Hooptober: Legend of the 7 Golden Mozzies.

Chapter the Twenty-Thirde: One invisible person film

I can't help being a bit of a contrary son-of-a-bitch. I'm so contemptuous of Hollywood's reaction to the whole Weinstein affair and the metoo movement which it triggered, whenever a film is released which features strong female leads or a treatment of women's issues, I get a bit cynical about it. That probably sucks, because I do want to see more films like this - the studios are doing the right thing, really. But besides being too little too late, I just find the whole thing kind of pathetic.

So, much as I already held Leigh Whannell in high regard, as we move through the first act in The Invisible Man, I found myself thinking "Oh, how very much of the zeitgeist this is. Take a classic Universal monster and turn it into a finger wagging exercise to admonish abusive men, tut tut tut." Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying this sort of thing shouldn't be the subject of a movie, but do even Universal monster bashes have to be an exercise in social correction now?

Well, if you've seen the movie, you know how petty that sounds. This movie is so well written, such criticisms would be absurd - I see that now (although I do sense a continuing tidal wave of Hollywood political correctness, and the movies aren't all going to be as brilliant enough to overcome that, like The Invisible Man is).

But yeah, this movie is too good to waste time on that sort of cynicism. Whannell completely took my breath away with this script - as well as being an inspired updating and reimagining of the base material applied to the present day, it's just an exhilarating, unpredictable ride - and it even remembers to be a horror movie! It's a genuinely horrifying psychological horror film.

Elizabeth Moss puts in a great performance. I've heard her described as this generation's Toni Collette which, despite perhaps prematurely relegating Collette to a bygone era (Hereditary was only a couple of years ago, folks), the comparison makes sense. She's a very similarly chameleonic actor, and she's truly wonderful here as an epically traumatised character. Her personal journey toward some form of agency over her appalling situation is part of what makes this movie so gripping.

And it really does qualify as a thriller of the highest order. Deeply intriguing and forcefully immediate - this thing really will grab hold of you by the neck and sweep you through the story to the end. Perhaps the final resolution is slightly trite and may involve one or two devices of convenience, but it's still a good end point for the story to get to.

Anyone with an affinity for the horror genre wants to see Universal do something great with their monster properties, I think - and if this movie sets the stage and shows the way for how a new set of Universal monster movies can be conceptualised, then Whannell's achievement here goes beyond the triumph of this movie alone.

Honestly, all the good things you've heard are true. From a script writing point of view, this feels like it's within a whisker of genius. And the execution matches it. Absolutely terrific - go Leigh!!!