Horror 2024 Countdown: The Invisible Man (2020)

The Invisible Man (2020), dir. Leigh Whannell, Blumhouse Productions/Goalpost Pictures/Nervous Tick Productions 

Ah, the Dark Universe, what wonders it could have shown. Universal opted to farm the individual films out to different companies. Would the end result be better than the last two attempts?

Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) is in a rough spot. Her boyfriend, Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is quite frankly a creep. He's also violent, paranoid, and has her under constant surveillance. Cecilia has a plan though. She manages to drug him and escape his high tech house with the help of her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) and finds a safe house with her childhood friend, Detective Lanier (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). Adrien does not take this well and five weeks after being unable to find her he kills himself. 

So, problem solved right? Not quite; according to Adrien's lawyer Tom (Michael Dorman), Ceclia has just inherited all of Adrien's money, property and patents. All told she's a rich woman now but there is a catch. If she wants to keep her newfound fortune, she must be declared sane. 

Well that seems easy enough, right? Except things start happening around her. Papers are misplaced, she arrives to an interview dopped to the gills, and she swears she's not alone everywhere she goes. Lanier is sure she's just paranoid but Ceclia recalls what Adrien's work was-optics and cutting edge use of them. It isn't impossible to think he made himself invisible somehow and is stalking her. 

This line of thinking doesn't go over well, especially when Ceclia seemingly slits Emily's throat in public. Is she just cracking up or is someone really after her?

After the last two films this was a breath of fresh air. No attempts at a multiverse or sequel bait, just a single story to scare the hell out of you and this is definitely scary. Being stalked is bad enough but when you can't see the stalker? The Invisible Man has always been a monster that can induce pure paranoia like no other creature can and this works that to the fullest extent.