The Invisible Man: A Layered Horror

The Invisible Man is available to rent through Amazon and is being given an early digital release due to theaters closing.

The Invisible Man is a modern retelling of the dark tale based on HG Well's iconic novel of the same name. The camerawork, atmosphere, and strategic cuts provide a tense sense of impending horror, yet not exactly one you'd get from a ghost story. Ghost stories make you feel helpless, because it's usually a sort of supernatural element. There's something about The Invisible Man that doesn't make you feel helpless as much as it makes you feel unable to escape an ever-looming tension.

PLOT: Elizabeth Moss stars as Cecilia, a woman who escapes her highly-abusive boyfriend, Adrian Griffin, a man who is a world leader in the field of optics. When she hears that he's committed suicide, she's baffled to discover that he's left her $5 million dollars in his will. However, when strange signs and occurrences begin to happen, she becomes convinced that he's alive and has somehow made himself invisible. When nobody believes Cecilia, she decides the only way to escape Adrian is to finally fight back.

Two Kinds of Horror

What this movie did really well was create the perfect story arc for a character as ridiculous as The Invisible Man. We see a story of a woman who can't escape her abusive and controlling boyfriend. Once she finally does, she still lives in fear that he'll find her again. That fear of constantly looking over her shoulder takes on another level when she becomes convinced he's become invisible. The thing that stands out is that we, along with Cecilia, are not just scared of Adrian because he's invisible, but because of who he is - a controlling psychopath. It's when she realizes he now threatens the people she loves that Cecilia brings herself to finally fight back after years of abuse. This could just as easily had been a story about a man who fakes his death and stalks his ex and still be pretty good. The invisibility is just another layer to an already well-developed story.

Elizabeth Moss

Well, with every film this year getting postponed, the list of candidates for next year's Oscars are looking pretty dim. Elizabeth Moss deserves some sort of award for this performance and she shouldn't just get it because of the lack of competition. She kills this role and perfectly displays a sense of desperation mixed with determination.

The Cinematography

The classic rotating-fan camerawork was a refreshing return to the horror-movie trick. The atmosphere created by camera positioning would perfectly shape the tension of each scene. You'll find yourself checking each corner of the screen trying to find out where The Invisible Man is standing. It never focuses on where he is or might be. It quite literally makes you do the hard work. Genius storytelling.

Watch this movie, I fully believe it's one of the best horror/thrillers of the past decade.