Director: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell (Screenplay) H.G. Wells (Novel)
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman, Benedict Hardie
Plot: 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.
Tagline – What You Can’t See Can Hurt You
Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: First Great Horror of the Decade
Story: The Invisible Man starts as Cecilia (Moss) escapes her abusive relationship with Adrian (Jackson-Cohen), still haunted by her time thinking Adrian will find her, she is living with cop James (Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Reid), when she learns the news that Adrian has killed himself.
While trying to move on with her life Cecilia starts to suspect Adrian is in fact still alive and faked his death to continue to ruin her life, with his knowledge of technology, which nobody will believe her story about, leading her to need to prove the truth before it is too late.
Thoughts on The Invisible Man
Characters – Cecilia Kass was once an ambitious architect who ends up getting involved in an abusive relationship, where nobody knows about, she has planned her escape, even though she is still caught under his spell, believing he will come for her, she is trying to continue her life after his death. Cecilia shows us just how difficult escaping an abusive relationship can be and how not everybody is going to understand the story. Adrian Griffin is the tech genius that has been controlling Cecilia’s life refusing to let her live her life and after she leaves, he kills himself, only he continues to haunt her life using his knowledge of tech. James is a police officer that takes in Cecilia, while raising his teenage daughter, he is very open and patient with Cecilia, only he will always put his daughter first.
Performances – Elisabeth Moss is fantastic in the leading role, giving us one of the greatest performances of the year. Aldis Hodge was great to watch too, showing both sides of his character very well. While the actual invisible man is more about the presences, it is truly hard to give a true description about the acting behind it.
Story – The story here follows a woman escape her abusive relationship only to learn the man has killed himself, only he hasn’t, he is still haunting her using his own creation to continue to torment her life. Where this story is very interesting, is by not telling us everything about Adrian, we start with the escape and learn about him from how Cecilia tells the people in her life. This helps because we slowly see how Cecilia could well be losing her mind and by sucking out all of the sound in most scenes, we have a tension filled story.
Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror in this film comes from seeing how Cecilia is being haunted by an invisible threat and how that person goes about causing the pain in her life, while the sci-fi side of the film shows us just how the invisible effect is achieved.
Settings – The film does use the locations to show the different places Cecilia finds herself, from the glamorous mansion, to the suburban location or the hospital she finds herself being assessed in.
Special Effects – The effects are flawless to make every action seem nature despite the attacker being invisible.
Scene of the Movie – The Dinner.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It never seems to be explained the relationship between Cecilia and James.
Final Thoughts – This is easily going to become one of the best horrors of the year, with one of the best performances of the year from Elisabeth Moss, being one of the most gripping movies too.
Overall: Fantastic
