“He said that wherever I went, he would find me, walk right up to me, and I wouldn’t be able to see him.”
After Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) runs away from a toxic relationship with Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), she can finally start to relax. A strange series of events begin to happen and she must prove that she is not losing her marbles, but is being tortured by an invisible man.
Moss is no stranger to the ‘survivor’ role with Handmaiden’s Tale as her previous success. She adopts a serious yet emotionally-gruelling POV, making you not just see the horror, but feel it. She employs a lot of grit and makes it a battle worth fighting for.
Look closely and Leigh Whannell’s adaptation is rife of symbolism on abuse in relationships and toxic masculinity running throughout, raising this above mere cheap “jump scare” heavy modern horror. It plays on the suspense and paranoia of the aspect that it ‘never truly goes away’ – the camera work is so ambiguous that it makes for deeply unsettling scenes.
A bold twist on the classic thriller. A nail-biting experience that has more on its mind than providing a few jump scares. Emotionally layered and well crafted. It’s so anxiety-inducing that it’s almost believable…