I was so excited when I saw this film come to Netflix. I had hyped it up in my mind so much and while I did enjoy it, it definitely didn’t excite me as much as I hoped it would.

The Invisible Man follows Cecelia, a woman who lived with her abusive partner and managed to escape him, She soon finds out he is ‘dead’ however he has in fact created technology that means he can become invisible, and his torment on her life continues, but this time she is seen as a mad woman because he is presumed dead.

I really like the way that this film goes about abuse and exploitation and just the horror of having to deal with someone so violent. It really shows how hard it is to be a victim of abuse and to be believed, especially when the abuse isn’t something that you can see. So often if you are bruised or bloodied at least you have the evidence to show that someone has hurt you, however when that abuse is emotional it’s a lot harder to prove it. I feel this encapsulates that feeling of people not believing you, but in a way that is so much more terrifying because people believe your abuser is dead and thus how are you meant to prove that he is still out there?

It’s a really interesting film with how it’s made because, obviously the antagonist is invisible, so there’s a lot of movement that you have that needs to really work well in terms of cinematography and affects. From him stealing a knife or seeing a door open or anything like that it’s really fascinating that it’s a technique that we haven’t often seen in this sort of horror, and I think the way that they made this ‘invisibility cloak’ work was really clever. You could always see it as a bit outlandish and ridiculous that he can become invisible however the way that they did it with technology really could make sense in a 21st-century light and isn’t too far-fetched.

You really feel for Cecelia and what she’s going through and I think anyone who has been a victim of abuse can resonate with her in some way, because even if you are free of them and you think you are safe, you never truly are and even if they are dead you still have the emotions and turmoil to deal with. It’s a brilliant film and definitely gives you that girl boss energy at the end when she is able to get her revenge on her ex and finally put an end to all this, but you also see how her character changes through it and Cecilia at the end is definitely not the woman that she was at the start, and in some ways that’s good but it also shows how much the abuse has taken a toll on her.

I really enjoyed this film. There are moments that seem a bit less exciting or you’re just constantly waiting for it to become this big spectacle, but for what it is, it’s enjoyable and if you like horrors then I definitely recommend it. It’s a different type of horror than what we have seen before, being an abusive storyline with this almost a magical element of them becoming invisible, but it’s not stupid or silly in any way and I feel the grittiness and rawness of what Cecilia goes through really helps ground it so that you don’t start thinking: well this would never happen.

What do you think of The Invisible Man?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding