31 Days of Horror Reviews 2018: The Invisible Man

Based on the H.G. Wells story of the same name, The Invisible Man gives us a new kind of monster.

REVIEW

Scientist Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) invents a formula that can make people invisible and tests it on himself. The problem is he can’t turn himself visible again and the more time he stays invisible, the more corrupt he becomes as he realizes the benefits. This was the first time Universal made a monster movie that actually had some dark humor thrown in. It certainly make this film stand out from it’s more supernatural predecessors yet not too much of a tonal shift that it feels out of place. It’s also one of the earliest known films to use the visual effect that would later become known as keying. By today’s standards it looks cheap, but for 1933 it was groundbreaking.

Claude Rains delivers an amazing performance as the Invisible Man. He switches from calm and passionate to maniacal so fast that it’s disturbing. It’s this performance that makes the scene when he states how the very moon is afraid of him so memorable. His laugh is both funny and scary; I imagine this was the film that might’ve inspired the various laughs of the Joker through the years.

There’s really not much to say about this film; it doesn’t drag on nor go by too fast and the vocal performance from Claude Rains is enough to keep me interested. I honestly feel like it’s another masterpiece by Universal and one of the few classics that didn’t get a modern remake by the studio or produced by Francis Ford Coppola.