A Universal Picture, Written and Directed by Leigh Whannell.
Universal’s Dark Universe lasted exactly one movie, but the death of that planned cinematic franchise may have given birth to something much more special for the studio.
Instead of a connected monsters universe, they instead decided to allow filmmakers to come up with an idea and pursue whatever works out. The first product from this line of thinking is ‘The Invisible Man’.
Leigh Whannell, director of the little seen but very impressive ‘Upgrade’ writes and directs this film, which updates the original by making the Invisible Man a straight up villain, and not our anti-hero protagonist. This decision therefore allows for the film to also present strong social commentary about domestic abuse and gaslighting, which it does successfully and in a chilling manner.
Elisabeth Moss is in almost every frame of the film, and we see her rapid decline into a “insanity” even though the audience is the only one who truly knows she isn’t mad. Moss is well known for being able to deliver deeply harrowing and complex performances, and she absolutely does so here, and if there are 5 better performances from lead actresses this year, then we are in for a hell of a year.
The film is successfully scary, relevant, and impressive. Whannell and team manage to make empty space seem terrifying and do a lot with a small budget, proving he can stand alongside the likes of Jordan Peele, Ari Aster and John Krasinski (among others) as some brilliant new voices in the horror genre.
The film did leave a chance for a sequel, but I hope these movies stay mostly as one off spectacles with strong creative input, and this is a strong start.
Rating = 4/5
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