The Invisible Man | review by Stephen Theaker

This review was originally written in March 2020 for a previous iteration of the British Fantasy Society website. See also Douglas Ogurek's previous review of this film for TQF.

It was not so very long ago that many boys and men, when asked to choose a superpower, would without any hint of shame pick invisibility, with the express purpose of denying women and girls the right to privacy and dignity. The last big adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man in 2000, leant heavily into this aspect, Kevin Bacon playing a voyeur and a rapist.

This time the invisible man is not naked as he goes about his business and he is not, so far as we can tell, a voyeur. He doesn't sexually assault his victim in the course of the film, though it's established that he has in the past. This is instead a story about coercive control, illustrating how women trapped in such abusive relationships can be driven to actions that seem utterly irrational to society at large.