If you want to hear how the original 1933 Invisible Man secretly appears in this
2020 reimagining then stick around to the end of this video.
Oh, yeah I'm over here.
Our story begins at 3:42 in the morning as Cecillia wakes up to try to escape from Adrian's
prison like estate.
One of the first things she does is turn his security camera towards the bedroom, so that
she can keep an eye on him rather than the other way around.
I think it's kind of interesting how she has this strategy of using Adrian's technology
against him from the very beginning, and it isn't until later until she realizes how to
fully take advantage of that idea.
Two weeks after escaping she is still super paranoid...
and at that point we don't know why.
We don't know that Adrian was this optics technology mastermind.
But there are clues, like Cecillia painting over her webcam, the mechanical sounds she
hears at night, and later, flashes of light, which we find out to be Adrian taking photos
of her, part of his plan to make her go crazy.
She also receives the mail, which informs her of Adrian's will reading at an address
that nobody is supposed to know that she's at, which doesn't make sense until we find out
that Adrian is using the suit to stalk her.
Adrian's full name by the way is Adrian Griffin, which is a slight nod to Jack Griffin, the
scientist who learned how to make himself invisible and became the original Invisible
Man.
Cecilia's name on the other hand, is a feminine version of the name Cecil, which is derived
from the Latin word meaning blind...
seeing as how she can't see Adrian.
There are also a lot of examples of the camera angle suddenly cutting to a wide shot taken
from another room, and I think this is supposed to be Adrian's point of view as he's sneaking
around the house and spying on her.
And one more note of those mechanical sounds that she hears.
The Invisible Man doesn't have a signature sound like some of the other classic Universal
monsters.
I mean, you can't have him growl like the Wolfman or hiss like Dracula, cause that would
be ridiculous, so it's cool how they found a sound that fits the sci-fi reimagining of
the story and is also still really creepy.
When Cecillia is escaping we see her Cal Poly Architecture sweater, and later she interviews
for a job at an architectural firm.
The characters have fitting career choices for their roles in the story.
Architecture represents privacy; it's the idea of putting up walls and shielding yourself
from the gaze of the outside world.
And optics technology represents an invasion of privacy, people like Adrian are the suppliers
for paparazzi, and in our world today technology companies are seen as leeches for data and
are often criticized for their misleading privacy policies.
So there's some social commentary going on here, which, if you're gonna remake a classic
movie and bring it into modern times, it's always nice to see that there's actually a
reason for that update.
After Cecillia escapes, she's staying at James's house, and I noticed him wearing a shirt that
says Prestige Records, 1949.
The year may be a reference to the release day of The Invisible Man Appears, which was
a Japanese adaptation of HG Wells's novel, The Invisible Man, which is what the original
film is based on.
It's also a Japanese restaurant where Cecillia and Emily later have their reconciliation
meeting, though that may be a coincidence.
Hard to say for sure.
"Hahahahaha."
"AH!"
But there's a bigger reference to the original Invisible Man nested inside of James's house.
Cecilia is sleeping in the same room as the daughter Sydney, and her dream is to go to
fashion school, so her room is filled with clothing of her own design.
As you might expect, there's a mannequin in the room, and it's wearing this one hat...
and if I remember correctly it's wearing sunglasses too.
This is a big easter egg, because the mannequin is basically dressed up like The Invisible
Man from the original movie.
It actually kind of confused me when I first saw it on screen, because I thought we were
seeing the monster for the first time, and it took me a minute to realize that it was
an actual mannequin.
I'm sure most audiences who aren't familiar with the 1933 film didn't have that issue
though.
There would be another big reference to the that original movie later, but in the meantime,
there were some more contemporary references as well.
The blanket pulling scene pays homage to The Conjuring...
...and when Cecillia spreads coffee beans all over the floor to try to catch the invisible
man's footsteps, it's very reminiscent of Paranormal Activity, where the character Katie spreads flour on
the floor to try to record the invisible entity's footsteps.
"There's footsteps in, but no footsteps out..."
"Oh God!"
I think that the director of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell put in these connections
in because he's friends with James Wan, who directed The Conjuring and Oren Peli who directed
Paranormal Activity.
In fact, Whannell's directorial debut was Insidious: Chapter 3, (excellent movie) and
that film was produced by Wan and Peli.
Adrian messes with Cecilia's life and makes her question her own sanity.
Things really get crazy when he drugs her and she passes out during her job interview.
She ends up in the hospital, and in the hallway there's another patient who is completely
wrapped up in bandages, which is a clever reference to, once again, the original Invisible
Man where he hides his invisibility by entirely wrapping himself up in bandages.
The scene where he reveals himself...
Or...
I guess does the opposite of that... shows himself removing these bandages and is considered
to be the most iconic scene in the movie.
"I'll show you who I am... and what I am!
Hoohoo hahahah!"
"Look, he's all eaten away."
"How do you like that, eh?"
After Cecilia confirms that Adrian is stalking her by finding the phone, knife, and photographs
in the attic, she goes back to Adrian's fortress of a house and strangely, the dog is still
there, another clue that he's still living there.
I imagine when he faked his suicide, he left the dog to the brother as not to raise suspicion,
and then had him returned him to the house, where nobody would find out he's still living
there because of the huge walls that surround the place.
Speaking of the brother, let's fast-forward a little bit to when Cecilia's in the psych
ward after being framed for killing her sister by Adrian.
His brother informs Cecilia that he'll be withholding the money from the will because
she committed a crime, and she basically figures out that he's in on the whole operation.
She calls him a jellyfish version of Adrian, because he has no spine.
"BECAUSE I'VE SEEN MORE SPINE IN JELLYFISH!
SEEN MORE GUTS IN 11 YEAR OLD KIDS!"
No, but ok.
Maybe it's just my Emo Abraham Lincoln side showing, but the more I think about it, the
more that I actually think this could be a reference to that song by Brand New.
I mean think about it.
The main chorus of the song is "everyone's caught onto everything you do."
"Everyone's caught onto everything you do."
Adrian has manipulated Cecillia for a long time, but nobody knew the extent of how badly
he controlled her until she escaped and exposed his behaviour.
Then there’s also that line: “Don't apologize (I hope you choke and die!)”.
"Don't apologize (I hope you choke and die!)"
...and at the end of the movie, Adrian tries to make up with her and she ends up using
the invisibility suit to cut his throat, he chokes and dies.
So there’s that.
Leigh Whannell is from Australia so I don’t know how familiar he would be with the Long
Island emo scene but one thing he’s probably familiar with is aquatic life, because Australia
is regarded as the world’s top scuba destination.
I noticed later on in the movie, that Sydney has a jellyfish shirt.
And that got me thinking again about Cecilia calling Adrian’s brother a jellyfish.
In Australia, there’s a creature known as the Irukandji Jellyfish, and they’re considered
dangerous because they’re venomous and they can make themselves invisible, or at least
very close to invisible.
And this fits perfectly because Adrian’s brother is later discovered to also be using
the invisibility suit to help Adrian with his scheme.
"Honey!"
"What?"
"Where's my super suit?"
He’s a toxic person with the ability to go invisible.
In this case, instead of divers off the coast being the victims, it’s a seemingly endless
amount of cops, who just seem to keep spawning and getting killed in that one hallway.
"What's going on over here?
What are they in the roof?
How you gonna spawn inside the roof?
Yeah.."
So the story ends with, as I mentioned, Cecillia killing Adrian, claiming it wasn’t her,
and getting James to go along with her story… somewhat reluctantly.
She steals the invisibility suit for herself, cause I guess these things have really good
battery life, and in doing so seems to set up the sequel, The Invisible Woman.
I’m guessing she is gonna start using the suit for herself, and slowly start to become
the villain, and James is going to be the one to have to try to stop her.
And I’m all for it.
I think there’s a lot more that can be covered with this concept; and with smart characters
like these, it should be a lot of fun.
Of course, I’ll be covering it here on CZsWorld if that does happen, but until then, click
the video on the left
And go ahead and subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week, ring that deathbell
for notifications and I’ll see you in the next one.
Assuming we both survive.