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Horror movies are an interesting beast. While budget size is no way a predictor of any movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score, with horror movies, the inverse law usually applies. Horror movies with smaller and smaller budgets usually tend to be better than the ones with large ones.
The obvious comparison is The Blair Witch Project and the travesty formally known as Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. The original cost USD60,000 and the sequel cost a whopping USD15million. The original went on to make $248.6million and become a cult classic, while the sequel made merely USD47.7million.
The Invisible Man stays true to the low-budget horror formula, pulling off a visual and terrifying triumph, with a budget of USD8 million, yet somehow never feels cheap.
The story is supposed to be a take on H. G. Wells’ Invisible Man, but beyond the title and the titular invisible man, there’s little in common.
This is the high-tech take on the story and fittingly, takes place near San Francisco, California. The movie starts off with Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) escaping from her abusive husband, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).
Her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) manages to pick her up just as Adrian almost catches Cecilia. We cut to two weeks later. Cecilia is now living with a childhood friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid).
Emily stops by to tell her that Adrian has committed suicide. While at first relieved, Cecilia slowly comes to realise that he is somehow still around, haunting her. And that’s when the typical invisibility hijinks start, albeit with a more violent tone.
In case you didn’t figure it out, spoiler alert, Adrian is the invisible man. Except instead of some obscure biochemical, he is a tech billionaire who is an optics scientist, and has designed a suit of cameras that could render one invisible. Impossible? Definitely suspend that disbelief right off the top of the Burj Al Khalifa and you might get close to the pseudoscience here.
And if you are a pothole nitpicker like me, you’ll be six feet deep before this movie hits the third act. Here’s just a taste – first off, why is she staying with an easily traceable childhood friend and his teenage daughter, if she thinks her crazy husband would find her? Painting over your laptop camera does not help when you are staying at one of the most convenient plot devices in the world.
Secondly, she finds a second invisibility suit and decides to hide it at a convenient place for the plot to use later instead of just putting it on. Why? The movie would have been so much more entertaining if it was just two invisible people running around trying to freak each other out. Maybe they are saving it for the upcoming The Invisible Woman movie.
But my biggest gripe with this movie is the cardboard cut-outs the villain, the sister and the cop are, in terms of character. Elisabeth’s character is fantastic and layered, and she injects some real life into the story.
But when it comes to the husband, he is just a cardboard cut-out who can sometimes predict things like a psychic who got a hold of the full script, while other times, is just stupid enough to push the plot along.
The original Invisible Man focused more on his character and while having a strong female lead is fantastic, giving him some emotional depth beyond crazy stalker husband would have been nice.
But it’s still quite an entertaining watch. The movie manages to make empty well-lit corners look creepy and somehow narrative. My favourite part of this politically correct horror movie? Spoiler alert, the African-American guy AND his daughter manage to survive! And that’s a win, and the main reason I am giving this movie a 3.5.
