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The Invisible Man

When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being ... Read all When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see. When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.

• Leigh Whannell
• Elisabeth Moss
• Oliver Jackson-Cohen
• Harriet Dyer
• 2K User reviews
• 484 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 43 wins & 84 nominations

• Cecilia Kass

• Adrian Griffin

• James Lanier

• Sydney Lanier

• Tom Griffin

• Marc (Architect)

• Lyft Driver

• Taylor (Waiter)

• Screaming Woman

• Head Doctor
• Police Officer

• Detective Reckley

• Strike-Stun Guard
• (as Serag Mohammed)

• Security Guard
• H.G. Wells (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Leigh Whannell chose not to have an opening establishing Cecilia's predicament with Adrian "because I wanted to just drop the audience into Cecilia's situation without any back story and make them feel everything through her, and luckily I had Elisabeth Moss who is very good at communicating a lot to the audience without saying anything."
• Goofs Cecilia cuts her left wrist in the shower of her secure medical facility room, yet in the next shot when she is pulled along a white floor there is no blood and no sign of a wound. There is no further sign of this injury until the final scene where she has a white bandage.

Cecilia Kass : He said that wherever I went, he would find me, walk right up to me, and I wouldn't be able to see him.

• Crazy credits The opening credits appear amidst large waves crashing against a cliff, appearing invisible until the waves crash against them and reveal them briefly.
• Alternate versions The UK release was cut, this film was originally seen for advice. The distributor was advised it was likely to be classified 18 uncut but that their preferred 15 classification could be obtained by making small changes to one scene to remove bloody injury detail during an attempted suicide. When the film was submitted for formal classification, the shots in question had been removed and the film was classified 15.
• Connections Featured in Jimmy Kimmel Live!: Elisabeth Moss/Dan Abrams/Dustin Lynch (2020)
• Soundtracks Kids Performed by Rich Brian Courtesy of 88rising Written by Rappy (as Sergiu Gherman), Tyler Mehlenbacher, Daniel Tannenbaum , Rich Brian (as Brian Soewarno), Adam Feeney (as Adam Feeney), Sean Miyashiro and Craig Balmoris Published by 88Rising Publishing LLC (c) Published by One77 Music LLC (c) Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd Universal Music Corp., Song of Universal Inc. Administered by Universal Music Publishing Pty Ltd Licensed by EMI Music Publishing Australia Pty Limited (c) Quiet as Kept Music Inc.

User reviews 2K

• Mar 20, 2020
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• Is this still part of the Dark Universe or is it a standalone movie?
• February 28, 2020 (United States)
• United States
• official Amazon
• Official Facebook
• Untitled Universal Monster Project
• Headland House, Gerringong, New South Wales, Australia
• Universal Pictures
• Blumhouse Productions
• Goalpost Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $7,000,000 (estimated)
• $70,410,000
• $28,205,665
• Mar 1, 2020
• $144,492,724

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 4 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• 12-Track Digital Sound

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The abusive male himself might be unseen, but the fear he spreads is in plain sight in “The Invisible Man,” Leigh Whannell ’s sophisticated sci-fi-horror that dares to turn a woman’s often silenced trauma from a toxic relationship into something unbearably tangible. Charged by a constant psychological dread that surpasses the ache of any visible bruise, Whannell’s ingenious genre entry amplifies the pain of its central character Cecilia Kass ( Elisabeth Moss ) at every turn, making sure that her visceral scars sting like our own. Sometimes, to an excruciating degree.

It's not an easy feat to accomplish. Partly because Whannell’s playground has its boundaries set within a pre-existing property that ought to be handled with care— James Whale ’s circa 1933 pre-code classic, adapted from H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel—that is, if we learned anything from various lackluster studio remakes of recent years. But mostly because we are in the era of #MeToo, with the once-protected monsters of the real world finally being exposed for what they are, their terrorizing powers examined in stupendous films like Kitty Green ’s “ The Assistant ”—a long-delayed revolution that shouldn’t be cheapened or misused. Thankfully, the Australian writer/director behind the wildly successful “ Saw ” and “ Insidious ” franchises, comes equipped with both sufficient visual panache—“The Invisible Man” recalls David Fincher ’s Bay Area-set masterwork “ Zodiac ” and the mazy quality of James Cameron ’s spine-tingling “ Terminator 2: Judgment Day ” when you least expect it—and fresh ideas to fashion the classic Universal Movie Monster with timeless and timely anxieties. And he does so in startlingly well-considered ways, updating something familiar with an inventive take. 

It wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that part of what Green prioritized with her masterpiece is also what lends “The Invisible Man” (and eventually, its visible woman robbed out of options) its cumulative strength—an unforgiving emphasis on the loneliness emotional violence births in the mistreated. There is a constant in all the sharply edited, terrifying set pieces lensed by Stefan Duscio with elegant, clever camera moves in bedrooms, attics, restaurants and secluded mansions: a vigilant focus on Cecilia’s isolation. That isolation, intensified by Benjamin Wallfisch ’s fiendish score, happens to be her concealed assailant’s sharpest knife. A deadly weapon others refuse to see and acknowledge.

One relief is, Whannell doesn’t ever leave us in a state of bewilderment in front of his mean, handsomely-styled and absorbing thriller. We believe Cecilia through and through, when others, perhaps understandably, refuse to do so, questioning her sanity instead. (Sure, “the crazy woman no one will listen to” is a long-exploited cliché, but rest assured, in Whannell’s hands, this by-design bug eventually leads to a deeply earned conclusion.) And yes, at least we as the audience are by her side, all the way from the film’s taut opening when Cecilia wakes up with a long-harbored purpose next to her sleeping enemy, but not showing traces of Julia Roberts ’ fragility. Instead, we detect something both mighty and vulnerable in her, closer to Sarah Connor of "The Terminator" in spirit, when she forcefully runs through the woods to escape her cruel partner Adrian ( Oliver Jackson-Cohen ), gets picked up by her sister Alice ( Harriet Dyer ) after some heart-stopping setbacks and takes refuge with her childhood best friend James ( Aldis Hodge )—a resourceful cop living with his teenaged daughter Sydney ( Storm Reid ), who dreams of going to a design school they can’t afford.

The initially agoraphobic Cecilia finally claims her freedom back, at least briefly, when the moneyed scientist Adrian commits suicide, leaving Cecilia a healthy sum that would finance both her future and Sydney’s choice of college. Of course, if something is too good to be true, it probably is, no matter what Adrian’s brother Tom (a brilliantly sinister Michael Dorman ) claims, handling his late sibling’s estate and inheritance. In that, Cecilia soon puts the pieces of the puzzle together, discovering that Adrian had invented an armor of invisibility (dear reader, this good-looking piece of scientific artifact is the premise, not a spoiler), which he would be using for a complex scheme of gaslighting as a sadistic form of revenge—a reality she can’t prove to anyone. There will be floating knives, pulled comforters, and eerie footprints. You might let out a scream or two.

The certified contemporary queen of unhinged screen heroines—just consider “ Her Smell ,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “ Us ” and the upcoming “ Shirley ” collectively—Moss excels in these creepy scenes with her signature verve. As Cecilia who resourcefully fights an undetectable authority that ruins her life and controls her psychological wellbeing, Moss continues to deliver what we crave from woman characters: the kind of messy yet sturdy intricacy many of today’s thinly conceived you-go-girl female superheroes continue to lack. Whannell’s script and direction generously allow Moss the room to stretch those complex, varied muscles, while casually winking at an empowered final girl for this side of the 21st century.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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Film credits.

The Invisible Man (2020)

Rated R for some strong bloody violence, and language.

110 minutes

Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Adrian Griffin / The Invisible Man

Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass

Storm Reid as Sydney

Aldis Hodge as James

Harriet Dyer as Alice

Michael Dorman as Tom

• Leigh Whannell

Writer (based on the novel by)

Writer (story by), cinematographer.

• Stefan Duscio
• Benjamin Wallfisch

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The Invisible Man Ending Explained: What Really Happened To Adrian Griffin?

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for The Invisible Man. If you have not yet seen the film, please proceed at your own risk!

With 2020’s The Invisible Man , writer/director Leigh Whannell takes a whole new approach to the classic horror/science-fiction story from H. G. Wells. Far beyond just modernizing the setting, the new take delivers a completely different protagonist with Elisabeth Moss’ Cecilia Kass being tortured by Oliver Jackson Cohen’s Adrian Griffin – her optics genius ex-husband who can’t handle her rejection. It’s an excellent, reinvented plot that is exciting all the way through – up to and including its thrilling ending.

So what exactly goes down? What really happens to Adrian Griffin? What does it mean for a potential sequel? We’re here to answer all of those questions and more in this Invisible Man ending analysis feature, so without further ado, let’s dig in!

What Happens At The End Of The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man begins its descent into its conclusion following one final attack by the titular villain inside the home of James Lanier ( Aldis Hodge ) and his daughter Sydney ( Storm Reid ) … but it turns out not to be what audiences are expecting. When the suit-wearing stalker is shot and killed, removing his mask reveals that it wasn’t Adrian trying to attack the Laniers and Cecilia, but instead his brother Tom (Michael Dorman).

A news report on television suggests that it was actually Tom who was responsible for Cecilia being terrorized, as Adrian is discovered bound and gagged inside the walls of his house. However, while we do know that Tom was working with his sibling, Cecilia is in no way convinced of Adrian’s innocence. She can’t move on until there is justice, so she devises a plan.

Wearing a wire, and with James surreptitiously posted outside in his car, Cecilia agrees to have dinner with Adrian at his house, and every step of the way he attempts to act both sincere and apologetic about his past behavior. Sitting in the living room he discusses the idea of a fresh start, while simultaneously refusing to admit to her that he had orchestrated his own fake suicide and had been using his special optics technology to psychologically torture/gaslight her.

Cecilia is insistent that he tell her the truth, and recognizing that he doesn’t really have much of a choice, Adrian essentially agrees in the most sly way possible. Approaching her side of the table, he makes reference to how their future lives together will feature “surprises” along the way – which is a nod to the single word text that he sent her when he was supposed to be dead.

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It’s not quite enough of a confession for the cop outside to enter the home, arrest Adrian, and bring him up on a myriad of charges, but Cecilia gets a degree of satisfaction in her tormentor admitting to her that she hasn’t lost her mind. She excuses herself from the room, and her former husband is left alone at the dinner table thinking that he has won, seen through one of his home’s many security cameras.

In a flash, though, we recognize that he hasn’t. Similar to how Adrian murdered Cecilia’s sister Alice (Harriet Dyer) by slitting her throat in a restaurant, we only have a second to register the knife floating next to the psychopathic narcissist’s shoulder before its blade is gently sliding across his throat and letting a stream of blood flow down his chest.

Stepping out of range of the security camera and taking off her invisible suit, Cecilia begins to put on an act for the recording device that is attached to her, and she calls the police to inform them that Adrian has committed suicide. Her revenge is complete.

Her business completed, Cecilia walks out of the house and encounters James outside – who comes to the understanding that he has been used as a pawn in his friend’s final move against her deranged ex-husband. With her new invisible suit stored in her bag, our protagonist leaves the scene of the crime, prepared to start a whole new life for herself with the aid of some nifty technology.

What Really Happened To Adrian Griffin?

In case this hasn't been made abundantly clear just yet, Adrian Griffin was a seriously bad dude. Sure, he was a genius in the field of optics, and he was able to invent some remarkable technology, but his motivations were far from moral, and he was an even worse human being on a personal level than he was professionally. He kept Cecilia as a prisoner in their marriage because of a need to exert control over her, and his actions following her departure came as a result of his massive ego being unable to fathom a person he dominates escaping his grasp.

Adrian openly threatened Cecilia that should she ever leave him, he would be able to stalk and haunt her without her ever seeing him, and he very much made good on that promise. Using his incredible resources, and having his brother as an accomplice, the psychopathic inventor successfully faked his own suicide, and used it as an alibi to literally disappear. Finding out that his estranged wife was living with James and Sydney, he made a nest for himself in the attic of the house, and used it as a base of operations for gaslighting Cecilia.

As we learn late in the second act of the movie, however, Adrian's goal isn't simply to try and drive our protagonist crazy. His real ambition is to be a father, and while she doesn't know it, Cecilia is pregnant with his child. Working with Tom, he sets up the will with the mental incompetence/felony clause and frames his abuse victim for murder, all in the pursuit of getting her to return to him and give birth to his progeny.

Of course, it's not a plan that pans out even after Adrian throws his brother under the bus and is "rescued" from kidnapping himself. He severely underestimates Cecilia, and he pays the ultimate price for it.

Could We See An Invisible Man Sequel?

The plan that currently for the Universal Classic Monsters going forward is definitely not the same approach that was being taken a few years ago. Back in 2017 there was a plan to create a large-scale interconnected franchise with the movies called the Dark Universe – but those ambitions completely fell apart when The Mummy starring Tom Cruise wound up being a box office bomb. Now the goal for the brand is to simply make standalone projects motivated by interesting takes from talented filmmakers, hence Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man ... but what's unclear at this stage is how the current strategy is going to take sequels into consideration.

Given that the film ends with Cecilia Kass having a chance at a fresh start and in possession of a suit that makes her invisible, there is plenty of material that could be molded into a follow-up story... but at present we're not actually sure if that's an idea that is in the realm of possibility. Not only is it unclear how sequels might fit into Universal Pictures' future plans, but it's also currently unknown if the movie will make enough money to justify the investment in another one.

We'll be patiently waiting for updates in the coming weeks and months regarding this question, but there is one thing that we know for certain: Elisabeth Moss would absolutely be interested in coming back and reprising the role:

During the Los Angeles press day for The Invisible Man (prior to the film's theatrical release), I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Elisabeth Moss to talk about the project, and one subject that we covered was the possibility of exploring Cecilia Kass further in another movie. Moss is certainly no stranger to serialized storytelling and reprising roles, having spent her career making shows like The West Wing , Mad Men , and The Handmaid's Tale , and she expressed real enthusiasm about the possibility of telling another story involving horror and invisibility suits .

While acknowledging that it's not really her say whether or not there is an Invisible Man sequel, Elisabeth Moss said,

One hundred percent, yeah; I'd love to [make a sequel]. I mean, it was so much fun to play her, and I'd feel like we did get to a point at the end of the film where she's a different person, and she has perhaps a new journey to have. It's not up to me. It's up to the fans and the viewers to go see the film and like it, but yeah, I would totally do it.

It should be noted that there is an interesting complication here. Given the events that transpire in The Invisible Man 's ending, you'd think that the natural sequel title would be The Invisible Woman ... but the problem with this is that Universal Pictures is already developing a totally different project with that title. In November 2019 it was reported that Elizabeth Banks is set to direct and star in a film titled The Invisible Woman , and apparently that project has absolutely nothing to do with the film made by Leigh Whannell (similar to how James Whale's 1933 Invisible Man is completely separate from A. Edward Sutherland's The Invisible Woman in 1940 – which was a screwball comedy instead of a horror flick).

With no firm answers available just yet, for now we just play the waiting game as Universal examines the box office performance of The Invisible Man and weighs the potential of a follow-up, while also continuing to develop making other films based on the Universal Classic Monsters.

What did you think of the ending of The Invisible Man ? Would you like to see a sequel get made? Hit your thoughts, feelings, and opinions in the comments section, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more of our coverage of the exciting new film!

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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‘The Invisible Man’: Film Review

In a rousingly up-to-the-minute sci-fi update, Elisabeth Moss is powerful as a woman stalked by a toxic ex no one can see. So who will believe her?

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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These days, the horror-fantasy thriller tends to be a junk metaphysical spook show that throws a whole lot of scary clutter at the audience — ghosts, “demons,” mad killers — without necessarily adding up to an experience that’s about anything. But in “ The Invisible Man ,” Leigh Whannell’s ingenious and entertaining update of a concept that’s been around for 120 years (and recycled less often than you’d think), the thrills don’t just goose you; they have an emotional import. This gratifyingly clever and, at times, powerfully staged thriller is too rooted in our era to be called old-fashioned — in fact, its release feels almost karmically synched to the week of the Harvey Weinstein verdict. Yet there’s one way that the movie is old-fashioned: It does an admirable job of taking us back to a time when a horror film could actually mean something.

Cecilia Kass ( Elisabeth Moss ), a Bay Area architect who has just escaped from a toxic relationship, finds herself stalked and terrorized by her tech-mogul ex, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who has figured out a way, through advanced digital imaging, to make himself invisible. Early on, he invades a bedroom, unheard and unseen, waiting for the perfect moment to pull off the bed covers and leave Cecilia utterly freaked out. But that’s just the beginning. Infiltrating communal office spaces, corporate boardrooms, and asylum cells, Adrian becomes a silent unseen force of deadly vengeance. He can drug you, he can steal your work portfolio, he can dash off fake emails and, more than anything, toy with your mind. He’s the invisible gaslighter.

In James Whale’s famous 1933 poetic sci-fi horror film, the invisible man was a spectral presence, played by Claude Rains as a haunted but delicate figure swathed in bandages — one whose vanishing act was treated, in the end, as a kind of affliction. The idea of the invisible man as an aggressive invader, on the other hand, a human monster who can strike at any moment, creates a highly charged set-up for fear and tension, and the new “Invisible Man” is a logistical mind-game suspense film staged with killer verve.

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It would be easy to imagine a version of this movie that’s nothing more than a slickly executed victim-meets-tormenter-you-can’t-see, cat-and-mouse action duel. But Whannell, who was James Wan’s original collaborator on the “Saw” and “Insidious” films, and who directed “Insidious: Chapter 3” and “Upgrade,” has something more pleasurably ambitious in mind. Cecilia, who’s crashing for a while at the home of her childhood friend, a courtly police officer named James (Aldis Hodge), and his high-school-senior daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid), makes a few fumbling attempts to explain what’s going on to them. But even they don’t buy what she’s saying. That sounds like a standard hurdle the heroine of a sci-fi drama has to get over, only in this case the fact that everyone thinks Cecilia is seeing things — or, more to the point, seeing a tormenter she isn’t able to see — is the source of the film’s tingly, anguished resonance.

The traumatic power of Moss’s performance is that she acts out the convulsive desperation and rage of a woman who is being terrorized and, at the same time, totally not believed about it, even by those closest to her. “The Invisible Man” is a social horror film grounded in a note-perfect metaphor. It’s the story of a woman who got sucked into a whirlpool of abuse and now finds that she can’t free herself, because the abuse remains (literally) out of sight. She’s every woman who’s ever had to fight to be heard because her ordeal wasn’t “visible.”

The early scenes fill in the endgame of Cecilia’s relationship with Adrian, a sick-puppy genius of optics technology who plays like a more malevolent knockoff of Oscar Isaac’s control-freak tech guru from “Ex Machina.” Adrian lives in a remote glassy mansion perched high in the hills over San Francisco (its surveillance center looks like something out of the Batcave), and he has essentially made Cecilia his prisoner, promising to kill her if she leaves. That’s why she wakes up with a hidden bottle of Diazepan (what used to be known as Valium), having drugged him to sleep, so that she can run out to the road below and be rescued by her sister, Alice (Harriet Dyer).

Whannell establishes a mood of suck-in-your-breath paranoia, as the figure we assume is Adrian shows up to torment Cecilia. Officially, he is dead (a suicide). Cecilia has even been named in his will; she’s getting a trust of $5 million to be given in monthly increments of $100,000. But, of course, that’s all too good to be true, especially when Cecilia starts promising to pay for Sydney’s tuition at Parsons School of Design. Moss acts with a slow-burn anguish that expresses the terror of how a bad relationship can keep its hooks in you long after you’ve shaken yourself free of it.

Adrian, now devoting his existence to torturing Cecilia (to the point that he’ll deny his own existence), launches his game of terror, and she fights back, even as those around her are convinced that she’s losing her marbles. They think she’s still so caught in Adrian’s grip that she’s hallucinating his presence. For a while, her sister becomes her enemy, but Cecilia agrees to have a rapprochement with her in a very public place — a posh Chinese restaurant, where the movie catches us up in an acerbically funny scene that skewers the latest in unctuous waiter etiquette. But it’s just setting us up for the kill. What happens next is jaw-dropping, oh-no-he-didn’t! crazy-awful-thrilling. It’s a scene that ups the stakes.

The way invisibility is achieved in “The Invisible Man” is pure fantasy, though it’s been given just enough of a seductive “technological” underpinning. Whannell uses it to stage the action with brute-force originality, as in a sequence where the invisible man, popping in and out of sight like a faulty green screen, cuts down an army of hospital security guards, one by one. And the culminating encounter at Adrian’s house makes for a delectable meeting of the minds. “The Invisible Man” is devious fun, with a message that’s organic enough to hit home: that in a toxic relationship, what you see is what you get — but the thing that gets to you is what you don’t see.

Reviewed at Dolby 88, New York, Feb. 18, 2020. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 124 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release of a Blumhouse Productions, Dark Universe, Goalpost Pictures production. Producers: Jason Blum, Kylie du Fresne. Executive producers: Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant, Beatriz Sequeira, Jeanette Volturno, Leigh Whannell.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Leigh Whannell. Camera: Stefan Duscio. Editor: Andy Canny. Music: Benjamin Wallfisch.
• With: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman, Benedict Hardie.

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The Invisible Man

Where to watch.

Rent The Invisible Man on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Smart, well-acted, and above all scary, The Invisible Man proves that sometimes, the classic source material for a fresh reboot can be hiding in plain sight.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Leigh Whannell

Elisabeth Moss

Cecilia Kass

Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Adrian Griffin

Aldis Hodge

Harriet Dyer

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• "The movie stakes a claim for new mystery-horror territory worthy of a talent like Elisabeth Moss, who amplifies the qualities of the script"  Todd McCarthy : The Hollywood Reporter
• "A social horror film grounded in a note-perfect metaphor. (...) The Invisible Man” is devious fun, with a message that’s organic enough to hit home"  Owen Gleiberman : Variety
• "The dark universe of The Invisible Man doesn’t need monsters to keep us up nights. The terror comes from a world that looks exactly like our own. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"  Peter Travers : Rolling Stone
• "Universal’s best monster movie in 20 years (...) The Invisible Man stands out from its predecessors and makes its own macabre music"  Scott Mendelson : Forbes
• "[It] is both a smart, relevant reboot of a classic story and a wholly entertaining two hours packed with fun scares."  Anna Menta : Decider
• "This Invisible Man is not entertainment; it’s merely a domestic-violence showcase for masochists."  Armond White : National Review
• "[An] absolutely terrifying new reboot (...) This is the expertly told, horrifying story of an abusive relationship filtered through the lens of a classic horror movie monster."  William Bibbiani : The Wrap
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'The Invisible Man' is the first hit horror movie of 2020. Here's why people can't stop talking about it.

• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "The Invisible Man." 
• Elisabeth Moss stars in the tense thriller, which focuses on a woman named Cecilia (Moss) as she escapes an abusive relationship, only to discover that her sadistic scientist ex named Adrian is far from done with her. 
• Since "The Invisible Man" premiered on Friday, it's become the first hit horror movie of 2020. 
• There's also been no shortage of memes made about the thriller since people can't stop talking about its numerous jump scares and Moss' showstopping performance. 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

"The Invisible Man" premiered on Friday and has since become one of the top movies in the world, as well as the first hit horror movie for 2020 . 

The film focuses on a woman named Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), who manages to escape from her sadistic scientist boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who appears to die by suicide after Cecilia leaves him. But as Cecilia soon discovers, Adrian isn't really dead. Instead, he staged his own death and is using a high-tech suit to make himself invisible so he can continue abusing Cecilia. 

People haven't been able to stop talking about "The Invisible Man" since it hit theaters and for good reason. The tense thriller is filled with terrifying moments and timely messages about domestic abuse and gaslighting. Some viewers have even been inspired to create memes about the hit movie that are now going viral on social media. 

For anyone wondering what the movie's about or why its themes are so important, keep reading. Major spoilers for "The Invisible Man" ahead. 

The new movie is inspired by a 19th-century novel and the 1933 film of the same name, but contains some very 2020-appropriate themes

While they differ wildly in plot, the H.G. Wells' 1897 novel, the 1933 film, and the 2020 version all focus on a man who manages to turn himself invisible. In the new movie, it's thanks to a high-tech suit (not a scientific accident like in the book and earlier film). 

The new movie explores the violence and gaslighting that many domestic abuse victims experience. Even though Cecilia manages to escape Adrian at the start of the movie, he's determined to continue making her life hell, eventually alienating her few friends and even killing her sister Emily in the process.

The final blow comes when Cecilia, imprisoned for her sister's murder since Adrian framed her, learns she's pregnant with his child — despite taking birth control, which he apparently replaced with placebo pills. 

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It's heavy stuff, for sure, but the film handles it perfectly, mostly due to Moss' showstopping performance as Cecilia. She captures Cecilia's slow unraveling as others fail to see Adrian's new form of torture, and the ending — in which Cecilia confronts Adrian in his home before donning his spare invisibility suit and slitting his throat — feels all the more gratifying because of her performance. 

It's also a scary film with plenty of terrifying moments

Timely themes aside, "The Invisible Man" is one of the most suspenseful movies to see in theaters right now. Anchored by Moss' performance, the film uses jump scares to great effect, and since Adrian is invisible for most of the time, the sound editing is also crucial. Everything from a drip of water or the creak of a floorboard takes on a whole new sinister meaning. 

And some of the scariest moments aren't even the result of a jump scare. For instance, the scene in which Cecilia learns she's pregnant — and that Adrian wants nothing more than to take control of her and their child — will send chills down your spine. 

Memes about 'The Invisible Man' are also keeping the film at the forefront of people's minds

As with any major film, the memes about "The Invisible Man" started showing up as soon as the movie hit theaters.

Whether they're in reference to Moss' performance, or to the scene where Adrian slits Emily's throat in a packed restaurant, or just to the terrifying nature of the film in general, the memes about 'The Invisible Man" are hilarious and abundant. 

—prash (@LittleChirons) March 4, 2020

—myster E (@GLNCOCO_) March 2, 2020

—nadia (@filmsbye) March 3, 2020

—miss btrd (@1adybtrd) February 28, 2020

Overall, people are loving 'The Invisible Man' for its scary moments and relevant, empowering themes 

The conversation around the new thriller shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, which isn't surprising considering it's one of the best new films in recent months.

With its bombshell ending, jump scares, and hard-hitting messages about gaslighting and domestic abuse, "The Invisible Man" just might be the standout horror film of the year. 

• Read more :
• 'The Invisible Man' is now the No. 1 horror movie in the world, and the memes about the film prove it's a must-see
• 8 details you might have missed in 'The Invisible Man' that hint at the movie's jaw-dropping and bloody conclusion
• 'The Invisible Man' is a tense thriller that proves the biggest threat to women is definitely men
• The 9 scariest moments from 'The Invisible Man,' ranked from most to least terrifying

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“The Invisible Man,” Reviewed: A Horror Film of Diabolical Twists and Empty Showmanship

By Richard Brody

The writer and director Leigh Whannell’s new, loose adaptation of H. G. Wells’s 1897 novel “ The Invisible Man ” harks back to a much earlier invisible-man tale: the Ring of Gyges, from Plato’s Republic. Gyges found a ring that could turn him invisible, and he used the power to become a rapist—to “commit adultery with the queen.” The teller of the tale, a character named Glaucon, claims that anyone who possessed the ring would use it “to go into houses and have intercourse with whomever he wanted.” Whannell’s version of “The Invisible Man,” likewise, is the story of a predator, and a sexual predator—even though it would be a spoiler to go into great detail about his crimes.

For that matter, Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” is a movie that begs not to be described, because more or less everything interesting in it has to do with plot, and its plot twists deliver most of its considerable pleasures. In other words, obliqueness alert: I will keep my descriptions allusive in the effort to avoid spoilers.

The movie is launched with a backstory of abuse. Elisabeth Moss plays Cecilia Kass, an architect who, in the first scene, stealthily and fearfully escapes from a gated and electronically guarded oceanfront compound, in Northern California, where she lives with her boyfriend, Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a fabulously wealthy inventor who specializes in optics. Adrian’s abusive violence is quickly in evidence when he punches his fist through the window of the escape vehicle—driven by Cecilia’s sister Emily (Harriet Dyer).

Cecilia takes refuge in the home of her friend James Lanier (Aldis Hodge), a police officer, and his teen-age daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid), and stays there in a state of panic, unwilling even to set foot outside for fear that Adrian is spying on her and planning to harm her. Adrian’s house is decked out with a panoply of security cameras and other devices (which Cecilia fiddled with before leaving), and she left him because of the devastating methods of surveillance and control—of psychological manipulation—to which he subjected her. Adrian “controlled how I looked,” she tells James and Emily, and also what she wore and ate, and when she went out; then, she adds, he controlled what she said and was trying to control what she thought. What’s more, she says that he wanted her to have his child—and, knowing that, with a child, she’d be essentially tied to him for life, she secretly took birth-control pills.

Cecilia’s fears are, she thinks, finally put to rest, soon thereafter, when Adrian turns up dead at his home; she’s even somewhat moved, if a bit bewildered, when she finds that Adrian has made her one of his heirs. It’s then, however, that strange things start happening. Something goes bump in the night; then there’s a minor mishap in the kitchen, a door that’s ajar and a chain that’s swinging. (These uncanny doings involve some deft effects, such as a puff of chilly breath that appears, on a cold morning, from no discernible mouth.) A blanket is pulled from a bed by invisible hands; an invisible backside indents a seat cushion; belongings that Cecilia put in one place turn up in another. Yet when she describes these phenomena to those closest to her, they react skeptically, thinking that she’s losing her mind.

The invisible man—Adrian, she assumes—is gaslighting her in the classic sense of the word; he’s making her doubt her sanity and making those around her doubt it, too. Moreover, the invisible man starts playing wicked tricks on Cecilia’s friends and family, in an effort to drive them away from her and leave her all the more vulnerable to his depredations. Whannell concocts these schemes with clever attentiveness to the role of current technology; cell phones, laptop computers, passwords, and security devices all play crucial and natural roles in the action.

The premise also gives rise to plenty of lower-tech horrors, as when invisible hands wield deadly weapons, creating memorable impressions of knives and guns suspended in the air. At the same time, there are other tricks that are stunning in their imaginative power and yet left utterly undeveloped visually and thematically—including one, involving white paint, that inevitably invokes metaphors of race, which the film both suggests and instantly drops.

The pleasures of “The Invisible Man” are authentic yet sharply mitigated. The plot-centricity of the film is its source of delight but also its basic trouble. Whannell got his start as a screenwriter (of a trio of “Saw” movies and a quartet of “Insidious” ones—he directed the third installment). As the writer and director of “The Invisible Man,” he is, above all, a writer; he comes up with some diabolically clever twists that give rise to some exciting action and some keenly defined moral themes, notably when Cecilia, tired of merely eluding the invisible man, plans to turn the tables on him and exact revenge. Whannell is a great provider of raw material—which, as a director, he transfers to the screen with a textureless efficiency, only rarely reflecting anything like an aesthetic idea.

A good screenwriter is more than a plotter of plots; it’s someone who digs into character and offers insight, which is why, often, the roles of screenwriter and director are best divided between two people working collaboratively—the screenwriter offers a framework that a strong director transforms and expands in the creation of the scenes and the images. Several sequences of “The Invisible Man” make clever use of the edges of the frame in relation to surveillance devices; others are springboards and backgrounds for striking effects. But the exposition is seemingly endless, because Whannell’s direction, as well as his construction of scenes, is, for the most part, of the straight-to-cable variety, taking portentousness for suspense and the illustration of facts for drama. The characters don’t exist between their scenes because they’re given little identity, little personality within the scenes. Though the movie rests heavily on its backstory, its protagonist has virtually no substance; though the movie almost entirely takes Cecilia’s point of view, it foregrounds her experience in lieu of her knowledge, her memory, her insight. The void is filled by Moss herself, whose resonant presence and subtle but fervent expressive power take the place of a scripted character; Hodge’s nuanced and vigorous performance fills in for the movie’s virtually nonexistent societal context.

For all the ingenious twists that the movie offers, there’s a just-so aspect to “The Invisible Man”; it simultaneously arouses awe at the intricacy of its contrivance and a sense that a flick of a finger could bring it all crashing down. (Though why bother flicking when everyone knows that the point of the trick is the very flimsiness of its intricacy?)

For all the authentic thrills that the film eventually delivers, it leaves the feeling of a terrific idea that’s been left on the drawing board. Despite the seriousness of the movie’s themes, it’s a work of fervent showmanship.

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The Invisible Man review – Wells with a Hitchcockian twist

Elisabeth Moss is spooked by her abusive, deceased ex-boyfriend in this gripping update of HG Wells’s classic

T his update of HG Wells’s classic sci-fi tale smartly aligns itself with the spied-upon rather than the story’s monstrous invisible eye, flipping the original perspective. Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) flees an abusive long-term relationship with tech mogul and “world leader in the field of optics” Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), leaving their modernist glass house and taking refuge with childhood friend-turned-cop James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid), in a leafy San Francisco suburb.

News of Adrian’s death should give her peace, but a traumatised and paranoid Cecilia is still haunted by her abuser and unable to rebuild her life. A well-designed sound mix hints at an unseen presence; spooky coincidences begin to accumulate, such as a pan spontaneously catching alight and a door appearing to open itself. Cecilia is being stalked and nobody will believe her.

Moss has played this survivor role before ( Top of the Lake , The Handmaid’s Tale ), and seems at home here. Crucially, she’s convincing and serious, even when she is essentially in combat with herself in the scenes that pit Cecilia against her invisible ex. Writer-director Leigh Whannell (the underrated Upgrade ) styles her as a Hitchcockian blond. Vertigo seems a particular reference point, given the Bay Area setting, Benjamin Wallfisch ’s string-led Bernard Herrmann-inspired score and a shot of the back of Cecilia’s head, hair worn in a spiral bun, which recalls Kim Novak’s Madeleine, another woman under surveillance.

Subverting the original text’s point of view allows Whannell to privilege his female protagonist while continuing to explore the novel’s theme of untrammelled power. Paul Verhoeven’s 2000 trashy horror-thriller Hollow Man took this idea to an even darker place by suggesting that male voyeurism and sexual violence were its obvious consequences. Whannell exposes the same problem from a different angle, revealing the way women’s concerns are so often rendered invisible.

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In recent years, Universal Pictures has delved into the well of classic movie monsters, and the latest of these is The Invisible Man . Based loosely on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name, Universal's Invisible Man reboot was originally envisioned to join their Dark Universe of interconnected films featuring movie monsters like Dracula, the Mummy and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. However, when Tom Cruise's The Mummy underperformed, the studio changed course, partnering with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions and taking their Invisible Man reboot in a new direction - which included dropping original star Johnny Depp.  The Invisible Man puts a wholly fresh and compelling spin on the classic monster, delivering a cleverly scary movie with a fantastic lead performance.

The Invisible Man follows Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss), a woman who escapes from her controlling and abusive partner Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) with the help of her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer). While Cecilia is staying with her friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), she learns Adrian has killed himself and left part of his fortune to her on the stipulation she doesn't commit any crimes. Though Cecilia tries to move on with her life, a series of creepy occurrences convince her that Adrian is not only still alive, but has figured out a way to render himself invisible. As he grows increasingly violent and threatens the lives of Cecilia's friends and family, she'll need to prove she's being stalked by an invisible man.

Related:  2020 Winter & Spring Movie Preview – The 20 Films to See

Written and directed by Leigh Whannell ( Upgrade , Insidious: Chapter 3 ), The Invisible Man showcases the filmmaker's ability to create high tension and slick, visceral action. Whannell plays with empty frames of the film to build suspense and turn every empty space into a potential threat hiding the monster of the Invisible Man. When the action ratchets up and Cecilia and Adrian come to blows, Whannell's direction works best when it puts viewers in Cecilia shoes - and worst when his stark shots highlight some unfortunate CGI. For the most part, though, the Invisible Man and his fights with fully visible characters are seamless and uncomfortably realistic. Altogether, Whannell's skill makes  The Invisible Man an immersive and thrilling piece of horror filmmaking.

While The Invisible Man might be named for Jackson-Cohen's Adrian Griffin - and he slyly melds charm and menace in the few scenes he receives - the movie truly belongs to Moss's masterful performance as Cecilia. Whannell's reinvisioned story for The Invisible Man turns Adrian into an abusive romantic partner whose ability to render himself invisible becomes a tool for his abuse. This puts Moss in the position to carry almost all of the emotional weight of the film, and she does so exceptionally well, especially since Whannell's script isn't quite as polished as his directing vision. Unfortunately, the story of The Invisible Man , though it has a great deal of potential, seems more of an afterthought to the visuals, becoming merely a vehicle to deliver twists even when those twists aren't fully earned. Still, thanks in large part to Moss's performance, The Invisible Man becomes a fascinating dive into a survivor's psyche wrapped up in a compelling and truly scary horror movie.

Ultimately, The Invisible Man is a well-directed and well-acted movie with a fine enough script that isn't quite as up to snuff as other aspects of the film. Whannell delivers an engaging and visually interesting horror film even if the story won't work for everyone.  The Invisible Man twists itself into perhaps too many knots, failing to provide enough setup or explanation for every turn to feel as clever as it clearly wants viewers to think it is. And while Moss's performance would ideally provide a thoughtful exploration of Cecilia's mental state, certain story beats seem more contrived to deliver a specific ending than provide a natural progression of this survivor's story. It may leave some viewers feeling disconnected from the emotional throughline of the story, even as the technical merits of The Invisible Man's directing and acting make for an enjoyable (if shallow) horror movie experience.

As a result, The Invisible Man may not fully live up to its potential for some viewers in terms of how the film explores the themes and fears at the center of its story - but Whannell undoubtedly delivers a solidly scary horror movie. The Invisible Man is worth checking out in theaters for horror fans and anyone intrigued by the reboot's premise or trailers. Because of the film's subject matter and the honesty with which Whannell and Moss explore Cecilia's mental state (without depicting more abuse than is necessary for the story), The Invisible Man may be a traumatic viewing experience for some audience members. But on the whole, those looking for a modern and cleverly shot horror movie with plenty of thrilling scares won't go wrong with The Invisible Man .

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The Invisible Man  is now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide. It is 124 minutes long and rated R for some strong bloody violence and language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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‘The Invisible Man’ Ending: Elisabeth Moss, Leigh Whannell Break Down Two Biggest Shocks

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[Editor’s note: This post contains major spoilers for “ The Invisible Man .” Do not read further if you do not wish to be spoiled.]

Leigh Whannell ‘s “The Invisible Man” opened nationwide February 28 and is already one of the year’s biggest critical and commercial hits (the film boasts a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from 226 reviews and has earned nearly $50 million worldwide on a $7 million budget). The psychological horror film stars Elisabeth Moss as a woman named Cecilia who escapes from an abusive relationship only to have her ex-boyfriend torment her as an invisible entity. One of the film’s biggest shocks is when Cecilia finally unmasks the invisible man to discover it’s not her ex-boyfriend but her ex-boyfriend’s brother, Tom. Police officers then find Cecilia’s ex tied up as a prisoner in his basement, the implication being that Tom imprisoned his brother and tormented Cecilia.

Moss tells USA Today that Cecilia’s ex, Adrian, was in control the entire time. The film alludes to this during the final set piece when Adrian uses some of the same language the invisible entity whispered to Cecilia earlier in the film. As Moss explains, “The brother did maybe this or that on the side to kind of help things out, but regardless, [Adrian] orchestrated the entire thing. He had the suit, he designed it. He chose to use it in the way that he did. So his brother is one of the victims.”

Whannell doesn’t seem to be as convinced as Moss is on the matter, although he says he would never want to tell someone how to interpret the movie’s twists. “I wouldn’t ever challenge someone’s view of a film of mine,” the director and screenwriter says. “It’s the audience’s job to unpack it and take away their own meaning. So I would never want to answer those questions only because I wouldn’t want to dilute your view of the movie by saying, ‘Well, here’s the correct answer.’ Truth is, there’s no correct answer.”

One plot point that is clear is Adrian’s death. Cecilia hides an invisibility suit in her bathroom and invites Adrian over for dinner and kills him by slitting his throat with a knife. Because Cecilia can’t be seen, the security cameras pick up the death as if it was Adrian committing suicide while Cecilia was in the bathroom. Moss calls the gruesome death scene “absolutely” the right place to end the film on for Cecilia.

“I don’t think you can put a character through all of that and then not have them have some redemption in the end, even if it’s complicated,” Moss says to USA Today . “Even if it’s a choice that she made that she thinks is her only choice, you have to give that character a win at the end. You have to bring her back from that place and give her her strength back. You don’t want to watch this whole movie and then have her die. That’d be terrible!”

“You can imagine if Bruce Willis were to die at the end of ‘Die Hard,'” Whannell adds. “Everyone would want their money back. Horror and thrillers allow experimentation a lot more than in other genres. You can sort of take this really forward-thinking, avant-garde filmmaking and wrap it around a mainstream thriller.”

“The Invisible Man” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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The Invisible Man Ending Explained

We unpack how things played out during The Invisible Man's twisty ending and what it means for Cecilia...

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This  The Invisible Man  article contains spoilers.  Our spoiler-free review can be found here .

Freedom. That’s what Cecilia Kass finally achieves during the last moments of  Leigh Whannell ’s  The Invisible Man . With her face isolated in an extreme close-up, there is nowhere for audiences to look other than into the heart of  Elisabeth Moss ’ eviscerating performance. Here is a woman who had been victimized by an abusive boyfriend but has now turned the tables, emancipating herself from Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). With her dog at last in tow, she can begin her life as the hero of her own story. 

Cecilia reached this liberation through the most delicious of final twists. After it was revealed that Adrian’s brother Tom (Michael Dorman) was allegedly the Invisible Man who haunted and tortured Cecilia—to the point of killing her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) and framing Cee for the murder—Cecilia went to break bread with the “innocent” Adrian. After all, Adrian appears to police to be a victim too, locked in his own basement for weeks. So she returns to Adrian’s house of horror she fled in complete terror a month ago, even agreeing to have dinner with her manipulative ex. Yet when she walks away from the table to go into their bedroom, Adrian appears on camera to slit his own throat with his steak knife: committing suicide in the exact same way Emily was murdered.

Of course, it wasn’t suicide, though. Cecilia beat Adrian at his own game, going into the bedroom to clean herself up after a supposed breakdown, and then returning in the invisible suit she hid in her and Adrian’s bedroom closet earlier in the movie. She then used it to kill the bastard and mock him with the same word he said after she was committed to a mental hospital following Emily’s death: “Surprise.”

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Indeed, Adrian was certainly the Invisible Man who bedeviled her for the majority of the film. As Cee tells her friend James (Aldis Hodge), Adrian is always trying to make her look like “the crazy one.” Hence his methodical slow-burn torment that alienated everyone in her life, culminating in the framed murder of her sister. And the fact he said “surprise,” which is revealed to be a common mind game he played with Cee when they were together. It was that admission—as well as Tom’s insistence while wearing his lawyer hat that she have Adrian’s baby—that more than confirms Adrian’s guilt. He knows Cee is aware that Tom’s a “jellyfish,” he just thought he could somehow gaslight her one last time.

It turned out he was wrong. Cee apparently planned her revenge since well before Emily’s death. During the sequence where she visits Adrian’s house and hides the invisible suit, I like many wondered why she didn’t keep it, using the hardware to prove to her sister and the cops she wasn’t hysterical. But, as it turns out, she always intended to take matters into her own hands by feigning a reconciliation. Adrian just made it much harder to pull off by committing murder.

Admittedly, this ending does strain credulity in several ways. For example, Adrian knew Cee was hiding in their closet earlier in the movie, but he nor Tom was ever curious enough to search the space for where she hid the spare invisible suit, which they would have undoubtedly noticed was missing while playing their games. Additionally, why would Tom make it look like Adrian was his prisoner before going to kill James’ daughter? It’s a pretty hard pill to swallow that he’d allow for a main plan, or even a contingency, where he is killed or arrested while murdering a little girl. And if Tom didn’t make it look like Adrian was tied up… well, even Houdini couldn’t tie his own knots around his wrists.

But quibbles aside, the potency of the ending is how it conveys through pulpy genre conventions the familiar nightmares of abuse survivors. Once again, the men in Cee’s life don’t believe her when she says she was attacked by her violent boyfriend. They make excuses for Adrian or point out that it just doesn’t seem like he could do that—even physically in the case of Adrian being tied up. While James at least seems to accept that Cee is probably right in knowing it was Adrian who repeatedly assaulted her, he’s only reached that place because he’s seen Adrian (and his brother) also attack James’ own daughter. Only when he personally knows a family member who has been attacked by violent men does James fully believe Cee… all the while conceding the law won’t do anything to help her.

To be fair, James proves to be an ultimately good ally and helps set-up the alleged sting operation where Cee wears a wire and tries to get Adrian to confess. But in truth, she knew relying on laws that are designed to protect rich and powerful men like Adrian was a long-shot. She hopes the wire can be enough, but she went into that house with the revenge-killing always being her Plan A. Hence saying they should eat steak instead of sushi or pasta.

The steak knife being naturally on the table, and her being recorded on James’ wire and on Adrian’s camera as going to the bathroom creates the perfect alibi while Adrian’s throat is slit. She then makes sure she is nice and visible on camera when she calls 911. The patriarchy’s records should be satisfied. But after crying for the lens, she steps out of frame, becoming effectively invisible. As  The Invisible Man  shows time and again, invisibility can be its own power, allowing one to show their true face. Surprise, asshole.

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

The Invisible Man ( 2020 )

* Voted one of Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2020

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For the opening of 2020’s  The Invisible Man , director and screenwriter Leigh Whannell’s retelling of the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells, studio Greenhaus GFX  created a simple, spine-tingling title reveal. What’s remarkable here is what’s missing. From the first moments of the picture, when the massive letters of “Universal” rotate around the globe amid silence and an ominous rumbling, it’s all systems go on atmosphere. At the bottom of a cliff, in the half-light of evening, waves crash against rock, revealing the opening production credits, only visible thanks to the splash of the tide.

The Invisible Man (2020) main title card

To create the sequence, Greenhaus worked with a crew from Beverly Hills Aerials to capture drone footage off the coast of Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, chosen to match the look of the film’s shooting location in Australia. It’s the “best modern re-imagining of the low budget horror movie title,” says panel judge Robin Nishio. “It sets up the opening act well and, on second viewing, captures the gaslighting horror that is the rest of the film.” The eerie opening both foreshadows the film’s climactic battle in which water and liquids play a vital role and nods at a central tenet of horror storytelling: what is monstrous can be vanquished only once it’s revealed.

* Voted one of Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2020

The Invisible Man (2020) main-on-end titles

The Invisible Man (2020) end crawl

Title Design Studio: Greenhaus GFX

Opening Titles Executive Creative Director: Helen Greene Creative Director: Paul Holtzhausen Technical Director & Lead Artist: Matt Seckman

Drone by:  Beverly Hills Aerials

Main-on-end Titles Executive Creative Director: Helen Greene Lead Designer: Bruce Schluter Design & Animation: Helen Greene

Music:  Benjamin Wallfisch

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