The Invisible Man, starring Elizabeth Moss as Cecilia and written and directed by Leigh Whannell, is a retelling of the H.G. Wells story of the same name. And wow is it effective. The story follows Cecilia as she escapes her abusive relationship and then finding shortly after that her ex-boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), has killed himself. However, Cecilia begins to believe that Adrian is still alive and has found a way to turn invisible and is now stalking and tormenting her. What follows is an exceptionally directed and exceptionally acted thriller.
Elizabeth Moss is naturally fantastic in this role. At this point it’s impossible to expect anything less than her. This movie would not work if the lead wasn’t believable and Moss is believable and is still a bit more believable in case you weren’t sure. The rest of the cast is pretty great too. None of them stand out the same way that Elizabeth Moss does but then again, they shouldn’t have too. If there is one weak point it’s the portrayal of one of the characters at the end but I’m not sure if that’s the actor’s fault or the story’s fault or my fault for not quite liking what I got.
Following up on that, I personally felt that the ending was kinda not great. That’s not to say that you’ll think that watching it, the person I watched it with liked it fine enough. But it feels like director Leigh Whannell wanted to add a curveball to the end while also wanting to follow through with what he had been building towards and it didn’t quite work for me. The third act in general was the weakest part story wise. The first two acts set up this really clever, really engaging story, using the titular Invisible Man as both a very dangerous physical threat and also an extremely effective metaphor for the aftermath of domestic abuse and how (I assume) survivors damage the people around them in a way where it feels like their abuser is damaging them (if that makes sense, you kinda have to watch the movie to understand it) but after a very surprising second-act twist, the story kinda becomes a bit more predictable. It’s still very engaging but it just isn’t where the first two acts were.
Speaking of the first two acts, that’s where Whannell really shines behind the camera. He cleverly uses shots of what should be nothing to imply the presence of the invisible stalker, keeping you on edge the entire movie even during happy scenes. The Invisible Man could be anywhere, and it feels like he’s always watching. The score is also fantastic. Very few movies can combine cinematography, acting, directing and score into this sort of edge-of-your-seat tension that this movie effortlessly pulls off. This movie is terrifying, in a way that very few horror movies, even ones that are better than this movie, are.
P.S. For such a tiny budget, the stuff that they’re able to do is amazing, the invisible suit can look kinda CGI at some points, but it still looks fantastic.
Personal Rating: 9/10
Enjoyment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Depth: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ☆
Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ☆
Directing: 💫💫💫💫💫
Acting: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Comedy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ☆ ☆
Tension: 💫💫💫💫💫
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