‘The Invisible Man’ Unearths Our Deepest Fears

If you’ve ever been by yourself but couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that you weren’t quite alone, or felt like someone was watching your every move, then ‘The Invisible Man’ is just the right nightmare fuel for you.

It is the story of a young woman who starts to suspect that she is being followed by someone invisible, and that they are with her no matter where she goes.

From the beginning of the movie it already starts to paint the picture that the protagonist, the former girlfriend of a deceased scientist, might be losing her mind.

But as is always the case with these types of stories, there is more to it than what does or doesn’t meet the eye.

The same way you might feel a little bit crazy when even for a second you consider that an unseen presence might have invaded your space, it is this that drives the type of behaviour that Cecilia displays as she begins to suspect that her ex-boyfriend Adrian did not in fact die, but faked his death in order to exact revenge on her for leaving him. She believes he plans to do so by watching her every move and terrorising her, all while being undetectable to the human eye.

Of course no one believes Cecilia and she is left to deal with occurrences she struggles to explain away.

What begins with an uneasy sense of not being alone, quickly turns dangerous as household items move around on their own, kitchen equipment is tampered with and Cecilia’s best efforts to move on with her life are foiled.

‘The Invisible Man’ has a very interesting concept, told expertly through a story about survival. It is reminiscent of the 2000 movie ‘Hollow Man’ in which actor Kevin Bacon’s character Sebastian tests out his own invisibility serum on himself and loses his mind, intoxicated on the power that being unseen gives him.

Now take that power and pair it with a man Cecilia says already stalked and mistreated her, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Beneath the actual story of a woman trying hard to stay sane and safe is a deeper and even scarier reality many women face in today’s world. The horrific feeling of being unable to escape an abusive relationship, the fear associated with being left alone with someone who harasses you, and the sad fact that most of the time no one believes that you’re in danger.

The film, starring Elizabeth Moss as the main character, was released in February 2020. It has a captivating plot line, which spins it well into an action-packed, sometimes scary 124 minutes.

It has some unexpected twists and turns, revelations that leave you baffled, jump scares that happen at just the right moments and the eternal sense of perseverance. You watch it hoping and praying it’ll all turn out alright, and just when you think you know what will happen next, you are entirely mistaken.

‘The Invisible Man’ is definitely worth a watch. If you want to see something that is part horror movie and part science fiction, while still being a really cool take on the classic question of what you’d do if no one could see you, this is for you.

– annehambuda@gmail.com or @anne_hambuda on social media.

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