THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The scariest thing about overcoming terror is that you never know when it comes for you before you can. That is exactly what unfolds in The Invisible Man.
PLOT
Inspired by HG Wells’ 1897 novel first adapted in 1937, the 2020 Blumhouse film follows Cecilia Kass escape from her abusive boyfriend Adrian Griffin. She pulls it off with the assist of her sister Emily and stays with her childhood friend, detective James Lanier & his daughter Sydney, until she feels comfortable to be independent enough to live without the fear of Adrian going after her. It appears that the troubles are over when his brother Tom, acts as his lawyer, gives her $5 million in his will when he is found dead in his home via suicide. Things instead get worst when she suspects someone else in his house but James believes her to be overreacting. When going for a job interview, her portfolio contents were removed and she faints. Upon recovery, the doctors inform her she had a high dose of diazepam, which was what she used on Adrian to escape from him. Cecilia confronts Tom on the possibility that his brother must have figured out how to turn invisible to continue tormenting her, due to his optics expertise that made him CEO of the human-computer augmentation company l. However, she seems to be proven wrong when Tom shows picture proof of his suicide. Things only get worse for Cee when she finds her email hacked where someone wrote a letter to Emily that disowns her, making her sister believe she did it personally. One night, an unseen force hits Sydney and the teen mistakes it to be Cee. When she and James choose to keep a distance by leaving their home, Cee takes advantage of the situation by investigating the house. She gets proof of her torment in the attic when finding her portfolio contents and Adrian’s cellphone. When the invisible man catches up to her, she goes back to Adrian’s home to find proof on how he’s been able to be invisible in the first place. It turns out that he made a bodysuit that can turn invisible. When the invisible man finds her again, she hides a spare suit before retreating. She then calls Emily to meet her at a restaurant to share her discovery. Before she could, the invisible man slits her sister’s throat and frames her for it. When she gets committed to a psychiatric hospital, the staff confirms her to be pregnant. During her stay, she tries to tell James of what she found but he still doesn’t believe her. When Tom visits her, he reveals to be his brother’s accomplice and makes a deal with her where the charges will be dropped in exchange for her going back to him and raising the baby with him. Refusing to be his prisoner again, she fakes a suicide attempt to lure him out. As she escapes, Adrian attacks & kills multiple security guards in the progress. Not wanting to hurt his baby, he vows to go after someone Cee loves. He tries to kill James & Sydney, but she gets there in time to stop him by shooting him with a gun she took from the security. Unmasking the invisible man, they find Tom in the suit while authorities find Adrian tied up in his apartment claiming his brother held him captive. Upon hearing this, Cee deduces he plotted it all including using his brother as a scapegoat for everything that’s transpired. With the proof of the suit exonerating her, she voluntarily has dinner with him, intending to make him confess of his actions while she’s wearing a wire set up by James who listens from afar. When he doesn’t budge, she excuses herself to the bathroom only to put on the spare suit she previously hid and use it to kill him by slicing his throat, staging it as a suicide he faked in the first place. The film would end with James deducing what she did and choosing to keep her actions secret, accepting Adrian would never confess.
THOUGHTS
Going into the 21st century, has been a living hell for Universal to give a good reboot of the Universal Monsters catalog, aka the Dark Universe. Apart from 2004’s Van Helsing being a blast, no film afterwards hit the right mark in being purely terrifying. The Wolfman ‘10 was under appreciated at its time, whereas Dracula Untold and The Mummy ‘17 wanted to replicate the MCU formula which badly backfired. I wish Warner Bros. accepted they’re making the same mistake with the Conjuring Universe. With that being said, it’s a fucking miracle that Leigh Whannell, who famously collaborated with James Wan for the likes of Saw & Insidious, pull off a tremendous feat in making a modern makeover for a story that is over a century old and remain entertaining. The idea of an invisible man can sound silly on paper, until you know what kind of man is hiding behind the public eye. Whannell takes things to a whole other level to a setting that is relentless in feeling intense. He could've played it close to the chest in having the character Adrian become the titular character via potion like in the 30s film. Instead, he only keeps intact that he is a scientist and twists the fact in a technological sense to make a smart twist in which his invisibility comes from a bodysuit that has dozens of lenses surrounding it, projecting images on the opposite side, transmitting and playing footage of surroundings at all times. And it’s even crazier it can’t be detected by metal detectors which is why he snuck into the hospital without notice. For a mad scientist, that is god damn impressive. If you don't feel claustrophobic from all the silence that occurs when Benjamin Wallfisch's score isn't playing, it'll definitely kick in when taking notice of Stefan Duscio's cinematography where you'll leave yourself wondering where the threat could come from when you know you won't see it. From Cee's opening & daring escape to her climactic revenge, it's all masterclass suspense and Duscio deserves all the credit for making that lifelike atmosphere. The character itself has a 180 itself because while the novel and 30s film make him one mad once he gains the power, this one shows him to be one who was hyper controlling from the start and uses his intelligence for the wrong reasons. When we do get to see him, Oliver Jackson Cohen makes the best of it in such a psychotic figure. He didn't hesitate showing his true colors when Cecilia is isolated but when he knows he's being watched, he'll pretend to be innocent and hint his true colors with a single grin. Add this with Michael Dorman being wrongfully supportive of a brother as Tom, he felt unstoppable until he found out the hard way he was not. With such a manipulative figure, it becomes a miracle he got to be stopped by someone who was stronger than he thought. Adrian may be the character that gets us invested from the start, but it's obvious he's not the one we're rooting for this time. Putting aside the fantastic television performances from The Handmaid's Tale and Mad Men, Elizabeth Moss gives an all timer performance in the lead as Cecilia. We root for her because domestic abuse is highly common and not to take lightly. She's so emotionally vulnerable because she never thought she'd escape from Adrian until she did and despite taking a big step, she briefly questioned her own sanity, which proved how much he mentally broke her. It felt like she lost everything when her sister died and her best friend started doubting her. Once she found out of her pregnancy, she gained newfound motivation to regain control of her life. The way she turned the tables against her abuser by hiding the spare suit incase it would get too far was so smart because she wasn't gonna stop until she was free for good. And when she got her revenge for all that she lost, it's hard to not be satisfied as she was. Her journey is so god damn inspiring for those in similar predicaments as hers, telling viewers to always take charge when feeling oppressed by those who want to hurt you one way or the other. When you feel such a thing, it's a damn shame this performance was ignored during awards season. Moss is indeed the scene stealer, but it's great to see that her character was not alone in the fight. Both Harriet Dyer and Aldis Hodge were respectively great in the roles of Emily and James who are solely concerned in protecting Cee and helping her transition to her newfound freedom. Dyer really felt captivating to me as Emily because she wants to be her shield once she knows her sister's ordeal and definitely was that when it came to helping her escape and being there for the will reading. Of course that fell out of the window when Adrian manipulated the friction, but she always chose to hear out her sister because that is what family does and it was saddening for her to be killed to be believe her. Hodge was great as James because he realistically plays him as a guy who has to see to believe. He wants to be on Cee's side, but has a hard time accepting the truth when it takes so long for him to get the proof needed to defend his friend's sanity. I even got to give a young shoutout to the young Storm Reid, who plays Sydney as a kid self aware enough to give caution in Cee's predicament while still being friendly enough to tell her she's safe. Each bond Cee has with her friends is endearing and it's a shame they were in harm's way. But then again, we were all in relief when the threat was dealt with for good. This movie will hold up just as great as its predecessor, but there were still a handful of things that confused me as I rewatched. Now I was caught off guard when Adrian hit Sydney. But I’m confused on how she thought it was Cee when she was on the floor and the invisible man came from the right. It’s one thing to be distraught but another to think illogical. I was then shocked on how the invisible man killed Emily at the restaurant and framed Cee, but how does he pass the knife to her so fast after slicing Emily throat? If this is the one time Tom was wearing a suit at the same time as his brother, that should’ve been more clear. I love Emily for having her sister’s back but even if you’re going to announce Adrian’s dead, she could’ve called ahead and sent her the tabloid in advance out of respect to her still feeling paranoid. And ain’t a little suspicious for Tom to have the fake death pictures of his brother right when Cee was already theorizing what Adrian was doing? It’s one thing to have her continue suggesting she’s paranoid, but I feel like James should’ve been a little suspicious for him to still have that on him when he had no idea what she would suspect. I’m even surprised Cee didn’t check her portfolio before she left the house because since she’s on guard at that point of the story, she should’ve done so. It was a great jump scare when Cee drops paint on Adrian when he follows her up the attic, but how was a kitchen sink enough to get all the paint off the suit?i understand he wouldn’t use the shower because that would better her chances in fighting him, but I highly doubt the kitchen sink did the work he was hoping for. I don’t even buy the fact Tom can drop the charges on Cee when the only way that can happen is if they reveal Adrian made the suit. It’s a badass scene when Adrian fights all the guards, but why does it take so long for the three at the front to respond? They had to have seen the monitors to know there was an invisible man kicking some ass. Ignore this, then this movie is indeed special for what it is. In conclusion, Blumhouse's The Invisible Man is a great retelling that is done with caution which delivers in the long run, earning all it's financial success that came its way before the COVID-19 pandemic. If you love domestic horror or the Universal Monsters, this is totally worth your while due to being the best of both worlds.
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