Johnny Depp was attached to star in the titular role of The Invisible Man, but after 2017’s THE MUMMY did not deliver at the box office, Universal’s DARK UNIVERSE shared cinematic universe plans were shuttered.
Instead, what we received, is Leigh Whannell’s classy and grounded take on a woman named Cecilia who believes she is being stalked by her abusive ex-boyfriend Adrian, even after his death, and that he has acquired the ability to become invisible.
Elizabeth Moss's Cecilia has a character arc from battered woman to warrior and is both believable and layered with subtlety.
This modernist and Me Too era take on the monster is chilling in its realism and brilliant how it can take something banal like an empty corner and chair and fill you with dread.
The film gods smile on the budget of a film that effectively spends no money on what its antagonist looks like. And it works!
The Invisible Man’s suit, created by an optics engineer, is visually and narratively innovative, allows for multiple wearers, and different from the serums we’ve seen in the past. While we establish in the opening, the Invisible Man is strong, it seems the suit makes one superhumanly so, making him even more unstoppable and terrifying.
This Blumhouse opus cost $7M to make, but grossed $133M worldwide. A sequel is highly probable, with many directions in which it can go.
There are many visually stunning scenes, but Elizabeth Moss’s escape from jail is a standout.
The metaphor for invisible horrors in society, being watched by an unseen menace, and women feeling invisible in abusive relationships elevates this film and makes it one of the best genre pictures for me, of 2020.
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