The Invisible Man (2020)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This new Invisible Man has no relation at all with any of its predecessors. Instead what we have here is a brand new story which just happens to feature a villain that somehow acquires the capability of being invisible. Unlike movie of this genre, this film cleverly stays clear away from the "origin of invisible man" approach. In fact it does not provide much of a background story on how the invisibility was acquired. Instead it takes us straight into the thick of the plot by introducing us to our lady lead who mysteriously escapes from what we assume is an abusive lover only to be haunted by an unseen presence which of course turns out to be the invisible man. This is unlike any super hero movie where the invisible man is the hero, or about a victim of some scientific experiment that has gone wrong. Nope, here, our Invisible Man is very much the villain ..

Director Leigh Whannell is no stranger to this genre, having been involved as the writer of such illustrious horror classics as Saw, Upgrade, and the Insidious movies. Here he shows great promise as a director for the thriller genre. Right from the film's opening sequence, we are treated with a clever and imaginative way the words for the opening titles appeared as the strong waves break against a rocky cliff. Sound and music is also effectively used throughout the film which provided another dimension to the suspense and creepiness. In many scenes, Leigh plays with the audience as he lets the camera linger on, pointing at presumably where our invisible man is. Most of the time nothing actually moves or happens, but Leigh manages to capture our imagination so well in these simple yet effective scenes.

Playing the lead role is Elisabeth Moss who many of you will probably recognise as the star of TV series The Handmaid's Tale. She is competent but doesn't come across at least to me, as a very sympathetic character. Nevertheless, The Invisible Man still scores for me as a tight thriller that works and sets the heart racing.