Control: Invisible Man Review

I, Dalton Lewis, watched The Invisible Man, a beginning of Universal again rebooting its monsters universe. It tried to reboot with The Mummy and Tom Cruise and failed because it tried to be a blockbuster instead of a horror story. They try again with this story, the tale of an invisible man. That’s right — the guy’s invisible. I would think that this wouldn’t be enough to create a fun thriller/horror movie, but I would be wrong.

This works. This is an excellent parable of the MeToo movement. A young woman tries to run away from a man who stalks her. He continues to harass her as the story continues. That’s the story. Within that simple narrative comes more scares and plot twists than a dozen stories about someone trying to take over the world or build a weather dominator.

The star, Elizabeth Moss, plays a woman who fights back desperately and passionately. She tries to find a home that he can’t find. She finds a cop to help her. She is confident yet scared, powerful and victimized, and a strong protagonist.

The villain plays out like a rich white geek who makes it big in business. He thinks that he needs everything. He does crave everything. He craves power and wants a baby to have power over the woman he obsesses over.

Horror needs a person to feel helpless, and this villain seems so absurd to the authorities that no one feels like they can help her. In a world in which women often can’t have authorities charging sex offenders for years — if ever — this is a powerful parable which shows the problems people have dealing with stalkers, rapists, and the like.

Why do some movies resonate and seem so real? Why are some movies derivative and about nothing? I don’t understand. Some people want to have a story in which there is an item that everyone seeks. They create stories about a search for a million dollars, or an important religious relic. I like stories about the dramatic conflict between the characters. I liked Star Wars’s characters but didn’t like the way the first half of the most recent movie surrounded the search for important relics, several in a row. Instead the movie should have centered on the fight between Rey, Kylo Ren, and the emperor. The items fundamentally don’t matter.

I think that good movies reflect issues wrong with society. This movie does that, and does that well. I feel like this is an effective and intelligent film.

Thanks, and take care, friends.