such as abusive relationships. I cannot do large amounts of gore and I didn’t think it was overly gory, but if you’re sensitive to topics or certain visuals I’d use some caution if you’re going to see this movie.