February is typically a dreary time for the movies, but fan and critical praise of late February release The Invisible Man is a positive sign for future horror movies being released this year.
At the time of writing this article, The Invisible Man is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, sitting at a 92% on the tomatometer and 91% with fans. It's a massive improvement from The Grudge reboot and other horror movies that flopped in early 2020.
Led by a stellar Elisabeth Moss, The Invisible Man takes a new approach to its retelling of H.G. Wells' story. The story is traditionally about a man, and a version of this film was almost made with a male lead. While there is still an invisible man at the center of this story, the true focus is on his ex-girlfriend Cecilia (Moss) — whom he terrorizes. The film follows Cecilia as she battles against a foe that no one can see, or believes exists. Taking a new spin on such a well-known tale might have been a risk, as most people know this story to be about the titular Invisible Man. But it paid off, as fans and critics alike overwhelmingly praised the movie.
Moss is the Highlight of the Film
Perhaps the most commonly praised element of The Invisible Man is Moss's performance. Moss is well known for roles on the wildly successful shows The Handmaid's Tale and Mad Men. But when it comes to her leading roles on the big screen, she tends to avoid commercially successful blockbuster films. With roles like Her Smell under her belt, Moss is a bit of an indie film darling. She honestly might be the last person audiences might expect to see in a she gives a nuanced and meticulous performance that would be more commonly expected in her indie films. That's what creates something unexpected and special.
Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
Moss eagerly seizes on the intellectual and physical demands of the role, charging forward on the movie’s eerie, sorrowful wavelength for as long as she can.
Jesse Hassenger, The AV Club
Moss combines skittish vulnerability with mesmerizing steeliness, the former stabilizing into the latter for moments of cornered resourcefulness. Moss also strengthens the notion that this is a monster movie unusually interested in looking past the toxic-male machinations of its famous character and toward the lasting horrors left in his wake.
Mike Mazzanti, The Film Stage
Elisabeth Moss is the film’s center of gravity as she deftly navigates the hire-wire act of sanity and lunacy, keeping viewers rooted in her psyche even as Whannell kicks it into overdrive. Transitioning from subtle tics to crazed determination, Moss carries Cecilia from the tight grips of hysteria into a genuine horror heroine.
A Horror Film for the #MeToo Era
The Invisible Man covers the sensitive subject of domestic abuse — namely, gaslighting. Moss's Cecilia is being stalked by her abusive ex, and everyone in her life just dismisses it as paranoia from the trauma of her abusive relationship. It makes Cecilia question her sanity. As gaslighting is something many people in abusive relationships experience, it was vital for writer and director Leigh Whannell to approach this the right way. Many critics praised the way the film broached this subject.
Britt Hayes, Birth. Movies. Death.
Whannell perfectly captures the suffocating feeling of intimate oppression, the texture of a masculine hand gripped around a throat, the visceral, seemingly inescapable dread that becomes the survivor's shadow.
Matt Goldberg, Collider
Whannell understands that his movie is scary because, like all great horror stories, it’s about something real. The subtext is so close to the surface that it’s basically text, but I’m okay with that trade off because people are going to head into theaters for what’s ostensibly a monster movie and get a crash course in an important social issue.
Many critics agreed that The Invisible Man gracefully handles the story of a woman escaping an abusive relationship. But the film did not receive universal praise. One critic believes that many films before it have tackled this issue in a far better way and that The Invisible Man turns this sensitive issue into a bit of a cliche.
Jude Dry, Indie Wire
The analogy of the woman no one believes is all too relevant today, but it’s a cliche we’ve seen before and in far better films. The privacy fears, while less familiar territory, is treated so superficially as to be all but moot.
