Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1219206
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 10 FILM AXE-WIELDING maniacs and killer sharks can certainly be attention-grabbingly terrifying and make for good spectacle when done right. But there's a reason why the quieter, more intimate avenues of home in- vasion and psychological hor- ror also remain evergreen ex- amples of the genre. When the threat is so close as to be practically inside you already, what's to be done? Such a spine-chilling spirit animates The Invisible Man; yet another loose Hollywood adaptation of HG Wells' 1897 novel of the same name brought to life by hard-work- ing Australian horror-meister Leigh Whannell, seasoned screenwriter of the Saw and Insidious franchises and more recently, writer-director for Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and the cyberpunk thriller Upgrade (2018). But instead of another re- tread of the tortured scientist gone mad trope, the Univer- sal-Blumhouse co-creation flash forwards to present day and aligns the focus down to the titular monster's long-suf- fering romantic partner, Cecil- ia (Elisabeth Moss). Escaping from her multi-millionaire sci- entist boyfriend's seaside home – snaking her way through his underground lair, revealing strange experimental equip- ment aiming to revolutionise the science of invisibility – she takes refuge at the home of her old friend James (Aldis Hodge), a single father with a teenage daughter, Sydney (Storm Re- id). While Cecilia gradually begins to overcome the trauma of years of domestic abuse and psychological manipulation at the hands of Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), her estranged sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) stops by to deliver some shocking news which, at the root of it, comes with a sliver of relief: Adrian has been found dead by suicide, and has left be- hind a five million dollar inher- itance to Cecilia is his last will and testament, paid in monthly installments and conditional on her never comitting a crime. But Cecilia soon realises that Adrian is not dead at all, and that he is using his ground- breaking invisibility suit to torment her as revenge for daring to escape from his so- ciopathic clutches. Of course, getting anyone to believe this mind-boggling series of events is an impossible feat, and it is on this level that Whannell's chillers gets the most out of its core concept. Sure, there's some thrilling wire- and cam- era-work at play as Adrian gets physical with Cecilia and oth- ers, with crockery and more serious weaponry involved in a desperate attempt to dispatch an enemy who can't even be seen, either in cramped do- mestic settings or hospital hall- ways that make for some great swoop-and-stalk coverage that immerses us in the action while cranking up the suspense to eleven. What's more affecting, how- ever, is the genial alignment between the idea of an invis- ible stalker and the cultural tendency to dismiss or out- right disbelieve the testimony of women in these situations. We're left to imagine the more quotidian horrors that Adrian had visited upon Cecilia prior to the film's 'fade in', though Elisabeth Moss is a victim of domestic abuse whose attacker literally comes back to haunt her in this masterfully executed take on the classic HG Wells novel Teodor Reljic The invisible man wants to take it all away No personal space: Elisabeth Moss offers an affecting performance in Leigh Whannell diabolically enjoyable take on the HG Wells horror classic