The Invisible Man (2020) - Social drama meets psychological thriller with a strong message - 7/10 (12/06/20)

The Invisible Man is a psycho thriller that imagines a new version of the famous horror film character. Written and directed by Australian genre specialist Leigh Whannell who has brought us genre masterpieces such as Saw and Insidious as well as the science-fiction highlight Upgrade, this movie tells us the story of a young architect named Cecilia who finally has the courage to run away from an abusive relationship with a wealthy optics engineer named Adrian. She drugs him, escapes his isolated mansion and is saved by her resilient sister Emily. Cecilia still feels highly unstable and expects her abusive ex-partner to track her down and hurt her. She moves in with a family friend called James who is a cop and his daughter Sydney. Things seem to get better when Cecilia learns that her former partner has committed suicide. His brother and lawyer Tom even announces her that she will receive a generous sum of money on a monthly basis as long as she remains mentally sane and doesn't commit a crime. Despite the good news, Cecilia is unable to turn the page. Items like her keys mysteriously disappear from her new home. She collapses during a job interview. Someone sends Emily a hateful message in her name. Cecilia starts to wonder whether her former partner isn't dead at all and has come back to destroy her life or whether she is just imagining these things and slowly going crazy.

This movie convinces on numerous levels. The acting performances are truly credible and especially lead actress Elisabeth Moss convinces as an unstable woman who desperately tries to get her life back on track. The idea to combine a historic horror film character with a contemporary setting of domestic abuse is courageous, fresh and inspiring. The movie builds up anticipation, atmosphere and tension that lead to a spectacular final quarter.

There are some elements that could be improved however. The film certainly overstays its welcome with a length cracking the two-hour mark. It also features some tired genre tropes such as extremely clumsy behaviour by the lead character in the opening sequence and the fact that nobody believes her incredible story. There are also very few scares for a horror movie as this film rather qualifies as a mixture of domestic violence drama and psychological thriller.

If you are willing to see a legendary horror film character in a completely new setting involving domestic abuse, you are certainly going to appreciate The Invisible Man. This movie has the very positive message to fight domestic abuse by any means necessary, get every help available and bring the perpetrator to justice. In a certain way, this movie combines social drama and psychological thriller. If you simply want to watch a great horror movie however, then this movie can be described as tense at best but is very rarely truly scary.