The Invisible Man (2020)

"The Invisible Man" (2020, Leigh Whannell, Blumhouse Productions, Nervous Tick, Goalpost Pictures, Universal Pictures) is a modern retelling of the classic H.G. Wells story, and a poignant story about control and abusive relationships.

Cecilia Kass (Elizabeth Moss) flees in the night from her rich boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) with the help of her sister, Emily (Harriet Dyer). The two women make their hasty escape, and Cecilia begins living temporarily with her cop friend, James (Aldis Hodge) and his teen daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid).

Cecilia is naturally affected by her ordeal and we learn that Adrian emotionally controlled her during their relationship and she lives in constant fear that he will find her and punish her for leaving. She also reveals that he'd boasted that she would 'never see him coming'.

James is supportive, but as Cecilia's behaviour becomes more erratic he, Emily and Sydney begin to distance themselves from her leaving her to the mercy of her unseen, controlling stalker, who is hellbent on ruining her life...

A film which is very uncomfortable in places and which does a great job of showcasing how a gaslit relationship can look from various angles (the friends', the sister's, the victim's). The action and horror scenes are excellently achieved and there's several parts where I found myself on the edge of my seat. There are a few holes that took me out of the film a bit - time seems to be an elastic concept at points with characters managing to achieve quite a lot in an extremely short space of time (i.e. the fastest and most efficient washing off of paint I've ever seen) and it seems that our titular invisible man is able to hold his bladder for quite an impressive amount of time. On the other hand, however, the modernising of the plot to be more technology based was extremely effective. My trypophobia was going off the charts in some places, though *shudder*.

Moss gives an excellent performance as Cecilia. We feel for her but we're also with her in her fight to prove her innocence. She's not a quitter, but she's also not a textbook heroine, either. She's normal, relate-able and fallible.

Jackson-Cohen also gives a great, if small (visibly) performance as our main antagonist. We never see the abuse first hand but his mastery is in his supposed reasonable demeanour.

Definitely a film worth checking out. It's currently available to rent online from various sources. As scary as a violent, malicious and invisible stalker is, the real horror comes from the helplessness our protagonist feels and they way that her control can be so easily taken away. That, and that whole trypophobia thing...

[Image: Blumhouse Productions]

Hani