2020's The Invisible Man is a reimagining of the classic H.G. Wells novel and the iconic Universal Studios monster film of the same name. The updated and more grounded story follows Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), a woman attempting to get away from her overly controlling boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). After escaping, she is told that Adrian has killed himself, but things aren't as they appear as Cecilia begins to think that she is being stalked by Adrian in an invisibility suit. The film takes a psychological approach that touches on the anxiety of trauma and thus creates the perfect modern suspense film.
In the 1933 original, the lead is portrayed as a man cursed with invisibility. This condition slowly eats away at his sanity until all that is left is a man suffering from mania. The remake decides to take the idea of Adrian Griffin experiencing a superiority complex, and rather than have him develop his condition, it becomes a part of his character. As an optics genius, Griffin craves control, going so far as to place cameras all over his house to monitor Cecilia. He dictates what she did, where she did it and who she was with. When she escapes, he enacts revenge, as he can't believe that he had failed in keeping her under his thumb. Similar to how Griffin in the original film slowly eliminated those who wanted to stop him, Adrian eliminates those closest to Cecilia.
Where the film succeeds in suspense is through Griffin's revenge methods. By being invisible, the film features lingering shots that keep the viewer guessing whether or not there is someone there. To add to the building tension, some setups for scares become false alarms. For example, as the characters leave the kitchen, the camera stays in the room for an uncomfortable amount of time. In what could've been the perfect time for an object to move on its own, a pan with food catches fire on the stove. Not only is it a great way to create more tension, but it disarms the viewer for when similar scares happen later in the film.
As Griffin slowly begins to terrorize Cecilia, he tries to make those around her believe she is slowly losing her grip on reality. But knowing his tactics better than anyone, she stays true to herself and slowly starts to uncover the mystery of the invisible man. The film even has the viewers questioning what is and isn't true as it holds out on revealing Griffin for quite some time. By the time Griffin is finally unveiled as the invisible man, the suspense has been building for at least 40 minutes. Once he finally appears, Cecilia and the viewers' validations quickly give way to paranoia.
Until the film's climax, every space is suspect to be hiding Griffin. To add to that paranoia, the framing of each scene leaves just enough room for there to be a person hiding in plain sight. But rather than live with that fear, Cecilia decides to challenge it head on by using Griffin's tricks against him.
When Cecilia finally confronts Griffin in the climax, the sense of unease is palpable. But instead of that suspense being directed at Cecilia, it's towards her ex. In a final act of poetic justice, the tension is cut by the same knife that she uses to cut Griffin's throat while in her own invisible suit. By the end, Cecilia uses that trauma to grow from a victim to a survivor in order to bravely confront her aggressor. The Invisible Man serves as a metaphor for the invisible trauma surrounding survivors. The techniques used to bring that terror to life redefined classic suspense films for a modern audience.
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