There’s an episode of Batman the Animated Series called “See No Evil” where a criminal gets his hands on a means of making himself invisible. He uses it, among other reasons, to spend time with his daughter when his ex-wife doesn’t want anything to do with him. It goes creepy and evil, and Batman saves the day after clinging to the roof of an invisible car.
Why bring this up? Elizabeth Moss voiced the daughter in that episode. Now she has the lead in a new version of the Universal Monster character The Invisible Man.
Cecilia Kass (Moss) is in an abusive relationship with control freak Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). He’s a rich genius in the field of optics, and he’s been controlling Cecilia through physical and psychological abuse. She finally makes an escape with help from her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) and their cop friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). Living in fear, she breathes a sigh of relief when word comes that Adrian killed himself and left her a large sum of money. But suicide doesn’t seem like something Adrian would really do. And, well, there is the title of the movie.
I saw writer/director Leigh Whannell’s previous Blumhouse feature Upgrade, and he’s got some talent on display there and especially with this new Invisible Man. Despite the title of the movie, this isn’t about the invisible man, but rather a woman who’s struggling to get out from under the thumb of a gaslighting monster of a man. The camera frequently focuses on empty spaces that may or may not have a hidden figure, and when he does make himself known, he does so in ways that damage Cecilia psychologically as much as physically. He’s a man who knows how to hurt her, but the flip side is, she and she alone knows all his tricks by this point.
It helps that the fantastic Elizabeth Moss was cast in the lead role. She’s a smart actress who makes smart decisions both in her performance choices and when deciding what roles to take. She’s got a very expressive face that can seemingly effortlessly show a damaged woman and someone who has finally hit her limit and won’t be anyone’s victim anymore. Moss’s Cecilia keeps pointing out that there’s an invisible man ruining her life, but she does so in a way that makes her look unhinged. Unless she’s an unreliable narrator–and the movie never suggests that she is–then the audience knows she’s telling the truth while it would be easy for the other characters to not believe her. Moss carries the movie as Cecilia goes from a woman who may be afraid of her own shadow to someone who finally has had enough and won’t sit still for it anymore.
Really, this was a solid horror movie, with a lot of genuine tension centered around a fantastic lead performance. I’d say check this one out, and hopefully you’ll see it without a kid sitting a row ahead of you who won’t shut up. I know I would have enjoyed the movie more otherwise.
Grade: A-
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