Fear The Invisible Man

Invisible Men happen – at least a dozen cinematic ones inspired by HG Wells’ novel, to date. After the highly acclaimed 2020 version by Leigh Whannell, it was hard to see where else a modern one might usefully go, so Paul Dudbridge and his team have probably done the smart thing by taking theirs back to the end of the 19th Century, the period when the book was first written. Where Whannell focused on finely drawn cruelty and paranoia, they have used much bigger strokes to construct a tale full of high drama and sinister schemes, moral angst and social outrage.

Lovers of the Hammer Horror brand of Gothic will be in their element here, in the elegant Victorian country house where the once ambitious Adeline (Mhairi Calvey), left adrift by her husband’s untimely death, sweeps through the halls in elegant gowns and gazes longingly from the windows. Having sold off most of the paintings and let all but two of the servants go (though somebody still seems to be doing the garden), she is struggling to make ends meet, yet remains devoted to helping the poor and unfortunate in the local area. It is this charity, and their old acquaintance, which the Invisible Man, Griffin (Mike Beckingham), is counting on when he stumbles into her house bleeding and in desperate need of aid.

It is immediately clear that these two troubled people have the ability to help one another. Adeline has a scientific background as well, and is interested in the experimental chemist’s discovery, but what he most wants from her is aid in retrieving his journals, purloined by a former ally, without which he has no hope of recreating his formula or becoming visible again. Most wants, that is, until, true to Wells’ original formula, he succumbs to a side effect of his concoction and begins to lost his sanity, at which point he develops an amorous obsession with her which could ruin everything – as could her discovery of just how ruthless he is inclined to be in pursuit of his goals.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the local chief of police (Wayne Gordon) has a crush on her. As he tries to hunt the fugitive down, and that fugitive begins to eye the remaining servants as material for his experiments, it’s clear that this will not end well.

It has not ended as well as it might on the screen. Voice acting is a very specific skill and although he has done a little of it before, Beckingham does not get good results here. He has a singular lack of chemistry with Calvey which undermines a lot of the good work in her performance, leaving the whole thing feeling rather stilted – he’s just tonally off. The special effects are also pretty rough in places – a lot of care has been taken with the big dramatic scenes but less spectacular ones fare badly, making it hard to keep suspending disbelief. That the writing is heavy handed goes with the territory, but on occasion it oversteps the mark, again spoiling the mood.

A lot of good work has gone into creating that mood. The locations and costumes are very well chosen, making the required impact without seeming unattainable for characters facing these particular hardships. Dudbridge never misses an opportunity to go over the top elsewhere, and there is so much fog in the final scene that it’s a wonder the crew could keep track of each other, but of course this is exactly what many viewers will be looking for.

This Invisible Man is a fallen aristocrat of a film, a mere shadow of what it might once have been but clinging to its pride nonetheless, and rather admirable for it. Calvey is a treasure and Gordon works well, both actors enjoying the darker aspects of their characters even as they superficially play the heroes. With a little more luck elsewhere, this could have been a real crowd pleaser. As it is, it will delight a niche audience and attract a few laughs in the wrong places, but it’s nice to see someone still making an effort with a genre which still has plenty of potential.