Review by Brad Balfour
The Invisible Man
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen
At one time, Universal Pictures made the best monster movies, creating a series of anti-hero pictures from Frankenstein to The Mummy. Through the 1930s to the ‘60s, these characters enjoyed a reign as the best of the beastly but unfortunately, cinematic tastes changed and iterations of these characters from Dracula to The Wolfman descended into film caricature (Abbott & Castello Meet Frankenstein?); many of the film companies who made these trashy B-movie variations disappeared and so did the flicks.
Over time, thanks to a series of cultural permutations, some of these characters such as the Frankenstein monster and Dracula (as well as associated vampires) were rediscovered and reinvented. So at Universal, those who controlled the rights to the originals rethought their own monsters. Despite its best intentions, Universal hadn’t been very successful in rebooting its Famous Monster series (their Mummy was a disaster).
But thanks to Universal’s deal with Blumhouse, a new version of The Invisible Man got released with Australian director Leigh Whannell at the helm. The Saw horror franchise co-creator wrote, directed, and co-executive produced this re-imagining of H.G. Wells’ book. This 2020 take might be employing a rather trite marketing tag, “What you can’t see can hurt you,” but the film provides a taut, tense, occasionally brutal, narrative which draws on that slogan. The genius as madman that drove the original book and film is also addressed here but in a very contemporary fashion.
Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) gets involved with tech whizkid Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a master of optics. But he’s just too much, controlling her in all ways. Driven to escape from this stifling relationship and his house, she is haunted by him in more ways than one. This guy goes from making her life miserable to murder and mayhem. When someone with such genius takes umbrage at her leaving, look out.
Underlying the joust between Kass and her tormentor is a meditation about a tech billionaire’s narcissism as much as it about a new technology, its cultural effect and misuse. Just being a master of the universe doesn’t make you a good person. It’s not merely about money — it’s about the ego and its discontents. As thrillers go, this one swiftly engages the audience and draws the viewer into its surprising but deadly conclusion.