The Invisible Man (2020) Review

Time: 124 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence, cruelty, self-harm & domestic abuse
Cast:
Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass
Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Adrian Griffin
Aldis Hodge as James Lanier
Storm Reid as Sydney Lanier
Harriet Dyer as Emily Kass
Michael Dorman as Tom Griffin
Director: Leigh Whannell

The film follows Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), who receives the news of her abusive ex-boyfriend’s (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) suicide. She begins to re-build her life for the better. However, her sense of reality is put into question when she begins to suspect her deceased lover is not actually dead.

The Invisible Man was one of my most anticipated movies of 2020, although the concept of a remake of a classic horror monster movie seemed like it was destined to fail. There were a few reasons I was very interested in this movie however. First of all, you have Leigh Whannell directing, who showed himself to be a massive talent behind the camera with his last film Upgrade, so I knew that this movie was in good hands. Second you have Elisabeth Moss in the lead role, I haven’t seen her in a ton of movies or tb, but she’s been great in the few things I’ve watched her in. Third of all, they seemed to be modernising the story into something different, which at least showed it had potential to have a fresh and different take on the story. I was really excited for the movie, but it was actually lot better than I thought it would be.

The Invisible Man is a modern version of the original story, both of the book by H.G. Wells, and the original 1933 movie of the same name. Of all the classic horror stories, this seemed the hardest to adapt, since it’s pretty hard to make one invisible man actually scary, even though I liked the 30s movie, the titular character really wasn’t all that scary. However, Whannell and co. managed to pull it off. He definitely reworked a lot of the story to modernise it, but it works to some great effect. Although the movie features a man who it is invisible, the story is really about domestic abuse and gaslighting, and explores the traumas on an abusive relationship. That aspect was handled very well, and was probably more unsettling than the actual invisible man part. The movie can be very unnerving, and you feel paranoid throughout, just like the protagonist. Some of the concepts and ideas on paper at first sound silly, specifically the whole invisible aspect (without spoiling anything), but Whannell manages to make it work. I know that some people were a little worried about the trailers showing too much, but I can assure you there’s more to the movie than what was shown there. There’s only a couple of slight issues I had with the movie. The second act had some slow moments, even though I was invested in the movie throughout. Also, while cameras play a part in the movie, there are times where they are conveniently involved, and felt conveniently not involved at other specific points. They didn’t affect the movie too much for me however. Overall I was consistently captivated by The Invisible Man.

Elisabeth Moss is one of the best parts of this movie, she plays her part excellently. As well made as the movie is, much of the film is riding on her performance, she provides such an effective emotional centre throughout and really sells everything the main character has to endure throughout. A lot of the time she has to essentially act on her own with an invisible person, and sell it convincingly, and she definitely does that. The rest of the cast with the likes of Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen are good, and play their parts well enough. However, it really is Moss’s show throughout.

Leigh Whannell directed this movie excellently, and was one of the parts that made it work so well. It’s one thing to just have an invisible person as a villain messing with the main character, it’s another to make it feel a threat to the audience, and he definitely did that. The use of camera shots and movements are so effective, really making you unnerved at what you’re seeing (or rather what you’re not seeing). It’s not just seeing a seemingly invisible person throwing objects (or people) around that’s scary, it’s the lingering shots at empty rooms that really gets to you, as you’re not sure whether The Invisible Man is indeed there. The actual visual effects on the Invisible Man could’ve been really goofy, but they work greatly here. The sound design and the score by Benjamin Wallfisch are powerfully effective, escalating the tense atmosphere. There are so many sequences in The Invisible Man that are among the most memorable scenes that I’ve seen in recent horror movies.

The Invisible Man is an incredibly effective, unnerving and suspenseful horror movie, an excellent modern take on the source material. It’s very well directed by Leigh Whannell, and led by Elisabeth Moss’s powerhouse performance. I can’t wait to see Whannell direct even more movies, he’s shown himself to be a great filmmaker, especially within the horror genre. If you’re a horror fan, definitely check it out as soon as possible.

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Triangle (2009) Review

Time: 99 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence, offensive language and horror
Cast:
Melissa George as Jess
Michael Dorman as Greg
Rachael Carpani as Sally
Henry Nixon as Downey
Emma Lung as Heather
Liam Hemsworth as Victor
Director: Christopher Smith

When Jess (Melissa George) sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realized when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she’s been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone… Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

I hadn’t heard of Triangle until very recently. Because it is the month of Halloween I was looking to watch some horror movies and some people strongly recommended it to me. I didn’t know really anything about Triangle except that it had something to do with people on a yacht and a boat and that it was a horror movie. Not knowing what this movie is actually about really elevated this movie a lot, as I was surprised by the direction that the movie went in and what it was really about. Definitely worth a watch knowing as little as possible.

As I said, Triangle is a movie that’s best going into completely blind. The opening 15-20 minutes are possibly the only parts that you’re not able to be spoiled, talking about what happens for the majority of the movie would be straight up spoiling things. So in that I keep things very vague. Horror movies don’t really scare me, and having watched Triangle I’m not exactly sure if I’d call it a horror movie. It’s not quite you’d expect, it’s more of a psychological horror thriller and I can’t go into why without spoiling it. Overall I’ll just say that it really works, and knowing nothing about the movie makes it even better and more effective. There are some plot points that you can predict after some time, especially when it comes to the ending but it wasn’t too predictable for me. Triangle is 99 minutes long and that was a good length overall, it makes the most of its runtime and gets right to the point, never really giving you any chance to be bored or dragging things out. The slowest part is the first 15-20 minutes and even that it’s fine enough, it’s setting up the initial situation and establishing the main characters.

The cast was generally good in their roles, it’s limited. Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung and Liam Hemsworth don’t play very interesting characters and we don’t get to know them a lot but they served their purpose. It’s pretty clear anyway that the star of the movie is Melissa George who’s really good in her role and she sells a lot of her emotions as well as the things her character does, has to go through and learns over the course of the movie (no spoilers of course).

This is the first of Christopher Smith’s movies I’ve seen (not his only horror movie, with him also directing Black Death and Creep) but his direction of Triangle was pretty good. Sometimes you can feel the lower budget of $12 million with some of the look of the movie and some CGI effects (I think some were used) but it didn’t really bother me too much. Some of the more intense chase/fight scenes are a little too shaky, I know that was the intention for the feeling of the movie but it could be a little rough at times. As I said, this movie didn’t really scare me, and I don’t really see this as a horror movie. There are some violent and mindbending moments but in terms of physical threat scares, there weren’t too many and I am glad that they didn’t resort to using jumpscares, as it probably would’ve killed some of the best parts of the movie..

Triangle is a surprising little horror flick that isn’t as known as it should be. Don’t really go into Triangle expecting a really scary horror movie, the best way is to expect a twisty psychological horror thriller and knowing nothing else, don’t look into the movie at all as to what kind of movie it is or anything plot related because it’s best not knowing beforehand. Go into this movie blind and you’ll have the best experience.