I was surprised at how much I thought about this movie after I came home from seeing it at the cinema. Leigh Whannel’s Sci-Fi horror certainly leaves the viewer with a lot of food for thought as he tackles a modern take on the 1933 classic of the same name ‘The invisible man’.
The movie follows Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) a victim of an abusive relationship as her boyfriend Adrien Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) a rich Scientist, controls every aspect of her life from how she dresses to how she speaks and even resulting in violence. After escaping her boyfriend and him supposedly committing suicide, Cecilia senses that her ex and supposedly dead boyfriend isn’t dead after all, her life is turned upside down as a supposed invisible stalker causes all kind of trouble for her, her sister Emily Kass (Harriet Dyer) and her friends James Lanier (Aldis Hodge) and Sydney Lanier (Storm Reid).
This movie does many things right, I think the plot being one of them, it’s engaging and shocking in large portions of the film and the twists of the movie do really carry you through. However the movie also suffers from some serious pacing issues as the opening hour bar the incredible opening scene is very slow as it builds tension and character development.
Another aspect this movie gets right is the casting, Elisabeth Moss does a mighty fine job in this movie as Cecilia Kass, the way she conveys her sense of fear and dread as she fights with her internal and external conflicts is nothing short for fantastic. You can really see the toll the invisible man is taking on her as she tries to convince others her dead ex boyfriend is in fact alive and messing with her and that she isn’t going crazy. Even Aldis Hodge and Storm Reid also provide very strong performances as a believable father and daughter as they try to help Cecilia get over the traumatic experiences of her ex boyfriend.
For me the best part of the movie is how the invisible man manipulates and convinces all of Cecilia’s friends and loved ones she is crazy as she scrambles for evidence that Adrien is still alive and some how found a way to be invisible.
As the movie goes on the things Adrien/invisible man does become more extreme isolating Cecilia, even killing her sister Emily in public and placing the knife in Cecilia’s hand, resulting in her being put in a mental institute for the criminally insane. The only way this could have been ever better is if there was a way to make the audience question if Cecilia is going crazy.
The horror aspects of the movie lean heavily on the trope side of things as we have countless jump scares that don’t really have good effect, however the scariest part of this movie for me was the thought of Cecilia being forever stuck in this abusive relationship with Adrien/The invisible man, as we find out later on in the movie she is pregnant with his baby, so in this aspect the movie does rather well.
The CGI and fight scenes in this movie they are so well done, I love the way the actors are thrown around the room and fight with thin air, as they hope to land a lucky hit on the invisible man it looks so realistic and convincing.
One scene in particular stands out for me when I think about the fight scenes. There is a part in the third act of the movie at the mental institution, where Cecilia has managed to escape her cell and damage the invisible mans suit before guards close in on their position. As they get closer to the flickering invisible suit; the invisible man starts to attack the guards, breaking arms, legs and shooting various guards all in one shot. This is by far the best piece of cinematography in the film and deserves a lot of credit for it.
In summary this film provides a great story with a lot of shocks and twists and had me engaged all the way through. It does suffer from slow parts at the end of the first act and beginning of the second, but sharply speeds up as we unravel more of the story later on. The cinematography of the film is pretty good with a lot of still shots showing a room giving the audience a chance to see if anything is moving or where the invisible man could be stood or sat. This movie was fun and if your a fan of horror movies is most definitely worth you time. For me this movie is a 7 out of 10.
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