My favourite thing about this movie is that it jumps from being a ghost story to a psychological thriller so smoothly. This is an absolutely great movie. It's very intense, has really great acting and very skilled writing. If you look away too long though you will definitely miss important details that tie the story altogether. So you have to pay close attention even though some parts seem drawn out.
Elisabeth Moss is a truly iconic actress to choose for this role. She is such a badass. She was so well composed and so smart, and very relatable.
The movie starts with Cecila (Elisabeth Moss) planning an escape from her husband for reasons unknown at the beginning. They live in a big beautiful house and she plans the perfect escape until she accidentally sets the alarm off. This forces her to run because obviously her husband is scaring her or maybe abusing her to some extent that she has to leave in the middle of the night. She almost makes it, but her husband chases her and finds her getting into her sister's car on the highway. This may sound like meaningless blabber but really this first scene kind of explains really the whole plot.
After she (sort of) gets away, she ends up staying with her friend James who is an old family friend of theirs. He is a good friend, and helps her feel safe especially cause he is a cop. I say she "sort of" got away because she still doesn't feel safe. She's obviously traumatized she is waiting for him to find her. After some time, she receives news that her husband is dead by suicide. Somehow, Cecila still doesn't believe it's true. The writing has placed us in Cecilia's shoes very well because we begin to feel and react how she is reacting - and that's what causes the suspense and thrill. You are constantly waiting for her husband to come find her somehow, even though he is supposed to be dead. So every creak, noise, and movement that happens while Cecila is being "paranoid" makes you really believe that her husband (Adrian) is still coming after her whether he is dead or alive. I really don't blame her at all for being so scared, because he is a master in the optics industry, which is why they are so rich, and we never know what he is capable of. Whether it be because of money, power, or knowledge. We are still unaware of what he is capable of. Already at this point, it seems like his death is very unlikely (at least for me) because maybe he is the type of man who could get away with it.
After a few days (or weeks? timeline unsure), Cecilia is feeling a bit better about Adrian being dead, until she receives a letter to Jason's house addressed to her. Like, how did they know she was there or to send mail to that address for her. FIRST RED FLAG honestly. LIke to be at that point it's all over. No one should have been able to find her there unless they are following or stalking her. The letter is about her husband's will which she was listed on. So she has a lot of money coming her way. Besides the whole fact of his brother being his lawyer, she has to provide her bank information and probably mailing information in order to receive his death benefit. Which is RED FLAG #2. Now they will know for sure where she is. "They" is still undetermined at this point obviously. She's obviously getting a good sum of money to get comfortable, but she still doesn't really believe he is dead. The stipulations of her receiving the money are that she is "of sound mind" and does not commit a crime. This really seems like RED FLAG #3 because it seems like when he wrote this will he would know that she was capable of doing either. It just really seems too planned out. It's some weird like underlying gaslighting shit because her underlying feeling of him still being alive is controlling her to still be afraid and unable to live her life normally.
But she carries on and tries to continue to ignore the voice in her head. She goes back to James' house and tries her best to carry on as normal as she can because maybe he really is dead and maybe it is her chance to live a normal life again. But of course, what would the story be if it weren't to turn. We hear creaks, we hear steps, we hear things moving. We still know that she has no suspicion of anyone other than the fact that it's just Adrian fucking with her I mean especially since the movie is called "The Invisible Man", we already know something has to come and fuck with her.
I know I'm going into full plot synopsis but I can't help it! Truly I don't want to just give a short summary, I think some important feelings are worth writing about within the whole movie. I am trying to limit spoilers and the best parts but I feel like I can't properly write about the movie just from a short overall review. Anyways I'm continuing on so I don't care what you all say.
So Cecilia is terrified on multiple occasions while she is awake late in the night hearing things. We see things move. We see sheets move. We hear noises. And finally we even see the front door open on its own and someone breathing over her while she goes to check it out. Us as the viewers know that Cecilia is not crazy. But she can't prove any of this to anyone. And obviously as a woman who suffered trauma and is now grieving to some extent, it sadly makes her less believable. Especially for these allegations she says like someone is following her, or in the house, or doing all these little gestures. And this makes us frustrated as a viewer. At this point, it appears that Adrian is a ghost who is haunting her as a ghost. AGH THERES SO MANY MOMENTS NOW I WANT TO SPOIL BUT I WON'T. Cecilia is obviously terrified and uses a sheet to throw over where she thinks the ghost is in the middle of the night. But nothing is caught. So she just continues to think she's crazy. Even her friend, Jason - after constantly being called into rooms by her screaming - is trying to understand her perspective but also not believing her about the "haunting". She just can't seem to catch a break. There are SO many signs that he is there taunting and torturing her but we still don't necessarily know if it's him for sure.
Cecilia tries to use her resources and calls Adrian's brother (also his lawyer), and tell him that she knows he isn't dead. She is demanding to him that she knows he isn't dead and she is trying to get him to confess that everything is a hoax. But, he still completely denies everything. He shows her a photo of his dead body from a crime scene of a suicide. But is that enough for Cecilia? Like nothing possibly can be, because she knows something is fucking with her. Throughout many of the next scenes, Cecilia is caught in the middle of multiple situations where it appears she is doing awful things to the people around her. This "ghost" has a very effective way of doing harmful things and leaving the evidence all in Cecilia's hands. WE as the audience know she hasn't done it but there is no other real explanation for what has happened because she is left appearing guilty and no one is listening to her. A GREAT ATTIC SCENE WITH PAINT. (I will try not to spoil too much) See, in this movie we don't really know if the rules of ghosts apply. Some stories we know ghosts can't harm people, or they have no physical form. Sometimes they can move things or make noise though. This movie is still correct though (spoiler) because it doesn't need to follow ghost rules. Even though we still believe this is a ghost, and Cecilia uses a bucket of paint to reveal that this "entity" has a physical form. So this breaks the ghost rules. Now we know this isn't a ghost. So this might be the first point in the movie where this turns from a ghost movie to a stalker-psychological thriller. She begins to understand she needs to sense where this entity is she begins getting beaten and thrown around so we feel now that it is truly Adrian.
Cecilia travels back to their old house the next day. I mean I suppose while she is there at first, that Adrian is not there in the beginning. While she goes back downstairs to his "lab" she finds a crazy machine that makes a weird suit out of your photo body form in the cell. So the machine, makes a suit for Cecilia. At first we don't really know what it is. It looks like a spandex suit covered in cameras/glass/light fixtures that we as the audience infer will make you invisible. And this is the key. This is what Adrian has crafted to make himself invisible. I mean, we obviously don't know the logistics of it and it probably would never make sense scientifically but this is the story. So she has made her own suit and she keeps it for herself. This is his tool and now she has this tool as well. To be "invisible".
MORE BAD EVENTS OBVIOUSLY MANY BAD EVENTS.
I guess I could ramble on forever. There is an incredible ending. It's a bit drawn out. But now that we know that the "Invisibility" is not a ghost, and it's in fact a scientific invention that her husband is using, after faking his own suicide, and is still trying to torture her. The acting is impeccable. And the story ends MAYBE perfectly. YOU MUST WATCH THIS MOVIE. It's a masterpiece and a beautiful cross between paranormal, psychological, and serial killer. It's what we need in the quarantine. And it's what the horror movie needed now.
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