NOW YOU SEE HIM (THE INVISIBLE MAN)

 

HG Wells' 'The Invisible Man' has inspired 14 movies as well as nine TV shows, radio adaptations and a comic strip.

And it's not that difficult to see why.

The concept of Wells' 1897 novel is malleable, lending itself to thrillers, comic and horror treatments.

Actors ranging from Claude Rains, Abbott and Costello, Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, Chevvy Chase, Kevin Bacon, John Hurt and David McCallum have all starred in projects of varying quality, either directly adapting or inspired by the tale.

However Australian filmmaker Leigh Whannell's 2020 version really explores the possibilities for psychological horror.

At the start of his taut film, Elisabeth Moss's Cecilia Kass slips out of bed and tiptoes around the house she shares with her billionaire husband, Oliver Jackson-Cohen's Adrian Griffin, trying not to wake him.

All is going well until she gets to the garage, stops to tend to their dog, sets off a car alarm and is forced to quickly scale the perimeter wall of their property.

Running onto the main road, she is picked up by her sister, Harriet Dyer's Emily but drops the diazepam bottle whose drugs she has used to knock her husband out.

But the alarm has woken her husband from his slumber and before they can make a break for it, he surfaces and tries to smash the passenger window and drag Cecilia out of the car.

Cecilia is spirited away to safety, finding refuge in a safe house provided by Aldis Hodge's Detective James Lanier and his teenage daughter, Storm Reid's Sydney.

At first, Cecilia is so scarred by her experience of a controlling husband that she is afraid to venture out the house and get the mail.

But gradually, with James and Sydney's encouragement, she comes out of her shell.

One day a letter arrives at her home, revealing that Adrian has committed suicide.

Cecilia and Emily meet his lawyer brother, Michael Dorman's Tom who reveals she has inherited $5 million in Adrian's will which can only be rescinded if she commits a crime.

But as she celebrates her good fortune by offering to fund Sydney's college fees as a thank you to her and James, Cecilia begins to suspect there is a presence in their house.

The diazepam bottle suddenly turns up in the bathroom.

Bed clothes are pulled away as she sleeps.

And as Cecilia starts to react, those around her start to think she is going crazy.

Writer-director Whannell explores the possibilities for a lot of mischief, with Sydney and James gradually turning against her after the former is struck by unseen force, only to believe Cecilia carried out.

And when a traumatic incident occurs involving Emily in a restaurant, she winds up in a mental institution believing Adrian is very much alive and tormenting her.

What emerges is a clever, slow burn and sometimes bloody tale about coercive control and domestic violence.

However a lot rests on the shoulders of Moss, who has to react convincingly to a presence often invisible to the viewer.

She passes this test with flying colours but also does enough eye rolling and hysterical ranting to show how those around her might believe she is losing her sanity.

Hodge, Reid and Dyer provide sturdy support, while Jackson-Cohen and Dorman are suitably creepy as the Griffin brothers.

But it is Whannell's ratcheting up of the tension and his slick handling of the action sequences in the last third of the film that most impresses.

A sequence where Cecilia exposes her tormentor's presence in the mental institution, resulting in him having to fight security, is thrillingly handled and somehow the film never veers into the outright silliness of previous adaptations.

James Whale's 1933 big screen version of Wells' story with Claude Rains has always been regarded as the best movie adaptation.

Even if you feel Whannell's version doesn't eclipse it for thrills, you have to admit it certainly comes close.

That is in no small part due to cinematographer Stefan Duscio's sharp visuals and Andy Canny's canny film editing.

At times, the set pieces remind you of the relentless rhythm and violence of James Cameron's 'Terminator' films.

The sheen of Duscio's visuals also recalls the cold, modernist imagery of David Fincher's 'Panic Room,' 'Zodiac,' 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and 'Gone Girl'.

And there is a touch of Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion' in there too as the audience questions Cecilia's sanity.

Having struggled to breathe life into its idea of a monsterverse built from its most famous movie franchises like 'The Mummy,' 'Dracula,' and 'Frankenstein,' Universal has wisely allowed Whannell to team up with the low budget horror production company Blumhouse.

The result is a $7 million movie that looks better than its budget suggests and which has delivered a very handsome $135 million international box office take.

It might have fared even better, had the Coronavirus not shut down cinemas across the world at the time of releaze.

Expect another outing for Whannell's 'Invisible Man/Woman' concept in a few years time.

The question is: will Whannell be able to maintain the narrative discipline of this version if Universal start throwing money at his production?

Here's hoping.

('The Invisible Man' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on February 28, 2020 and was made available for streaming and on DVD on June 29, 2020)