★★★★
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Classification: 15
What makes a monster?
The term has us conjure images of strange beasts, creatures of sharp teeth, gnarled claws, with scales and tails as they stalk and prey upon the audience we can only process them as inhuman. Giant dinosaurs that roar loud, aliens from ancient worlds, demons from nether realms, our subconscious protects us with films supernatural fantasies disconnecting from our reality, but the fear is still palpable. The first century of cinema has delivered many iconic and unforgettable horrors but even as time goes by with failed reboots and ill-advised cinematic universes, the oldest terrors still can redefine what it means to be a monster and what it means to be afraid. The Universal Monsters are unique, most adapted from literature with their original interpretations forever iconic on the silver screen through Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Reins, these were men transformed into monsters. Our malleable humanity and conscience reflected within them and their actions as they succumbed to anger, fear and hatred with their stories serving as an allegory to our own society, how we make the monsters. H.G Wells' original novel told the story of a man driven mad by the power of invisibility as the god-like gift made him a cruel with anarchistic violence, how the laws of men were fleeting when one is made truly unaccountable. James Whale's 1933 film with Claude Reins faithfully adapting that very tale still ingrained in our pop culture but now over 85 years later writer-director Leigh Whannell has The Invisible Man return in a terrifying but ingenious modern update exploring the monstrous behaviour of abusive men.
Whannell's interpretation is not an exercise of nostalgia and member berries as the film tosses aside the bandages and fedora for a brand new toolbox of scares solely to torment Elisabeth Moss' Cecilia Kass. In a chilling opening sequence of tense sound design (the work by the whole sound team just elevates the dread to 11) Cecilia silently enacts her escape from her manipulative and abusive boyfriend Adrian Griffin, the reality to the horror of The Invisible Man couldn't be more relevant or palpable. In this era where women are publicly standing up to their abusers through the MeToo movement but also forcing society to recognize the toxic behaviour of men and the double standard of believing men and women, Whannell uses our cultural turmoils to craft tantalising horror of a woman escaping her tormentor. While the characters around Cecilia interpret her frantic hysteria as just that, the harmful actions of a woman scarred as Moss's physical and transformative performance trap the audience into her headspace of isolation and terror. Whannell having Griffin's invisible tactics be akin to gaslighting, as his silent actions cut Cecilia apart from her new life and force her back into his control. The metaphors to the horror are obvious but never explicitly said as its the subtle direction that makes The Invisible Man so compelling.
Whannell and cinematographer Stefan Duscio can change the atmosphere of a scene with a single camera angle, a focus shift or smooth camera movement. When your monster can be anywhere in any scene, everywhere becomes drenched with frightful possibility, is he watching you? is he in the room? the smallest of actions have the most daunting of contexts. A bedsheet being pulled back, the buzz of a cellphone, missing paperwork, minuscule actions that pile up to a breakdown leaving Cecilia desperate to prove she isn't crazy. The issue here though is that with the title we know she isn't crazy, Whannell's direction doesn't really create a sense of ambiguity to what is happening, yes there is a mystery to where and how Griffin is enacting his torture but we can still see him move knives and breath in the cold air. The revelation that Griffin is alive and invisible isn't a twist Whannell is saving to shock us (though his physical reveals make for terrific scares), its how the trauma of an abusive relationship digs deep. This clear direction makes for an interesting analogy for the contemporary subject matter, the actions being taken against Cecilia are clear as day, the abuse and the manipulation yet it is only visible to her as the rest dismiss her behaviour as reactionary and label her crazy. Cecilia is alone in her anguish, no one believes her and it is damning how Moss' performance brings forth that feeling of helplessness and how she must find the strength to fight back by herself. A woman is being psychologically and physically violated by a man yet no one can see or accept it, science fiction and horror excel as a mirror against our society and Leigh Whannell makes The Invisible Man a horrifying reflection of this critical failure to believe women's suffering.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen is the spectre that haunts Elisabeth Moss and every scene is packed with the tension of when Griffin will strike, long takes of Whannell, Duscio, and editor Andy Canny building the dread as seemingly innocence spaces become infected with anxiety the more drawn out they become. An ingenious change to Griffin's character from the novel or Claude Reins iconic performance is how there is no supernatural catalyst to the behaviour. While the experiment conducted in the original film slowly drives the character mad, the technology which makes Jackson-Cohen invisible merely reveals who he has always been. Without fear of recognition or retribution, Adrian Griffin is fully transparent as a misogynistic, vindictive cretin who believes himself superior in intelligence and stature, therefore, seeing everything beneath him as property to control. His isolation of Cecilia in his compound, forcing her to become pregnant, the shock collar on his dog Zeus, the fact that his expertise in optic technology had him hailed as a pioneer after his "death" showing how powerful men are venerated despite their crimes. At the character's core, there is no fantastical explanation that can explain away this behaviour, to lock The Invisible Man into a fictitious prison of heightened circumstance, he is a monster because of who he is, and how men believe that women are theirs to do with as they wish.
Though the audience knows Griffin is invisible and Cecilia isn't crazy that doesn't mean there aren't surprises in the film, from jump scares to plot developments that have you gasp and jump in your seat, The Invisible Man is an incredible horror experience at the cinema. Again made all the more engrossing by the auditory experience from the sound design team and the tense musical score from Benjamin Wallfisch. Whannell makes the absence of Griffin a terrifying visual motif but the true horror to the film is in the sound, the long stretches of silence broken by a sudden noise or accompanied by Wallfisch's building dread. An intentional heightening of the senses, making every creak and flutter heavy with purpose but also the action pulse-pounding. Whannell pushes Cecilia to the brink as Griffin's power feels omniscient at times, forcing drastic and dangerous measures.
A stunning reimagining of one of cinema's most iconic monsters that makes him more disturbing and symbolic than ever, Leigh Whannell balances thematic resonance against entertainment value extremely well. While the film can seem predictable at points with how upfront everything is about the premise, The Invisible Man doesn't disappoint in the shock or scare department. Terrific performances from Moss and Jackson-Cohen are elevated in the atmosphere Whannell and his teams have crafted as the film meets the gold standard in how a remake can reinvent old ideas for new audiences. We can only hope that Universal (with the help of Blumhouse) will be giving Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman and the rest of The Invisible Man's contemporaries a much-needed renaissance in the same vein.
Director: #LeighWhannell
Screenwriter: #LeighWhannell
Release Date: February 28th 2020
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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