Do you hear that? There’s someone behind you. Can feel their stare in that spot just below the nape of your neck? Your hair beginning to stand on end? Whatever you do though, you can’t turn around. Keep your eyes on the screen and read the article. Stay alert, because the SECOND you drop your guard… that’s when they’ll strike.

Did my bit of prose there put you on edge? Obviously it’s not true, how could it be? But a part of you… some small part asked, what if? That’s the strength of The Invisible Man. Even in a theater full of people, with nothing objectively scary on screen, the film just FILLS you with this sense of unease. The way the camera slowly pans and lingers where it shouldn’t CONVINCES you that Elisabeth Moss is sharing the screen with someone we can’t see.

Speaking of Elisabeth Moss, She gives a phenomenal performance here. She really sells the terror and paranoia that can come with a loss of control over one’s own life. For a large part of the film she’s just acting against an empty room, and if she wasn’t one hundred percent convincing in her role the movie as a whole just wouldn’t work. Luckily though, Moss is incredibly talented, and she seemingly disappeared into her character. There were a few points where I legitimately forgot that the person I was watching on screen was a character, and not a real life person.

In terms of the plot, I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, so I’ll keep things vague here. It wouldn’t be a stretch at all to say that this movie is, at its core, a story about gas lighting. I think the subject is treated with some surprising depth and intimacy, especially for a film written and directed by a man. There’s even a point in the second act where the film begins to explore the subjects of reproductive rights, and  the abuse thereof in toxic relationships. Being male myself though, I admit that my opinions here may be biased by my own lack of experience with these topics, and viewers should be careful going to see this film, especially if they themselves have been in abusive relationships in the past. The movie doesn’t pull any punches.

That being said however, The Invisible Man is probably my favorite film of 2020 so far, and while our current pandemic might make it hard to go see the film in theaters at the moment, it’ll be well worth your time and money to buy or rent the movie when it’s released on digital in a few months time.