As a horror nerd, I'm not unique in adoring the work Leigh Whannell has been doing over the last 15 or so years. Like the rest of you, my first encounter with Whannell was 2004's Saw, which he wrote and starred in. That movie scared me, sure, but mostly I was hooked by how cleverly it was constructed. It was no surprise when Whannell moved into directing, too. He made his debut with Insidious: Chapter 3, a series for which he'd written every entry, and then blew a ton of minds in 2018 with the stellar sci-fi/action hybrid Upgrade. Shortly thereafter word broke that he would be tackling The Invisible Man, and I couldn't have been more excited.
You see, since I was very young, I've loved Universal's stable of creatures, villains, and madmen. Those characters -- Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Creature -- have always been near and dear to me. My favorite, though, was always James Whale's The Invisible Man from 1933. Claude Rains' howling, unhinged performance as the titular character has stood the test of time (as have, shockingly, many of the film's revolutionary special effects). So giving that character to a writer and director that I have full faith in felt like a sign that Universal was taking the right step in breathing new life into their best properties. After their multiple missteps trying to turn the classic monster stories into action blockbusters to rival the major superhero movies of our time, they were putting one of these characters into the competent hands of producer Jason Blum and one of horror's brightest minds. I'm so happy to say that it has paid off in a major, major way.
Whannell's The Invisible Man, made on a nearly impossible-to-believe small budget, is a masterclass in tension, performance, and restrained special effects wizardry. The modernized take on the classic revolves around Cecilia Kass (the always fabulous Elizabeth Moss), who, after finally escaping an abusive relationship with a tech genius finds herself in a friend's home, trying to recover from her experiences. As the weeks pass, she grows increasingly concerned that her ex (Oliver Cohen-Jackson, recently excellent in Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House) is up to something nefarious. You see, he supposedly committed suicide following her departure, but there are signs that it's yet another of his plots to control Cecilia's every waking moment.
It's a smart, compassionate re-imagining, and Whannell's script (aided by Moss herself -- and it shows) keeps ratcheting up the tension as things in Cecilia's life begin to crumble and violence begins to manifest from seemingly out of nowhere. There's a subtle, menacing physicality to the villain, which is no easy feat considering he's hardly ever seen. Whannell's direction and Stefan Duscio's cinematography impress over and over during the film's tense action beats, and some of the scenes here rival their kinetic work on Upgrade. The action flair never overshadows the underlying dread of the story, though, and the twists and turns remain effective throughout.
The supporting cast, including Harriet Dyer as Cecilia's sister and Aldis Hodge as the friend who takes Cecilia in, is quite good, and Benjamin Wallfisch's propulsive, electronic-infused score is a perfect compliment to the horror unfolding on screen. I'm dying to read and watch everything about the behind the scenes process of bringing this movie to life, especially the effects side of things, because there are movies with 20 times this budget that don't look and sound this good.
In simplifying what Universal has so often over complicated with their legacy monsters, Whannell has delivered the year's first horror hit, and deservedly so. The Invisible Man is intelligent, relentlessly focused on its lead character and her journey, and ratchets up the fear to great effect before reaching one of the best climaxes I've seen in a horror film in quite some time. I find myself already fearing that Elizabeth Moss' incredible work is going to be overlooked come awards season, but that's okay. A movie this good doesn't need a shiny trophy to tell us what we already know. If anyone at Universal stumbles across this: Give Whannell and Jason Blum whatever property they want next.
4.5/5
