When it comes to the best and most well-known horror movie characters, the invisible man is right there at the top alongside werewolves, mummies, ghosts, demons, and, of course, vampires. This is largely due to the now legendary writer H. G. Wells and his novel The Invisible Man which he published all the way back in 1897.
Ever since its publication, there have been multiple film versions of the novel and the invisible man has also appeared in many other films. The latest film inspired by the novel is currently in cinemas, stars Elisabeth Moss and contains a lot of truly scary moments. Let's take a look at the top 10 of them. Warning - there will be spoilers ahead.
Cecilia Escapes Adrian's House
One of the most frightening and tension-filled scenes comes right at the beginning of the film. Elisabeth Moss's heroine Cecilia wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks through the house which she shares with her boyfriend, a wealthy optics scientist Adrian.
Cecilia packs up her things and disables the security cameras, all the while nervous and tense, worried that Adrian might wake up and stop her from leaving. She manages to successfully leave the house but accidentally trips on the alarm and Adrian wakes up and follows her, he even smashes her sister's car window to get to Cecilia.
Adrian Watches Cecilia Sleeping
After she escapes her abusive and controlling partner, Cecilia is a mess. She's staying with her friend James and his teenage daughter Sydney but remains worried that Adrian will find her and she has trouble sleeping. When she finds out that Adrian died, she thinks the nightmare is over.
Only to realize that someone is following her inside Adrian's house. Cecilia shares the bedroom with Sydney and she wakes up one night, realizing that someone invisible is right there in the bedroom, watching them. Even though she fails to prove it to James, it's later confirmed that Adrian indeed was in the bedroom.
Cecilia Finds The Bottle
This moment is rather subtle but still horrifying in its implications because it shows that Cecilia was right and that Adrian had indeed found a way how to make himself invisible, faked his own death and is now haunting her. After a series of rather strange events, Cecilia faints at the job interview.
They take her to a hospital and do a blood test which later reveals that she fainted because there was a large amount of Diazepam in her blood - the same drug she used on Adrian the night she ran away from his house so that he wouldn't wake up.
Adrian Hits Sydney
Once invisible, Adrian uses a large number of techniques to ruin Cecilia's life. Not only does he stalk her and is watching her sleep, but he also does his best to destroy every other aspect of her life. He sabotages the job interview Cecilia goes to by stealing the samples she meant to bring with her.
But one of the worst and unexpected things he does is hitting Sydney, Cecilia's only remaining friend if you don't count James. Sydney, of course, thinks it was Cecilia who hit hurt which causes her to leave in distress and Cecilia, unsure what to do, runs away from James's house.
Cecilia Meets The Invisible Man
Even though Cecilia becomes aware fairly quickly that Adrian is stalking her as an invisible man, it takes a while before she can confirm her suspicions with her own eyes. After James and Sydney leave their house, Cecilia goes to investigate the house and ends up in the attic where she finds the proof that she's not crazy - Adrian's phone is there, alongside other things he stole from the house or from Cecilia.
While she's in the attic, Cecilia receives a text message from Adrian and when she decides to leave the attic, she actually sees him for the first time - by pouring a bucket of paint over him, the invisible man becomes visible for a short while.
Adrian Kills Cecilia's Sister
Throughout the film, Cecilia has a complicated relationship with her sister Emily who seems to be much tougher than her. Emily helps Cecilia escape Adrian's house but the two separate when Adrian sends a hateful e-mail to Emily from Cecilia's e-mail account.
One of the worst moments of the film comes when Cecilia goes to a restaurant with her sister to make amends. She wants to tell Emily the truth but before she has the chance to do it, Adrian, who's been following her all along, slashes Emily's throat and kills her, making it look like Cecilia was the one who did it.
Cecilia Finds Out That She's Pregnant
The Invisible Man is as much a story about facing an invisible psychopath as it is about finding your way out of an abusive relationship. In one scene, Cecilia describes to her sister and James how Adrian used to treat her, how she controlled her appearance, what she ate, what she wore, and even what she thought.
After she's arrested for her sister's murder, Cecilia finds out that she's pregnant with Adrian's child - something she wanted to avoid at all cost and was secretly taking birth control. Unfortunately, Adrian found out and switched birth control for something else, gaining even more control over Cecilia in this way.
Cecilia Tries To Kill Herself
This scene is more it seems at first. Despite everything she's been through, all the awful things she experienced, Cecilia is a stronger person than she lets on. After the violent death of her sister and the news of the unwanted pregnancy, Cecilia decides to lure Adrian out from his hideout.
Adrian's brother Tom makes her an offer that if she comes back to Adrian and raises the child with him, he'll make sure she won't end up in prison for the murder of her sister. Cecilia, however, refuses the offer, steals Tom's pen and uses it in the shower to cut her own wrist. Adrian stops her and she stabs him instead, making the suit he wears and which turns him into an invisible man partially visible.
The Invisible Man Attacks James
After Cecilia stabs Adrian, he brutally beats up and kills several policemen who try to stop him and Cecilia from leaving her holding cell, Cecilia escapes and follows the invisible man to James's house since he promised to kill Sydney. The invisible man, however, gets into James's house first and he attacks first Sydney, and then James himself who came home early since Cecilia called him and warned him.
The invisible man brutally beats James up, doing it right in front of his daughter, and it looks like he might kill him if Cecilia didn't show up on time and stopped him.
Cecilia Meets Adrian Again
In the end, the most frightening moment for Cecilia is to face Adrian again. Since his crimes remain unproven, Cecilia goes into his house to try and make him confess to everything he'd done, including Emily. Unfortunately for Cecilia, Adrian doesn't tell the truth and only subtly hints at being the one who stalked and tormented Cecilia.
Despite the tension between them and Cecilia's obvious despair, she still manages to come out as the victorious one from their encounter since she uses Adrian's own invisibility suit against him and makes it seem like he slit his own throat - similarly to what he did to Emily.