The Trailer for The Invisible Man Ruined the Movie
The Invisible Man. Image courtesy of Blumhouse Productions.
The latest version of The Invisible Man is a good, tense little thriller. The title sequence is shot over black rocks with waves crashing ominously over them - very Hitchcockian sixties vibe, where the screen is simply cut with tension, no score, just a sort of unnerving energy. This is classic Blumhouse - making a taut thriller on a shoestring (reportedly the budget was only $7 million) that has already made $100 million. It uses an established IP and one in which the main villain is invisible, thus saving millions on CGI. It’s just a smart film, from both a business and story-telling perspective.
The Invisible Man was originally going to be part of Universal’s expansive and deliriously over ambitious Monster Movie Universe. But the lackluster response to Tom Cruise’s The Mummy basically kneecapped that idea and Blumhouse ended up developing it as a standalone property, making what is surely a much smarter and leaner film than what we otherwise would have gotten. This also lends credence to the idea, obvious to everyone except the people in charge of major studios, that you need to build incrementally toward a sweeping, interconnected cinematic universe rather than simply matriculating one out of thin air with the right combination of endless cash, big name stars and a little army of screenwriters. But I digress.
This version of The Invisible Man, starring Elisabeth Moss, is certainly in tune with the times. Moss plays a woman trapped in an abusive, controlling relationship - one in which her abuser uses his invisible powers to continue tormenting her beyond the grave. This creates lots of opportunities for ratcheting up the tension as she is stalked by this invisible presence that no one can see. Her friends and family come to doubt her sanity. It’s a classic psychological thriller/horror set-up, and in the end she gets some catharsis by reclaiming her agency so the film is full of thematic resonance in the Me Too era.
I don’t have any problem with this movie. Elisabeth Moss is very good. I think it is very well made for the kind of genre fare that it is, and I think it provides even more proof of how shrewd Jason Blum is, and that good business and good filmmaking can go hand in hand in Hollywood. My main problem with this film is that it was 100% spoiled by the marketing. This trailer gave away almost every major beat, including the climactic moment where Moss turns the tables on her tormentor. That moment would have played quite well in the theater… except I knew it was coming the whole time. Yes, true, there is one tiny little twist at the end that was not in the trailer, but it’s a pointless, stupid little twist and the fact that the trailer had already given away the structurally important elements of the story rendered that final twist unimportant.
This is truly a case where the marketing ruined the film by giving away too much. This is a psychological thriller, and a low budget one at that. Strategically withholding information is the main, and basically only, weapon the movie has. But the marketing team, in their foolish lust to ensure that audiences would show up, disarmed the film before you could even walk into the thearer. Which is a shame. Because this movie was good enough to stand on its own two feet.
