The Invisible Man
Ratings: 4/5
Duration: 1 Hrs 50 Mins
Director: Leigh Whannell
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Release Date: 28th February 2020 (India)
Star Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Harriet Dyer, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Michael Dorman, Benedict Hardie, Renee Lim, Brian Meegan, Nick Kici, Vivienne Greer, Nicholas Hope, Cleave Williams, Cardwell Lynch, Sam Smith, Zara Michales, Serag Mohamed, Nash Edgerton, Anthony Brandon Wong, Xavier Fernandez
Plot: The Invisible Man is a terrifying modern tale of obsession that’s almost a blend of sci-fi and horror.
Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) is seen trapped in a violent, abusive relationship with a brilliant and wealthy scientist Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). To live with her childhood friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), she decides to leave him and escapes with the help of her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer).
But to stalk and terrorize Cecilia, Oliver stages his own suicide by using some power to become invisible. This is when Cecilia’s sanity begins to tangle as she believes an invisible man is hunting her and sees things that no one else can. It is only when the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fight back.
Review: The 2020 film, ‘The Invisible Man’, is inspired by the classic Universal Pictures monster, and is written, executive produced, and directed by Leigh Whannell. The film flaunts a new approach to the monster movie genre and boasts about the strong cast. Simultaneously, Whannell has seamlessly managed to change perspective from the mad scientist to the terrified victim who is being stalked, effectively and has turned the film into gaslight with a horror twist.
There are no dream sequences, fake-outs, and none of the other cheap narrative tricks most thrillers prefer and it’s the dialogues that reveal the details without the need for lengthy exposition or flashbacks. In fact, the first two slow build-up acts itself allow the viewers to understand why Cecilia was so afraid of Adrian.
When it comes to performances, most of the emotional impact comes from the fascinatingly flawed and appealingly tough remarkable performance by Elisabeth Moss. It is the script and direction that has generously given Elisabeth Moss the room to stretch through those complexities and captures Cecilia's trauma as a woman escaping from her toxic partner. Hence, Moss has succeeded in transferring Cecilia’s frustration and anxiety to the audience naturally.
Though this is Moss’s film through and through, the rest of the cast too is equally effective in their respective roles.
Technically, the movie's use of sound and music is superb; Benjamin Wallfisch's edgy, scraping score seems to come from everywhere at once, even the camerawork and choreography are easy to follow and add to the suspenseful plot rather than distract from it. In short, the jump scares are well earned and comes out of the blue, and exactly how they should be.
Overall, this psychological horror-thriller has done just about everything right in delivering a tense, clever thriller with touches of both horror and sci-fi innovative concept, that also addresses domestic violence and the crippling impact it has on its victims.
