The invisible Man Archives

ABC Film Challenge – Favourites – I – The Invisible Man (1933) Movie Review

Director: James Whale

Writer: R.C. Sherriff (Screenplay) H.G. Wells (Novel)

Starring: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan, Henry Travers, Una O’Connor, Forrester Harvey

Plot: A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.

Tagline – H.G. Wells’ Fantastic Sensation

Runtime: 1 Hour 11 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Classic

Story: The Invisible Man starts as the heavily bandaged man Dr Jack Griffin (Rains) stumbles through a snow storm to a tavern demanding a room to try and fix the problem he faces, the fact he is now invisible, which strikes fear into the tavern and town.

Dr Cranley (Travers) and Dr Kemp (Harrigan) are trying to figure out what happened to Jack, even though he has started to become insane with the side effects of becoming invisible, showing just how dangerous he has become.

Thoughts on The Invisible Man

Characters – Dr Jack Griffin has become invisible after performing an experiment on himself, he covers himself up not to scare people, making himself look like an injured man, as he tries to find a cure, only it makes him act crazier become a psycho that is willing to kill to escape. Flora is the partner of Jack’s who is trying to make sure he is safe, getting worried believing he will still having good in him. Dr Kemp is one of the scientists that gets caught up in the middle of trying to help Jack and being scared of what he could be, unlike Dr Cranley that knows more of the secrets of the substance he has been using.

Performances – Claude Rains is haunting and disturbing in the leading role, he shows how easily he can snap and how desperate he has been to fix himself. Elsewhere the cast are strong, most reacting to the action more than anything else.

Story – The story follows a man that has become invisible and is desperately trying to recover from his experiment, which has caused him to get more aggressive towards people in life, causing the locals to go in search for him to get stop him. This is an interesting story that shows how people will come together to solve a problem and will be left in fear of the unexplained. While the story might show a villainous figure, it would have been nice to see the science behind what caused what happened, only this might have been difficult to achieve for the time this was made. This is a story that does show hunting for what can’t be seen is interesting to see.

Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror comes from the shock value of seeing Jack without the bandages for the first time and just what he could get up to without being seen, while the sci-fi side of the film does show us just how the unexplained could become terrifying.

Settings – The film does use the settings to show how Jack can go into hiding, or where he could go for answers.

Special Effects – The effects are amazing for the time, when we see the unbandaging sequence it is truly shocking to see.

Scene of the Movie – Jack shows us beneath the bandages.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – We don’t learn enough of the science.

Final Thoughts – This is a true classic of cinema, bringing us one of the first horror icons in the genre in the 1930s and is a film you need to check out.

Overall: Horror Classic.

The Invisible Man (2020) Movie Review

Director: Leigh Whannell

Writer: Leigh Whannell (Screenplay) H.G. Wells (Novel)

Starring: Elisabeth Moss (truth), Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman, Benedict Hardie

Plot: When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.

Tagline – What You Can’t See Can Hurt You

Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: First Great Horror of the Decade

Story: The Invisible Man starts as Cecilia (Moss) escapes her abusive relationship with Adrian (Jackson-Cohen), still haunted by her time thinking Adrian will find her, she is living with cop James (Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Reid), when she learns the news that Adrian has killed himself.

While trying to move on with her life Cecilia starts to suspect Adrian is in fact still alive and faked his death to continue to ruin her life, with his knowledge of technology, which nobody will believe her story about, leading her to need to prove the truth before it is too late.

Thoughts on The Invisible Man

Characters – Cecilia Kass was once an ambitious architect who ends up getting involved in an abusive relationship, where nobody knows about, she has planned her escape, even though she is still caught under his spell, believing he will come for her, she is trying to continue her life after his death. Cecilia shows us just how difficult escaping an abusive relationship can be and how not everybody is going to understand the story. Adrian Griffin is the tech genius that has been controlling Cecilia’s life refusing to let her live her life and after she leaves, he kills himself, only he continues to haunt her life using his knowledge of tech. James is a police officer that takes in Cecilia, while raising his teenage daughter, he is very open and patient with Cecilia, only he will always put his daughter first.

Performances – Elisabeth Moss is fantastic in the leading role, giving us one of the greatest performances of the year. Aldis Hodge was great to watch too, showing both sides of his character very well. While the actual invisible man is more about the presences, it is truly hard to give a true description about the acting behind it.

Story – The story here follows a woman escape her abusive relationship only to learn the man has killed himself, only he hasn’t, he is still haunting her using his own creation to continue to torment her life. Where this story is very interesting, is by not telling us everything about Adrian, we start with the escape and learn about him from how Cecilia tells the people in her life. This helps because we slowly see how Cecilia could well be losing her mind and by sucking out all of the sound in most scenes, we have a tension filled story.

Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror in this film comes from seeing how Cecilia is being haunted by an invisible threat and how that person goes about causing the pain in her life, while the sci-fi side of the film shows us just how the invisible effect is achieved.

Settings – The film does use the locations to show the different places Cecilia finds herself, from the glamorous mansion, to the suburban location or the hospital she finds herself being assessed in.

Special Effects – The effects are flawless to make every action seem nature despite the attacker being invisible.

Scene of the Movie – The Dinner.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It never seems to be explained the relationship between Cecilia and James.

Final Thoughts – This is easily going to become one of the best horrors of the year, with one of the best performances of the year from Elisabeth Moss, being one of the most gripping movies too.

Overall: Fantastic