Your Feature Spoiler Free Zone
Trigger Warning: Mental and Physical Abuse, Gas Lighting, References to Suicide and Self Harm, Some Violence
Spoiler Free Zone: Fin
“Modern remake” – what so often means selling nostalgia, and Ghostface calling you on an iPhone instead of a Nokia, with just a dash of going viral as the new motivation. Movies don’t create psychos, they just make psychos more, I don’t know, trendy? Relevant? Leigh Whannell’s modern take on The Invisible Man isn’t just a money grab full of smartphones and millennial slang in a world of reboot culture.
Whannell seems to know so much better, and he’s in it for more than the cash. A story that is haunting because of the sheer possibility of what lies in an invisible source, is a movie you can run with. Make it what you want, and in a world of Me Too and reigning Tony Stark-esque technology, why can’t we make it a semi-realistic story? It doesn’t have to be paranormal anymore.
Not only is the concept so brilliant, with its themes of abuse, gas lighting, and the vengeance of a woman overcoming her abuser, it’s filled with compelling cinematography, a taunting twist on classic suspense, clever genre-blended music, and writing to make you feel as helpless as our lead protagonist and fierce performer, Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss).
Whannell wastes no time with our killer opening, ensuring audiences will stop eating their popcorn immediately, as they become quietly entranced by this tense scene. An artistically pleasing shot of waves crashing over credits brings you in with its deep blue that could hook any aesthetically focused sci-fi fan – seemingly just for visual appeal, except we’re two seconds into the movie and already witnessing foreshadowing. An invisible man is only as invisible as the elements around him.
Cue to the inside of a beautiful home with an enormous water view that provides us with two things: the joys of Wes Anderson-esque symmetry and the isolation of nowhere to run. We look out on a vast ocean from this rich home that is clearly far from the city or any bustling streets. And it’s deathly quiet as Cecilia creeps her way around the home, drugging her husband with diazepam and turning the vast security system out of sight. Not only does this drawn-out scene provide us with a significant amount of suspense in the simplest way, we also get an idea of just how much heavy, unusual technology lies in this house.
Cecilia’s clearly planned every last second of this escape route, yet if the drugs aren’t strong enough, one little noise could ruin it all. In a mundane moment that shares an air of the organized cupboard from Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), she hits a dog bowl, which loudly echoes through the house as our hearts race faster. Simple but effective.
She finally makes it out of the house, and she’s so close to a home run, only the dog pleads to be part of this plan, clearly no stranger to Adrian’s abuse. So, she chances it, and like every person’s most annoying nightmare, the dog hits the car alarm. Run.
She books it through the vast forest to a backwoods road where her ride is late, having no idea what the stakes are. Her sister, Emily, finally arrives and shortly after, so does Adrian. We get a better idea of the scope of his physical abuse, and in her frantic attempts to flee, she drops the drugs. That’s coming back, huh?
She’s taken to an old friend’s house – gentle James and his energetic daughter, Sydney – where she can hopefully be safe. And this is when some of the most realistic horror comes in to play – trying to explain to your unsuspecting friends what’s been happening all this time, all the while being scared to even so much as check the mailbox out front. And with Elizabeth Moss’s anxiety inducing performance, and a quick Doppler sound mix, a jogger passing her on the street manages to be a jump scare.
Yet, we have moments of normalcy as she adapts to the loving presence of James and Sydney. Benjamin Wallfisch’s music walks the line between his emotional, piano centered pieces similar to his work the It movies, before he gets into the more Annihilation (2018) reminiscent pieces of Barrow and Salisbury for the technology based scares.
During this time, James and Emily can somewhat fail to empathize with and understand what Cecilia has gone through – adding, I’m sure, to the real-life experiences of many victims. But what’s more, Adrian’s now supposedly committed suicide, and Cecilia’s refusal to believe it makes it more impossible for her loved ones to trust the state that she is in. But a will and $5 million dollars left to Cecilia does give her an opportunity to take some control over her life.
My immediate reaction to Tom’s offer was wondering if she could really accept such money. Would that not just make her feel more indebted to the man that controlled her for so long? Cecilia seems to have the same thought process, as she chooses to give the money to Sydney and invest in her future. At first, this simply seems like a logical and touching solution to further explore her relationship with this family. Simple, really. Except it’ll be so much more important. Adrian will ensure Cecilia’s digging herself into a hole he can trap her in.
As Cecilia starts to be more obviously haunted by what we know to be The Invisible Man, Whannell and DOP Stefan Duscio play with classic horror techniques in a way that can so easily drive the audience mad, knowing what we know. It’s not uncommon in horror films for blank spaces to be left gaping in the background, the audience waiting for something spooky to fill it. As Cecilia’s “paranoia” takes over, the camera not only leaves empty space, it so obviously pans to show you a room filled with nothing and no one. After all, they know we’re looking, so why not tell us? Look, he’s right here, can’t you see? Oh, that’s right, you can’t. Not even the tiniest hint. They’re letting the audience in on a secret we can’t even see. Beautiful. So, we sit in our tension staring at all this empty space, waiting, begging for it to be filled – anything, let something fall, let something move. But nothing.
And as night creeps in, like any classic horror film, darkness will play with our eyes. Cecilia shares a bed with Sydney, and as both her and the audience are rife with expectations, a mannequin in Sydney’s room manages to provide an almost silly jump scare – that nearly works as a double bluff, as we risk relaxing a little. Soon enough, the sheets are removed from the bed. It’s almost comical, how simple it all is. When Cecilia seeks to retrieve the sheets, they become snagged on “thin air.” And I half expected Whannell to be satisfied with the subtlety of this. This movie has yet to embrace subtlety and somehow, Whannell pulls it off so well. So, the sheet gets pushed down more and more, creeping toward her. Through the darkness, we wonder, what am I possibly looking at? Oh, I see. He’s walking toward her, hardly a foot way. And it just got that much more terrifying.
A scream summoning James scares him off, and she must return to attempting a “normal” life by interviewing for a job. Which, Adrian finds a sneaky way to interrupt, drugging her with the very pills she used on him. A playful, maniacal poke of sorts. A way to stay in her head. But once again, it will be so much more.
So, time goes on and not only does Cecilia feel more and more that her paranoia isn’t just that, but Adrian finds ways to ensure that everyone else feels betrayed by her. He keeps the most obvious “hauntings” to when she is alone, meaning no one sees when she finds his things in the attic – has he been living there the whole time ?! – and certainly not when she dumps paint on him. Nor when she sees a simple text: surprise. And of course, destroying the house with paint and coffee grounds isn’t helping her relationship with James.
Moss takes this role on with such ferocity, you actually understand why those in Cecilia’s life are more concerned for her mental health than her physical wellbeing. But you also feel, how could anyone behave any differently than this? In a way, she is “losing her mind” simply from the terror of being haunted and Adrian getting inside her head. Trying to get people to see something that they physically can’t would make anyone act drastically out of sorts. Even I felt immense frustration in how hard it would be to convince anyone of what is going on.
In a number of manipulative schemes, Adrian finds ways to turn everyone who could ever believe her against her, ruining her life on so many levels. Not only will no one work with her to bring him down, not only can he easily hurt her, he can psychologically destroy her and convince the world she did it to herself. Sound familiar, anyone? Is this not the root of all misogyny? Men will degrade everything women as a group are known to experience, just so that they will never be able to defend or validate their choices, experiences, or opinions. And beyond sexism, victims of all abuse – regardless of gender – have experienced similar gas lighting to keep them inferior.
Writing emails to her sister is a simple task – a scheme of a fifth grader, if I may be so bold. But Emily is a weak character and a poor friend, so it is no surprise he started there, and that this wasn’t the worst blow. The cruelty truly commences when Adrian assaults Sydney, which is bad enough as is, but he ensures there is no other explanation than Cecilia attacking her. Now she doesn’t have James’s nurturing ways or his protection, and she’s lost the good opinion of two people she deeply cares about.
She has no choice but to go to Emily when she breaks into Adrian’s house and finds the suit. All the confirmation she’s needed, with proof too. Luckily, Emily is still her sister and agrees to meet her despite apprehension. So, Cecilia makes the decision any woman has known to make since they began dating: meet somewhere public. Adrian almost always waits until she’s alone to pull anything drastic, so what could possibly go wrong at a crowded restaurant? And, like Cecilia, we’re all so entranced with whether Emily will finally believe her, we’ve briefly suspended all other concerns for her overall wellbeing. And in the quickest of blinks, Emily’s throat is slit, the offending knife placed neatly in a stunned Cecilia’s hands.
The police come, and in her grief and shock all she can do is scream and cry, blaming an invisible force. This looks really bad. Upon arriving, a staffer informs her that she is pregnant, as learned from the earlier blood tests. And now Tom happily strides in to quietly torture her by not only admitting to Adrian’s presence, but stating that Adrian will stop all this madness if she has the baby. And here comes a nice, little wrap up for all the unsuspecting moments before. That money for Sydney’s future? A ransom for Cecilia’s life, body, and child. And the drugs? So much more than psychological warfare.
Cecilia has already explained that Adrian knew her every thought inside out – he could read her so well, she couldn’t even think about running away without him knowing. So, no, diazepam was not a simple mind game, nor was it a way to ensure she didn’t get a job. He knew her mind, he knew her body, he knew her menstrual cycle. He probably knew exactly the last time they “had sex” – rather, the last time he raped her. He probably knew her last period, her moods, her behaviours, and her patterns. So, he made sure she had a reason to go to the hospital, to have a blood test. Because, yes, women typically know their own cycles but one missed period isn’t out of the ordinary, especially for a woman experiencing such stress and trauma. But for Adrian, six weeks was too long to wait for her to pee on a pharmacy stick.
Not to mention, the absolute cruelty of this validation that no one gets to hear. She’s right, and Tom knows it, but he won’t tell a soul.
And now everything’s lined up all too well, to hold her entire life hostage. She has control over nothing. Except that she’s so much smarter than he’s given her credit for, and she has absolutely nothing left to lose. So, she steals a pen. Simple as ever. Threatens to kills herself, and even goes in for it. And now she fucking has him. She stabs the suit, and because technology always has its flaws and glitches, he is half revealed to everyone.
And I can’t begin to describe the satisfaction and panic of the security guards and cameras witnessing this invisible force, all the while being too overpowered to really help her. And it doesn’t even matter now, because he will find a way to hunt her to the end of the earth unless he is destroyed once and for all. But first, an epic rain chase, where the general fear subsides but the anticipation remains.
And soon we Scream (1996) fans get to have our own fun with tropes. She escapes, rescues Sydney, and takes the mask off – only it’s not Adrian, it’s Tom. But 90s fans know that’s too simple: there are two Ghostfaces, this is just a ploy.
Cecilia’s smarter than that, so when Adrian is “rescued,” it’s her turn to finally scheme him. She enlists the help of James, who finally knows to trust her even when things seem so out of the ordinary – but she doesn’t tell him everything. For once, she has full control of the situation. She tells Adrian she’ll return to him, all she needs is an admission and apology. Which, of course, he refuses, and employs the technique of every true abuser: comfort in the form of a threat. Or rather, a threat in the form of comfort. He tells her how well he knows her, gently insults her mental health, and keeps a firm grip on her leg the whole time. Yes, so comforting. And this pompous bastard actually believes he has her. And when she excuses herself? Just like Ms. Prescott, it’s her turn to put the mask on and play with his head. But not after one more, final, little treat: a confirmation from the ever-righteous Adrian. That shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Suit in gear, well in view of the security system, she – ahem, - he slits his throat; a little vengeance for Emily too. Cecilia changes quick and pulls out her best acting chops for extra bonus marks. Only to make sure Adrian sees her for all she truly is, and for as powerful as she truly is. Surprise.
And of course, it helps to have a cop on your side. It sounded a lot like he killed himself, right, James? Cecilia walks off, defiant. The trauma remains, and the grief too. But she is, finally, physically, free. The woman told the truth, the woman escaped, the woman got revenge, and the woman got the last laugh. Well done, Cecilia. Well done, Ms. Moss. And well done, Mr. Whannell.
The Invisible Man (2020) Images from IMDb
The Invisible Man (2020) Cinematography by Stefan Duscio.
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