The Invisible Man was a fairly popular movie before quarantine. I wonder why this episode
of Things You Missed is struggling.
People are watching, the ratings are good, I wonder
what could be the issue… Let’s look at the comments.
“Pretty sure Screen Rent ripped this off. Practically word for word.”
Yeah that’s an issue.
On February 27th 2020, I uploaded a new episode of my long running web-series Things You Missed,
a show where I analyse the often overlooked details of your favorite horror movies. When
my videos started to get popular in 2017, I noticed a lot of imitators, which is understandable.
Chasing trends is pretty common in this era of YouTube, and it makes sense that other
YouTubers might have their own interpretations of horror films. And I wouldn’t really be
bothered if another creator came to a similar conclusion about what a director intended
with his or her movie from time to time. It only makes sense. So I usually ignore these
knock-off videos when I see them.
Then I saw this comment. Practically word for word? That got my attention. On March
6th, over a week after I published my video, Screen Rant, a massive company with over 7
million subscribers compared to my 350K at the time, puts out 25 Things You Missed in
The Invisible Man. Usually when I see these knock-off videos, they at least change the
title up a bit like they’ll say Small Details You Missed, or Things You Didn’t Notice.
But Screen Rant decided to straight up steal my title.
Not the end of the world. Let’s compare the actual videos. Here’s a clip from my
video: “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.”
And he’s the Screen Rant video:
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a disappearing man with the last
name Griffin. Way back in the 1933 version of The Invisible Man, we saw the character
Jack Griffin played by Claude Rains.”
OK, we can give them the benefit of the doubt here, we’re both basically citing publicly
available knowledge.
“Cecillia’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.”
“The name Cecillia is actually a feminine form of the name Cecille which comes from
the Roman name Caecilius. This name is based on the Latin word Coccus which translates
to blind. Obviously the fact that Moss’s character means blind, is meaningful here,
since she’s haunted by an enemy who is invisible to her.”
I don’t even think it’s that crazy to bring this up, because I think it is Leigh
Whannell’s intention to put meaning behind the character names. I’m not the only one
who’s allowed to notice it. But using the same exact image I used and breaking down
the word’s history exactly as I did is kind of suspicious. And it is almost word for word.
It’s like the classic school report where you just have to change the wording so it
doesn’t look like it's copy and pasted from Wikipedia, but it’s a huge company in a
four story building ripping off an independent YouTuber during a global recession…
“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 the invasion
of privacy. People like Adrian are 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.”
“When she’s trying to escape we see that she’s wearing a top with the logo of Cal
Poly Architecture. This college of architecture and environmental design is a real place.
And apparently Cecillia was a student at some point, since we saw her during an interview
for an architectural firm. Architects are quite literally responsible for putting up
walls which seems fitting because Cecillia spends most of the movie desperately trying
to shield herself from Adrian.
It also provides a contrast with his occupation as a scientist
in the field of optics. While she’s trying to keep people out, he’s trying to find
a way in.”
OK, so not only have they just taken my personal interpretation and claimed it as their own,
but they’ve laid it in the exact same way, not even bothering to change most of my phrasing
or my presentation style. Like it’s very clear that they just watched my video and somehow
liked how I start with the visual of the sweater to segway into talking about their career
choices. And they basically just said: “You know what? That’s ours now.”
“After Cecillia escapes she’s staying at James’s house, and I noticed him wearing
a shirt called Prestige Records 1949. The year may be a reference to the release date
of The Invisible Man appears which was a Japanese adaptation of the HG Wells novel, The Invisible
Man, which is what the original film was based on. “
James’s home is a welcome refuge from Adrian, but pay attention to the shirt he’s wearing.
It says Prestige Records 1949. Nineteen-fourty nine was the year the movie Tômei ningen
arawaru was released in Japan. A movie also known as Invisible Man Appears. It’s an
adaptation of the HG Wells book The Invisible Man.”
“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.”
“Is this just a coincidence? Or is it an easter egg that requires a lot of Invisible
Man knowledge to spot?”
Well I’ll tell you what’s not a coincidence: you somehow coming out with a video that is
nearly identical to my video in almost every way. How is it that you have a g****mn 17
man team, not including any of the resources from your parent company who is hiring for
19 different types of positions, and the best you can do is a blatant plagiarisation of
a guy with a camera.
“Cecillia 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. This is a
big easter egg because the mannequin is basically dressed up like The Invisible Man from the
original movie.”
“James’s daughter Sydney dreams of going to fashion school. So understandably her bedroom
is filled with everything an aspiring fashion designer might need. This includes a pretty
creepy mannequin wearing a big hat that’s essentially dressed like the original version
of the Invisible Man from the 1933 movie. You know Jack Griffin, whose name was clearly
the inspiration for Adrian Griffin.”
Wait, what was that? That transition looks unbelievably close to one of the transitions
I created for my other series, Horror History.
Not to mention that subscribe animation.
Lookin' a little too familiar.
These guys are really doing their homework
on me. You’d think they would at least change the order of some of these so it looks a little
bit less completely ****ing blatant that they ripped my video, point for point. Sentence
for sentence. Image for image.
Oh, but it’s OK, look, they put their number graphic in the top left rather than the bottom
right. IT’S OK GUYS. It’s all good. Copyright infringement avoided.
“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.”
“But there were also plenty of homages to other popular horror films. The Conjuring
Franchise also features characters haunted by unseen forces and there are some particularly
terrifying moments that take place in bedrooms. In the Invisible Man, there’s a scene where
Cecillia’s blanket is pulled, which is very reminiscent of moments we’ve seen in The
Conjuring and The Conjuring 2.”
WRONG. That doesn’t happen in The Conjuring 2. Of course the one teeny tiny moment you
say something differently than what I said, you’re just wrong about it. Continue.
“And this isn’t the only horror movie reference we spotted...”
Hold on, pause it again. What do you mean ‘we spotted’?
”What you mean… we?”
“Another spooky flick featuring haunted characters is Paranormal Activity. During
the first movie, we saw Katie try to track down the spectral being haunting her home by laying
flour out on the floor.
Are you kidding me right now? I pointed out similarities to two existing horror movies
and you bring up the exact same two? And then just in case it wasn’t clear that you’re
criminals, you follow it up with this?
“I think that the director of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell put 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.”
“The fact that director Leigh Whannell included nods to The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity
definitely were not coincidences. It turns out that Whannell knows Oren Peli, the director
of Paranormal Activity as well as James Wan who directed the Conjuring. Leigh Whannell’s
directorial debut was on the film Insidious Chapter 3 and do you want to guess the names
of two of the producers on that movie?”
And this is where you really ****ed up Screen Rant, because references to other Invisible
Man movies could have been discovered by anyone who’s seen the movies, but this proves beyond
any reasonable doubt that there’s no way that you made your video, without watching
my video. Because there are plenty of movies where people or objects get rocked by an invisible
entity; so much so so that I even have a made up term for it on my channel. We call it Air
Yeeting.
My brain related these moments to The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity, because I was a teenager
from 2007-2013 when the trend of paranormal horror movies was at its peak and I was there
to take these movies in.
It’s not like there is an interview with the director where he
cites these moments as influences and we both saw the article. Because no such interview
exists. This is literally just my interpretation, my theory about why he might have gotten the
ideas that he had because of the people he was around at the time.
“She ends up in the hospital.”
“And in the hallway, there’s another patient who’s completely wrapped in bandages...”
“The person is so coated in bandages, that they look like The Invisible Man…”
“Where he hides his invisibility by completely wrapping himself up in bandages.”
“It kind of seems like they should be in a private ward, but I’m a YouTuber, not
a doctor.”
Well maybe you need to try something else, cause I don’t think you’re getting the
whole YouTube thing is really working out for you. Let me break that word down for you.
The “You” in “YouTube” is derived from the word “you”. Not me, CZsWorld,
who it looks like you’ve also ripped off many times in the past. Not Jon Solo, who
you have been ripping off in an unspeakably egregious manner, not this guy
on Reddit, whose Marvel theories you stole with no permission and no credit after rejecting
his application for a job… you means YOU. Yourself. If you want to reap the benefits
of hard work, you need to be the one to put in the work.
“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.”
“She pocketed The Invisible Suit she used to stop Adrian. This scene definitely seemed
as though it was setting up The Invisible Woman.”
You know what though, I’m a pretty reasonable guy. Maybe their huge well funded team of
writers was just in a crunch and needed to hit a deadline. Maybe they didn’t have time
to make something original and were scared of the punishment that comes with falling
behind. Maybe this is a product of a bad work environment, not of malicious intent.
They even have an ethics policy on their website: Unless assets or news come from official studio
sources or their PR affiliates, we always provide link credit to original sources. We
believe it is our responsibility to contribute to the online publishing ecosystem and best
journalism practices.
So obviously there’s just been some kind of mistake here, I decide to send them a private
email and get this whole thing sorted out.
Hello Screen Rant,
I've been notified that you have repackaged my analysis of The Invisible Man and uploaded
it as your own video. Upon reviewing the content, I feel cheated because Screen Rant is a much
bigger channel taking advantage of my hard work. I'd like to resolve the issue amicably,
so I ask that you please give me credit above the fold in the description with a link to
my channel.
In the future, please give credit when using my work.
Apparently this freaked them out a little bit, and with plagiarism like this, it’s
not hard to imagine why.
“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 destinations. I noticed later in the
movie, that Sydney has a jellyfish shirt. That got me thinking again about Cecilia calling
Adrian’s brother a jellyfish. Now, 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.”
“Not only are jellyfish quite literally spineless. But they’re also at least semi-transparent.
This was an interesting hint to the fact that Tom would later end up wearing the suit. Let’s
not forget that director Leigh Whannell is from Australia where the jellyfish, and most
other animals can be incredibly dangerous. “
Well I guess jellyfish aren’t the only creatures that are spineless because after reading my
little email they sent it on to their parent company, an even bigger firm called Valnet.
Gotta let Mommy and Daddy take care of the big bad YouTuber I guess, but they couldn’t
even make this right because instead of just putting a little blurb in the description
like I asked, they just flat out denied it.
They claim to take ethics seriously, but if they had even watched a minute of these two
videos they would know that their team of writers ripped me off.
I know it.
You know it.
Screen Rant knows it.
ValNet knows it.
Your own audience is even calling you out
on it, they know it. But Screen Rant doesn’t care.
Because they know full well that they have a team of expensive lawyers and I have not
enough money and not enough time or care to bother pursuing this when I’d rather be
doing something creative or playing Rocket League or trying to figure out where the **** you
get paper towels when the whole damn paper towel aisle is empty and there’s nothing
online because that’s what these companies do. The use their money. They use their resources.
And they bully whoever they can afford to bully.
“But there are clues, like Cecillia painting over her webcam.”
“But there were definitely some hints pointing to it early on. One notable detail was the
fact that Cecillia obscured the built in webcam on her computer.”
But the irony does not end there, OH NO, because as I mentioned earlier, Screen Rant, also has
a website, where their favorite thing to do is report on acts of plagiarism by other companies.
This is ****ing hilarious! So if anyone wants to report on this, feel free, I’ll grant
you what I probably would have granted Screen Rant if they had asked -- you have my permission
to use this video.
“And one more note of those mechanical sounds she hears. The Invisible Man doesn't really have
a signature sound like some of the other classic Universal monsters. 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.”
“The Invisible Man is a classic horror villain, but he struggles to be as recognizable as
some other antagonists. Unlike the moan of Frankenstein’s monster or the howl of The
Wolfman, this version of The Invisible Man is associated with a mechanical kind of sound.
So in a way, this Invisible Man does have a signature sound and it ties into the technology
that makes him so creepy.”
Why did you even steal that? That was just a side note that I said. I didn’t even count that
as one of my Things You Missed. You’re just making a fool of yourself now Screen Rant.
But sadly, I don’t think Screen Rant is the only company guilty of ripping off YouTubers.
It’s kind of a disturbing trend. Just this week I saw a video by gaming documentarian
Slush, who had his most popular video ripped off a year later by The Score eSports. By
the look of things it was the same kind of deal, just take the script, reword certain
things, remove any semblance of personality, add something that makes you look like a dumb***
and publish it, acting like it’s your creation.
If it doesn’t seem like a huge deal, just try to remember that for independent YouTube
creators like me, Jon Solo, Slush and many others, this is our job, this is our livelihood.
I’m a baker selling cakes in a town of 400K, and Screen Rant is taking my cakes, slapping
on a different colored frosting and selling them in my town and seventeen others.
Like I said, I think I’m being reasonable to ask that they say something along the lines
of, “CZsWorld made a video where talks about how these scenes are similar to scenes directed
by Oren Peli and James Wan. If you want to watch that there’s a link in the description.”
That’s the other thing about these channels. Why do they always sound like they’re constantly
saying the same run-on sentence.
Hey and that goes for you people putting stuff from my videos on IMDb too. I saw one the
other day when I accidentally said the words “hydrochloric acid” in my video, when
it should have been “hydrofluoric acid”. And someone had just kind of transcribed all
my points into trivia bits on IMDb and they wrote “hydrochloric”. Like they didn’t
even both to check if it was correct.
Anyway, I’ll put the contact email and the Twitter information for Screen Rant if anyone
wants to let them know how you feel about this. I think I said it best in my video about
The Invisible Man, when I compared the character Adrian’s practices to the lyrics sung by
Long Island emo band, Brand New:
“Everyone’s caught on, to everything you do.”
I'll see you in the next one. Assuming we both survive.