Saturday, 09 October 2021 13:01

Invisible Man, The/ 2020






THE INVISIBLE MAN

US/Australia, 2020, 124 minutes, Colour.
Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Harriet Dyer, Oliver Jackson- Cohan, Storm Reid, Michael Dorman.
Directed by Lee Whannel.

Novelist H.G.Wells is best known for his science fiction stories, War of the Worlds, Things to Come, The Time Machine. But he also wrote the imaginative The Invisible Man. It was filmed, became something of a horror classic with Claude Rains in the 1930s. Since then, there have been a variety of remakes, updates, spoofs…

So, here is a 21st-century version certainly updated, a lavish San Francisco setting (with some local photography for the atmosphere of the city and its surroundings but the action filmed in Sydney). In Wells’s novel and in the first film, the invisible man concealed himself in order to gain absolute control, no limits to his world. In this current version, there is a focus on control but this time of a mad scientist dominating his wife. And, that’s how it begins, with the wife escaping from her home, a wealthy mansion, then her husband in pursuit. Then comes news of his suicide, but…

Critics and box office tended to agree that the film works well. It might have become more successful around the world (over $100 million) but its release was cut short by covid-19 and it went to streaming sources.

While the film is basically the brainchild of the novelist, this version is also the brainchild of an Australian cinema whiz kid (now in his early 40s), Leigh Whannell. With his writer-director friend, James Wan, they establish the Saw franchise when they were in their mid-to-late 20s. While Whannell has continued as an actor and a prolific screenwriter, especially with the Insidious series, he also directed a small-budget horror film, well worth catching, Upgrade.

Elisabeth Moss, a strong screen presence in many films and, of course, with The Handmaid’s Tale, is Cecilia, the wife who flees from her husband, asks for refuge from her sister who tends to be hostile, is supported by a San Francisco police officer, obtaining help also from his student daughter.

The atmosphere continues to be heightened as the husband uses his scientific and technological knowledge to create a suit which renders him invisible, his wife having intimations of his presence, bewildering physical contact while he is unseen, and then some mad attempts at wrecking violence on those who support her.

The film is often in bright light and colour, widescreen, not necessarily the atmosphere for such horror, but it all works very effectively.

Cecilia can take only so much and, the latter part of the film sees her fighting back, confronting her husband, discovering his invention of the suit in their mansion, and, of course, exploiting it against her husband.

As they say, when alerting potential audiences who may not like this kind of horror thriller, “very good of its kind�.


1. The title? The classic novel by H.G.Welles? The film tradition – serious and spoofs?

2. 21st-century update? A re-imagining, the shift of emphasis, the aggressive male and sexual violence towards women?

3. The locations, the lavish home, San Francisco? The Golden Gate and other sights?

4. Adrian as a character, his situation, marriage, clashes, his success at optics, Cecilia leaving, the news of his suicide? His experiments, his suit, invisibility and the consequences? His malice?

5. Cecilia, in herself, age and experience, married to Adrian, love/not? The initial escape, driving him, the dog, out on the road? His pursuit?

6. The atmosphere San Francisco, luxury homes, restaurants, offices, police precincts?

7. The range of the musical score, instruments, intensity?

8. Cecilia, waking, running, Zeus, the car, her sister, Adrian’s pursuit, losing her pills? Emily taking her home, James and Sidney? Refuge? Her fears and not going out?

9. Emily and the tensions between the two sisters? Emily living away? James, police, agreeable? Sidney, her age, wanting to go to the University?

10. Tom, the meeting with him in his office, the will and the conditions, the limits for Cecilia but the grant of money? Cecilia giving the cheque to Sidney? Questioning Adrian’s
suicide, the urn with the ashes?

11. Cecilia, sense of another presence, increasing, the various impressions, indications, the effect of fear?

12. Her not being believed, the various reactions? Sidney being hit, James upset? Blaming Cecilia?

13. The range of episodes, Adrian and his haunting Cecilia, her going to the attic, the ladder, the brutality of his physically attacking Cecilia?

14. Cecilia to the house, discovering the suit, his pursuit, the violent encounter?

15. Emily, the condemnatory email, Emily slamming the door on Cecilia? The later reconciliation, in the restaurant, the sudden slashing of her throat? Cecilia with the knife?

16. Cecilia arrested, in the hospital, the interrogations, James and his role? The madness with Adrian’s presence? The massacring of the staff?

17. Cecilia and her escape, phoning James, the threat to Sidney, leading to the climax of the house, Adrian and his brutality towards Sidney, bashing James? The discovery that the presence in the suit was Tom?

18. Adrian, by contrast, locked up, denying everything, Cecilia coming, well-dressed, the dinner, saying she would come back to him if he told the truth? His continued denials?

19. Cecilia, with the suit, slashing Adrian? The surveillance cameras? Her engineering her attack on him? Her walking out, James and his response? Her future?