Two weeks after escaping the high-security home of her abusive, controlling, husband, Cecilla (Elisabeth Moss) learns he has killed himself.
However, as strange things start to happen in her life, she begins to suspect that the genius optics entrepreneur has actually faked his own death and really found a way to turn himself invisible!
This is something he had taunted her with in the past, saying then he could always keep an eye on her.
Has he done this? Or has he just got it into her head that he could do this? One final mind-game from beyond the grave...
Of course, we, the audience, know that - given the title of the movie - Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) has somehow achieved his devious ambition, although Cecilla's friends and family refuse to accept her wild claims and we see her grasp on sanity slowly slipping away.
Written and directed by horror veteran Leigh Whannell, Universal's new spin on
The Invisible Man is the terrifying sci-fi horror that could relaunch its aborted "
Dark Universe", where Tom Cruise's
The Mummy failed so spectacularly.
Sure, there are a couple of moments that stretch credibility, like Cecilla's cop friend, James Lanier (
Leverage's Aldis Hodge), being allowed to sit in on her interrogation when she is framed for murder, and Cecilla finding Adrian's mobile phone, complete with incriminating pictures, and not sharing it with anyone.
But overall, this is a near-perfect masterpiece of escalating tension, psychological horror, and the terrifying possibilities of weird science.
The film was off to a good start with its leads. Elisabeth Moss and Aldis Hodge are excellent in everything I've seen them do, but Whannell brings an attention to detail (
barring minor hiccups mentioned above) that escalate the creep factor to near-breaking point.
He wisely avoids a lot of 'floating objects held by invisible person' gimmicks, and instead, generally goes, at least initially, for subtler, more disturbing, effects that you might not even catch first time round.
I'm sure I missed some things.
The other clever aspect of this iteration of the well-known HG Wells story is that it is told entirely from Cecilla's perspective; Griffin - the demented supervillain of the piece - is barely seen or heard until the final act.
As well as a straight forward horror movie,
The Invisible Man also works as frightening portrait of an abusive relationship, highlighting the incredulity and disbelief that Cecilla's allegations about her "dead husband" are met with.
This carries right through to the final act, after a surprise twist that could be seen to put Cecilla in the clear actually makes her situation worse.
Engrossing and psychologically disturbing,
The Invisible Man is an impressive, contemporary, take on a classic sci-fi story, and well worth two hours of your time.
