2020's The Invisible Man is a psychological horror movie with some serious jump scares you'll never see coming. Here's what to watch out for.
The Invisible Man, from director Leigh Whannell, opened in theaters on February 28, 2020, by Universal Pictures. It immediately garnered positive reviews from critics, especially praising Elisabeth Moss's performance as abused woman Cecilia. So far, The Invisible Man has been a major success, grossing $123 million worldwide against a $7 million budget. However, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down theaters, Universal has since made the film available for digital-on-demand, only three weeks after its release.
In The Invisible Man, Cecilia is a woman on the run from her overly controlling and abusive boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). After narrowly escaping from her boyfriend's highly-secured home in the middle of the night, she lives in fear of leaving her friend's house, afraid Adrian will come after her. Soon, however, she hears of Adrian's apparent suicide and everyone thinks she's safe until strange things begin happening around her. At first, it's only small things, but then they begin to escalate. Cecilia soon realizes that Adrian has found a way to make himself invisible and is stalking her and manipulating her life until even her friends and family think she's crazy. In other words, The Invisible Man is scary in all the right ways, with a lot of creepy moments and some truly effective jump scares.
The Invisible Man's Jump Scares
The Invisible Man opens with a tense scene in which Cecilia, clearly having planned her escape, sneaks out of Adrian's house. Audiences see just how crazy Cecilia's boyfriend is when he comes chasing after her, providing the first jump scare of the film as he smashes the window of Cecilia's sister's car, cutting his hand open. After that, the first half of the movie sets a slow-burn psychological pace, building up to one of the movie's most successful jump scares. Cecilia, hearing a phone ringing in the attic of the house, goes to investigate. She finds Adrian's cellphone with a text that says "SURPRISE." As she looks down from the attic below, she grabs a bucket of paint and splashes it over Adrian's invisibility suit, revealing him suddenly in a heart-wrenching scene. Unfortunately, the effect of this moment is somewhat lessened by the fact that most people saw it in the trailer.
Next, having found Adrian's invisibility suit in his house she intends to use as proof, she meets her sister in a restaurant for what is, perhaps, the scariest moment in the entire film. Just as Cecilia is trying to explain what is going on to her sister, a knife raises from the table seemingly by itself and slits her sister's throat. The invisible Adrian then puts the knife in shocked Cecilia's hand, framing her for the murder. She's taken to an insane asylum where the next jump scare comes as she begins to slit her wrists, which will kill not only herself but also Adrian's baby that she's carrying.
When an invisible Adrian tries to stop her, she jumps to life, stabbing his suit with a pen, making it flicker so he can be seen. After that, The Invisible Man takes off with many thrilling events and twists taking place, including its chilling ending, but the jump scares are over.