Going into this film I thought it was a reimagining of the 2000 film, Hollow Man starring Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue, and whilst I was not completely wrong, I later found out that both are actually completely different adaptations of the 1897 novel by H. G. Wells.

Having loved Hollow Man and being rather intrigued by the trailer, I went into this viewing with high expectations.

The film starts with an intense, anxiety-inducing ten minutes that rivalled the tense opening of A Quiet Place, as Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) gathers up her belongings and leaves her home, and the clutches of her abusive husband, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), with the help of her sister, Emily (Harriet Dyer).

We then skip a couple of weeks, Cecilia has been hiding out with an old family friend, James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid) when Emily delivers the news that Adrian has taken his own life and she is now free from his control.

With a huge weight off of her shoulders, Cecilia tries to rebuild her life, securing herself a job interview with an architecture firm, however small events cause paranoia to set in and, approaching the brink of insanity, she has to work to convince her friends and family that an invisible man is among them.

Let’s be honest, it must be an incredibly difficult task to portray the idea of being stalked by an invisible person without the over-use of jump scares or absurd gimmicky special effects but director Leigh Whannel manages to achieve this with a rather minimal yet highly effective style.

Credit also has to go to composer Benjamin Wallfisch whose powerful musical score helps elevate and bring suspense to scenes that are effectively just long shots of empty spaces.

And while the acting on the whole was not really anything to write home about, Moss is what makes this film really shine. Her body language and facial expressions invoke a fearful tension so strong you can feel it from the comfort of your cinema seat. Her progression towards madness was so convincing that for a period of time I was sure that the climax of the film was going to have a huge Fight Club type reveal.

The film features a technological genius who discovers a way to become invisible, the film offers very little in the way of an explanation of the science or motivations behind his invention, instead the focus lies on the victim herself, and with Moss’ brilliant performance The Invisible Man may be an emotional and triggering watch, so if this is a difficult subject matter for you, I would recommend watching with caution.

Although I found The Invisible Man to be a solid psychological horror overall, given the choice, I think I would rather watch Hollow Man.

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