Director Report Card: Leigh Whannell (2020)

3. The Invisible Man

Out of the ashes of the Dark Universe – Universal's latest and most disastrous attempt in a series of failed attempts to retrofit their classic monster characters for modern tastes – arose an actual good idea: Hey, what if we dismiss with the mega-sized budgets and star studded cast and cinematic universe and just, ya know, actually make horror movies about these guys? Jason Blum expressed interest in taking over and Universal jumped right on that suggestion. An "Invisible Man" originally meant to be some superhero-like project starring Johnny Depp was quickly turned into a modestly budget horror movie written and directed by Leigh Whannell. Instead of facing the same fate as “Dracula Untold” or Alex Kurtzman's “The Mummy,” Whannell's “The Invisible Man” received excellent reviews and made a pretty penny against its seven million dollar budget. A few years after the hype, how does this classic monster remake hold up now?

In the dead of night, Cecilia flees the compound where she lives with her aggressively abusive and controlling husband, Adrian Griffin. While living with her police officer friend, she receives some shocking news: Adrian is dead, from an apparent suicide. Cecilia stands to inherit a fortune from his optics engineering company, under the condition she commits no crimes and is not declared mentally ill. That is when strange things begin to happen. Accidents and strange events happen around the home. Cecilia's sister receives an inflammatory letter that she has no memory of writing. Her friend's daughter is punched in the face by an unseen force, Cecilia being blamed. Cecilia begins to suspect that Adrian is not dead at all but is still harassing, stalking, and tormenting her. Which would only be possible if the man somehow found a way to turn himself invisible... Soon, Cecilia is fighting for her own sanity and the lives of those she loves from a threat she can't see. 

Most of Universal's earlier monster movie reboots made the macabre characters threats within an action packed adventure. Stephen Sommers' big budget affairs or the stillborn Dark Universe made the mummy or Dracula threats against action hero stars. Or Dracula himself simply became an action hero. Even Joe Johnston's ill-fated remake of "The Wolf Man" had the titular monster as its protagonist. In an effort to re-enforce his "Invisible Man" as a horror movie, Leigh Whannell instead centers the story on the monster's victim. This is a big change from both H.G. Wells' novel and James Whale's 1933 adaptation, where the unseen madman was more-or-less the lead character. Instead, Whannell touches upon a clever idea: An invisible man is easily a terrifying thought if you are a vulnerable woman. It's an approach that does what so many previous remakes failed to do, successfully reinventing the character for the modern age. 

This "Invisible Man" would come out in a post-#MeToo world, where terms like "gaslighting," "narcissistic personality disorder," and "love bombing" had entered the popular lexicon in a big way. It's become all too clear how many people's lives, and how much of our society in general, is directed by manipulative men telling us to doubt what we know is true. Whannell's film places its protagonist at the center of an elaborate web of deception and control. Her stalker goes to extraordinary lengths to have everyone around Cecilia believe she's crazy or dangerous. This behavior isolates her from those she loves and that care about her, that can protect her from his manipulations. Slowly, this man takes all her hope and freedom away from her, using fear and violence, until she has no option left but to return back to him. It's a story any of us have heard before, of friends or loved ones at the will of men who seek to rob them of their individuality. 

A key scene has Cecilia, sitting in a seemingly empty house but talking to the stalker she knows is there, asking Adrian why he inflicts this torture on her. Her abuser is a billionaire tech CEO, who surely has access to any woman he could want. It's an exchange that makes this invisible man a much more commonplace type of psychopath than the Doctor Griffins that have come before. Most previous "Invisible Man" stories function on the idea that a man becoming unseen, and thus untouched by society's rules, would make him an amoral monster that eventually seeks world domination. Adrian Griffin is already a sociopath before he becomes unseen and he only seeks to dominate one thing: The woman who refuses to be his. That a tech company leader displays these personality traits is no surprise these days but a man doesn't have to be that rich and powerful to want to break the spirit of his spouse. He simply has to be powerful enough to hurt a single person, the one close enough to him. 

You can certainly argue that Whannell's "Invisible Man" is the type of well intentioned but misguided sort of story men write, that bring attention to how women are abused by showing all that suffering on-screen. I would argue that the film stays on the right side of that divide by always making sure the audience is feeling the same things Cecilia is. Like her, we all know that the seemingly improbable thing she believes – that her ex is still alive and is now invisible – is true, despite everyone around her saying it can't be possible. That is, after all, exactly how a woman being gaslit feels. Another way the film grabs that feeling is with a solid suspenseful story structure that keeps you guessing. Each surprise feels like a personal betrayal, another rotten thing that Adrian has done to hurt Cecilia. When she discovers he's been hiding in the attic of the new home she's living in, revealing that information to her in an especially cruel way, the viewer feels as much as the mercy of this scheming sociopath as the character does. This continues in the second half, with more sharp surprises coming, each one catching us off-guard.

At the center of the film is an outstanding performance from Elizabeth Moss. Moss, with that glare of perpetual exhaustion on her face, certainly seems like a woman on the edge of breaking. As the script has her ranting about scenarios that seems impossible, it certainly seems like she's gone crazy. However, Cecilia is stronger than that. Throughout the film, as the situation escalates, she continues to keep fighting. The character only reveals herself to be more resourceful as the story progresses, going to some extremes to reveal her tormentor and get out of increasingly desperate situations. Moss strikes the right balance, between a woman thoroughly traumatized by what she's been through without losing her need to survive. She is both a victim, suffering through a lot, and a survivor, eventually emerging triumphant. In other words, Moss makes Cecilia a real person, complicated and with layers.

For a monster movie, "The Invisible Man" is kind of long, running over two hours. That slightly longer runtime does allow the movie to invest its supporting cast with a degree of heart. A lesser movie would play the relationship between Cecilia and James as a romantic one, a "good" man appearing to save her from the evil one attacking her. Instead, the two are strictly platonic friends, feeling more like a brother and sister. The quiet way James, as played by Aldis Hodge, makes it known that he cares about Cecilia are well-done. I also liked Storm Reid as Sid, his teenage daughter. The rapport she has with Cecilia in a few of the movie's more light-hearted, low-key moments – which a tighter runtime would have clipped out – makes you care about this sweet young girl. Moreover, the cast and script walk a fine line, making James and Sidney sympathetic after Adrian's manipulation drives them apart. You understand where they are coming from, without Cecilia seeming any less sympathetic. 

H.G. Wells' original novel and James Whale's movie both go with the idea that the invisibility is caused by a potion. This occurs throughout more modern homage too, such as "Hollow Man," where an injectable drug causes the transformation. Whannell finds a clever reinvention for this idea that feels more down-to-earth in a modern setting. Our invisible man wears a full-body suit, covered in camera lens and monitors, essentially broadcasting what's behind and in front of it at all times. While you still have to allow for a lot of creative license, this is still more-or-less the actual kind of technology militaries are using to try and create high-tech cloaking devices. If you miss an easily overlooked line about how Adrian Griffin runs an optics company, the exact nature of his ability comes off as a clever subversion too. It also allows for some clever visual moments, of this Invisible Man blinking in and out of the visible range of sight. 

The design for the suit brings with it some intriguing ideas. The suit Adrian wears renders him as a faceless silhouette. This takes the visual presentation of the original film – a man wrapped in bandages, which receives a cute homage here – far further. Now the impression of eyes, a nose, and a mouth are gone too, turning this Invisible Man into a vague silhouette both in and out of costume. The design of the suit, with its "skin" made of glassy and orb-like lens, brings internet memes about trypophonia to mind. It also makes this invisible figure clearly a man. When the expected shot of a silhouette of the attacker's body in the rain comes, it's a clear indicator that the design for this creature makes him a vague outline for any and all men, driving home the feminist themes. That this Invisible Man is as much a symbol for all abusive men everywhere as he is a very specific reflection of this dynamic.

Some may call bullshit on the themes that the movie presents. Maybe trying to cook these ideas into a classic monster reboot is too elevated for some. Or maybe they will find the underpinnings of the story, Whannell's thoughts on men and women and control and abuse, to be insincere. The ending could easily be read as either empowering or a cautionary tale, of a victim absorbing the habits of the person that hurt them. I'm mixed on that myself, seeing it more as a cathartic pay-off. In the horror genre, people can be consumed by their demons but they can defeat them too. Sometimes we need to see the latter, even if it's coming from a place of a man patting himself on the back for being one of the "good ones." At least the degree of ambiguity in the final climax gives the impression that we aren't suppose to think if Cecilia's actions are good or bad exactly, suggesting Whannell was more self-aware than that. Either way, the character of Cecilia and the film more than earns it. 

Whatever high-minded ambitions the film might have had for itself, none of them would matter much if it wasn't scary. Luckily, Whannell's years in the "Insidious" factory have given him an almost scientific formula for generating high-quality shocks. The cinematography, from Stefan Duscio, often assumes a distance and still approach, inviting the viewer to observe the frame for anything unusual happening around the characters or with the sets. This creates one of the film's quieter chilling moment, where you can spot a puff of breath over Cecilia's shoulder as she opens the door to her home. In other words, the film successfully creates a similar paranoia in the viewer as to what the character is feeling. The unseen attacker could be hiding anywhere or it could be nothing at all, creating a good sense of tension. 

That balance between quiet unease and louder shocks is well utilized throughout. The first time we get a glimpse of this Invisible Man's true form is a fine shock, utilizing the specific gimmick of this Universal Monster in a clever way. That scare was in the trailers but a later one decidedly was not, a good choice as it's an excellent bit of misdirection that successfully had me stunned when I saw it in theaters. A rewatch deludes that effectiveness a bit, if only because you know it's coming, but I still appreciate the craft on display. In the last third, Whannell and Duscio use some of the same action choreography tricks they used in "Upgrade" during an effectively hard-hitting display of what an invisible man can do to unprepared people. 

In other words, Whannall's "Invisible Man" is about as good a modern reboot of a classic horror property that you could hope for. It takes the seed of the original idea – one man, invisible – and finds a thoroughly modern take on it that appeals to contemporary audiences without losing what made it scary in the first place. It's also, so far, the only one of these reboots to really connect with audiences. As remnants of their Dark Universe plans, Universal announced that Elizabeth Banks was also attached to direct a remake of "The Invisible Woman" and it's unknown to what degree that one was meant to tie into this one. (The ending to this film certainly seems to set-up that idea but the original spin-off was a comedy, and humor is what Banks is best known for, I can't imagine a follow-up to this being a light-hearted romp.) I think COVID derailed plans for that and, as of now, Whannell's "The Invisible Man" remains a surprisingly clever and scary reinvention of a classic film with an excellent lead performance. [Grade: A]