Eventually, we are looking over our shoulders the same as Cecelia. As the film progresses, open rooms and doorways make us uncomfortable. He rarely interacts with the world around him, so he may be present for an entire scene and we don’t know. Adrian hardly speaks, so it’s easier to hide him. In not giving the character any personality, it makes the spaces he occupies empty yet malevolent. There is nothing about this invisible man for us to latch onto, which causes us to empathize not with them, but his victim. This approach makes this invisible man more like John Carpenter’s Michael Myers. Even before we can’t see him, the character is more of a blunt, cruel force than a person. Even prior to his invisibility, Adrian Griffin is rarely shown up close, and unlike Jack Griffin or Sebastian Caine, has very little dialogue. While previous films tried to develop the invisible character’s personality, this latest film attempts to dehumanize him as much as possible. Faceless EvilĬecelia fights for her life in The Invisible Man. Not knowing is what makes the idea scary. We don’t have to know where the character is. This latest film may be the first to see the genius of this idea. The invisible character is the star, so the story tries to let us know where they are at all times. The variations are extreme, but they all share one common thread. Others like The Invisible Woman took a lighthearted approach and changed Griffin’s gender.
New adult invisible movie series#
Some, like the SyFy TV series turn the character into a super hero. Some, like John Carpenter’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man, are comedies. Other films based on the Wells novel deviate significantly from the source material. While Jack Griffin expressed remorse, Caine takes sadistic glee in hurting people, even going so far as raping a neighbor while invisible.ĭaryl Hannah and an invisible Chevy Chase in John Carpenters Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Where it departs is the question of his redemption. Like the 1933 film, Caine is portrayed as likable and even charismatic before his transformation. Growing to enjoy the freedoms granted him by invisibility, Caine begins to kill off his colleagues in order to keep his secret. The plot is largely the same, with Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) rendering himself invisible with a serum. Perhaps the closest adaptation of the Wells novel apart from the original is the 1999 film, Hollow Man. Kevin Bacon turns invisible in Hollow Man. This idea of a likable character being driven insane became a staple of subsequent adaptations, from parodies like Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man, to the 1999 adaptation of the Wells novel. His killing spree is explained as due to a side effect of the drugs he’d used to craft his invisibility serum. Unlike his book Jack is a devoted scientist who wants to better humanity. In the 1933 adaptation, Jack Griffin, played superbly by Claude Rains, is the titular character. Copyright: Universal Pictures.Īll subsequent film adaptations featured Griffin or characters based on Griffin as the lead character, though most attempted to make him more sympathetic than in the book. Film AdaptationsĬlaude Rains as the titular Invisible Man in the 1933 film. Wells’ novel was among the most influential science fiction books of its time, paving the way for numerous screen and TV adaptations in the years to follow. Griffin is eventually defeated, but his notes are indecipherable to those who seek to follow his research. After achieving invisibility, Griffin embarks on a mad killing spree, terrorizing England as the authorities are helpless to stop him. His research yields many casualties, even driving his own father to suicide. In the original book, Griffin was a selfish megalomaniac who wanted to unlock the secret of invisibility out of a lust for power. The Original BookĬover for the first edition of Wells’ novel. It’s a unique and unsettling story, but it differs significantly from Wells’ original novel and the screen adaptations that preceded it. She prepares to move on after his apparent death but soon becomes convinced that her ex is not only still alive, but has achieved invisibility. The film tells of Cecelia, an abused woman who recently escaped her husband, famed scientist Adrian Griffin. Leigh Whannell’s adaptation is a superb exercise in slow, subtle horror.
Poster for the 2020 adaptation of The Invisible Man. Brought to vivid life by the horror maestros at Blumhouse, this latest screen version of the seminal novel differs vastly from previous iterations from the story, allowing it to inject some new life into one of Universal Studios’ most impressive and long-lasting monsters. Wells’ The Invisible Man has proven an unexpected treat.
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