Also known as: Untitled Universal Monster Project (working title) Release Date: February 24th, 2020 (Hollywood premiere) Directed by: Leigh Whannell Written by: Leigh Whannell Based on: characters and concepts by H. G. Wells for The Invisible Man Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Nash Edgerton
“He said that wherever I went, he would find me, walk right up to me, and I wouldn’t be able to see him.” – Cecilia Kass
As a lifelong fan of the Universal Monsters film series and all its reinventions (good and bad), this one just didn’t resonate with me at first glance. I thought the marketing was pretty dull and then it came out just before COVID shoved movie theaters into a flaming dumpster.
I’m glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this, though.
Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of seeing a modernized take on the classic story but honestly, this is just inspired by the original H. G. Wells novel and is very much its own, unique thing.
This takes the Invisible Man formula and brings it in to modern day, showing a psychotic ex-boyfriend using his ability to be invisible to destroy the life of the woman that left him. Since he’s invisible, he obviously does horrible things that only she’s aware of while her friends start to think she’s going insane. As the film rolls on, the scumbag gets more and more ballsy and eventually, people are aware that the woman (now in an asylum) isn’t lying.
Since this takes place in modern times, the Invisible Man in this is a Tony Stark type of inventor that has made a legit stealth camouflage suit. Also, the suit is really f’n cool looking and inventive, being comprised of what appear to be hundreds of small cameras/projectors. The scenes where the suit is partially exposed come off really damn well and the special effects, as a whole, are pretty seamless, believable and impressive.
What I found most impressive about this movie, though, was Elisabeth Moss’ acting. Man, she stepped up to the plate and hit homeruns in just about every scene. What I sincerely appreciate, as a long-time horror fan, is how serious she took the subject matter and put her all into it, giving one of the most believable performances I’ve seen in a horror picture in a really long time.
My only real complaint about the film was the twist ending. I mostly saw it coming and it felt kind of cheap, ending the way it did. At the same time, you really can’t keep the villain alive, as you don’t know what kind of technological tricks he might have up his sleeve.
This doesn’t end in a way that leaves it open for a sequel and I hope there isn’t one, as it would probably diminish the effect of this single, pretty solid picture. Basically, don’t be like Saw.
Now that doesn’t mean that I’d be against other modern takes on the Universal Monsters properties after seeing how well this one was executed. It certainly blew Tom Cruise’s The Mummy out of the water.
Rating: 8/10 Pairs well with: the older adaptations of this story, as well as some of the actually good, modern horror flicks.
Release Date: August 24th, 2014 (London FrightFest Film Festival premiere) Directed by: David Gregory Written by: David Gregory Music by: Mark Raskin Cast: Richard Stanley, Fairuza Balk, Rob Morrow, Robert Shaye, Hugh Dickson, Oli Dickson
Severin Films, 97 Minutes
Review:
I saw the mid-’90s Island of Dr. Moreau film in the theatre. But it was so bad that I barely remembered anything about it other than how damn weird and terrible it was. I also didn’t really know the story behind it until years later when I read articles about the problems on the set and the ousting of director, Richard Stanley.
This documentary does a pretty good job of covering the details and allowing several of the people involved in this fiasco to tell their stories from their points-of-view.
Most importantly, it let Stanley tell his side of the story while also cluing the viewer in on what he had planned. Frankly, his ideas and his vision for the picture sounded incredible, even if what he wanted to do was probably unachievable even before the producers started meddling with his plans.
It also didn’t help that two massive egomaniacs, Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, were hired to star in the picture. With that, they developed a rivalry that truly derailed the production and caused even bigger problems.
Even knowing what I did going into this documentary, I still wasn’t prepared for the whole story and the dozens of additional details I never knew. Fairuza Balk’s stories about the experience were really interesting and allowed you see how this unfolded through the eyes of someone who was trapped in this production and pretty powerless to do anything about it.
All in all, this was informative and it shed a lot of light on one of the most troubled productions in motion picture history. It’s a compelling story and certainly deserving of having that story told.
Rating: 7.5/10 Pairs well with: other documentaries about failed films, as well as all the Dr. Moreau film adaptations.
Also known as: Meet the Invisible Man (working title) Release Date: March 7th, 1951 Directed by: Charles Lamont Written by: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, John Grant, Hugh Wedlock Jr., Howard Snyder Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Erich Zeisl Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild, Arthur Franz
Universal International Pictures, 82 Minutes
Review:
“The evidence says I did. When I stepped out of the shower that night, I found O’Hara beaten to death on the locker room floor. The cop outside the door swore nobody else had come in, so they pinned it on me.” – Tommy Nelson
I love the Abbott & Costello mashups with the Universal Monsters franchise, however one of the film’s has to be the weakest link and this one is it.
That doesn’t mean that it’s bad, as it’s still really enjoyable. It’s just that this one feels like it’s the least horror-y and it also just creates a new Invisible Man character, as opposed to being tied to any previous version, even after they already had the duo come into brief contact with the Vincent Price version of the character at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Oddly, this is more of a comedy sports movie. Which is actually achieved pretty cleverly in that the comedic duo use the Invisible Man to help give Lou Costello an edge in the boxing ring. It’s an ingenious and hilarious scheme and even if the joke feels one-note, they stretch it out in this movie and the physical comedy is so good that it works longer than it probably should.
Abbott & Costello are both as great as usual and even if the Invisible Man character felt weak when compared to past versions, he still meshed well with the two leads and everything came together fairly well.
Rating: 6.25/10 Pairs well with: the other Abbot and Costello monster movies.
Also known as: The Brain of Frankenstein (working title) Release Date: June 15th, 1948 Directed by: Charles Barton Written by: John Grant, Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo Based on: characters by Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Curt Siodmak, H.G. Wells Music by: Frank Skinner Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, Frank Ferguson, Charles Bradstreet, Vincent Price (voice, uncredited cameo)
Universal International Pictures, 83 Minutes
Review:
“Young people making the most of life – while it lasts.” – Dr. Lejos/Dracula
I’m actually surprised that I hadn’t yet reviewed any of the Universal Monsters pictures with Abbot and Costello in them. I have an immense love of both things and having them come together, which they did a handful of times, was really cool.
Overall, this one was always my favorite but I like all of them.
In this one, we don’t just get Frankenstein’s Monster, we also get Dracula, the Wolf Man and a little cameo by the Invisible Man. With that, we also got Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and a voice cameo by the legendary Vincent Price.
Unfortunately, Boris Karloff didn’t come back to play Frankenstein’s Monster but we did get Glenn Strange, who had already played the monster twice before this and who is really underappreciated in that role.
The only problem with this is one that doesn’t actually effect the film itself but instead, effects the ones that followed. You see, they blew their nut really early by cramming a ton of monsters into this one, so the following movies felt a bit underwhelming after the precedent this one set. But honestly, it’s why this particular one is the best of the lot.
Abbot and Costello are both hilarious per usual and their camaraderie was so solid by this point that they could’ve entertained in their sleep.
All in all, this was a really good horror comedy that took the best parts of two very different things and merged them together very well, not diminishing the performances of the two comedic legends or the coolness of the classic monsters and the legends who played them.
Rating: 7.75/10 Pairs well with: the other Abbot and Costello monster movies.
Also known as: Codename: Minus One (UK) Release Date: 1976 (original episodes), 1981 (TV movie edit) Directed by: Michael Caffey, Alan Crosland Jr., Alan J. Levi Written by: Leslie Stevens, Steven E. de Souza, Frank Telford Based on:Gemini Man TV series and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Lee Holdridge, Mark Snow, Billy Goldenberg Cast: Ben Murphy, William Sylvester, Katherine Crawford
“You have any idea who those turkeys were?” – Sam Casey
This is another film that was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 that wasn’t really a movie but was actually two television episodes edited into a feature length cut. And like the other examples of this terrible phenomenon, this was an atrocious and unwatchable mess.
However, there was a pretty amusing fight scene in the middle of the movie where one of the two main dork dicks was performing, got heckled and then a bar fight broke out featuring the other main dork dick using his mastery of invisibility to cheap shot rednecks.
Frankly, that weird bar fight is about all that I can even recall from this film that I just watched last night.
There were some sci-fi bits I guess, which is why the dude had invisibility powers, but this was such a mess it was hard not to zone out for most of this film.
I don’t know, unless you’re a hardcore MST3K completist, this one is really friggin’ hard to get through.
There’s trucker stuff, sci-fi wizardry, invisibility kung fu and acting so bad that everyone here could beat out Carrot Top for a Golden Raspberry Award.
As for the rating, it really gets a 1/10. I added that extra .75 for the invisibility kung fu.
Rating: 1.75/10 Pairs well with:Master Ninja I and II, Fugitive Alien I and II, Time of the Apes, Mighty Jack and Cosmic Princess.
Release Date: October 20th, 1965 Directed by: Bert I. Gordon Written by: Bert I. Gordon, Alan Caillou Based on:The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth by H.G. Wells Music by: Jack Nitzsche, The Beau Brummels Cast: Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford, Beau Bridges, Joy Harmon, Robert Random, Tisha Sterling, Toni Basil, Ron Howard
Berkeley Productions, Embassy Pictures, Joseph E. Levine Productions, 81 Minutes
Review:
“I’m hungry too. What’s for breakfast?” – Elsa, “Sheriff, on toast.” – Fred
A movie with Ron Howard and Beau Bridges in it that is based off of an H.G. Wells story? Well, at least it sounds good on paper.
This movie was featured in an early Mike Nelson episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I guess this was one of the few that I have never seen because I would have remembered this bizarre train wreck of pure, unadulterated awesomeness.
These juvenile delinquents that are overly delinquently and dance like cracked out schmucks every chance they get, come into contact with this chemical that makes living things grow to much larger proportions.
However, before we even get a town ravaged by kaiju sized teen douches, we get to see ducks the size of rhinos dancing around in a nightclub. We also get to see one get barbecued, which was kind of sad because a one ton party duck isn’t just something you skewer, set on fire and cover in Sweet Baby Ray’s! These dumb kids could have paraded that duck around from town to town getting lots of money from curious rednecks and baffled farm folk.
This film is terrible but it’s that extraordinary kind of terrible where it has just enough bizarre kookiness to make it pretty unique and quite entertaining. I can’t realistically give this even an average rating but I was charmed by the absurdity of it and for the fact that it is a fun dumb movie. It’s nowhere near as bad as most of the dreck you’ll see on MST3K and if I were to make a list of best movies to watch that were featured by MST3K, this would be high up on that list.
Village of the Giants is stupid but its a stupid you can laugh at and enjoy.
Release Date: October 29th, 2013 Directed by: Cathleen O’Connell Music by: John Kusiak Narrated by: Oliver Platt
WGBH, PBS, 52 Minutes
Review:
The PBS television documentary series American Experience did an episode that covered the famous Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.
For those who don’t know, this broadcast convinced many Americans that New Jersey was being invaded by violent Martians. The radio program was done in the style of fake newscasts and those who tuned in too late to hear that this was a performance, were swept up in these fake news reports and thus, widespread panic ensued.
When I was a kid, I heard this story and I couldn’t understand how people could be duped like that. It made me think that people in the 1930s were morons. Living in the world today, I can now see how something like this would have been possible. The documentary also does a fine job outlining how this happened and the points it hits make a lot of sense.
Part of the documentary is made up of dramatizations and actors playing the roles of people who commented on the crazy incident from their historical point of view. These segments were filmed like typical talking head interviews and were there to add some context in regards to the public perception of the event.
Being a fan of Orson Welles, it was cool getting a lot more insight on this incident than just the basic story. It delved into the early production of the broadcast and also the aftermath and how well Welles handled the press and was able to have a huge career after this.
I really enjoyed this documentary and it is actually available on Netflix, at the time of this posting, anyway.
The next branch of the Universal Monsters tree that I have rewatched is the Invisible Man series of films.
This character and the other invisible characters in this series, were like the Mummy in that they never really got to crossover with the other monsters of their era. I would’ve loved to have seen how Claude Rains’ Dr. Jack Griffin a.k.a. the original Invisible Man would have fared against Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolf Man.
Like other characters in the Universal Monsters mythos, this one was milked to death. It also spawned a total of five films.
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The Invisible Man (1933):
Release Date: November 13th, 1933 Directed by: James Whale Written by: R.C. Sherriff Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Heinz Roemheld Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart
Universal Pictures, 71 Minutes
Review:
Directed by James Whale, who gave us Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, this film is another classic gem in the catalog of his stellar work. Whale, once again, gave us some amazing cinematography even though this was an insanely difficult film to shoot for its time. The tone, the humor, the dread, all of it worked to a tee and came together like a perfectly woven tapestry.
Claude Rains is one of those actors that I cannot praise enough. He was a genius and between this film and his Phantom of the Opera adaptation, he proved that he was not just a master of horror but a master thespian able to perform at a level far exceeding many of the well-known dramatic actors of his era. There are few things in life that I prefer watching to Rains playing Dr. Jack Griffin in this film. His voice work, his body work, all of it was perfection.
This is the best film in the series and a solid, if not still the best, interpretation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel, The Invisible Man. This is a great example of James Whale’s supremacy as a director, especially in the horror genre, as well as one of the very best films put out by Universal – not just in their classic monster series and not just in that time period but of all-time.
Rating: 10/10
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The Invisible Man Returns (1940):
Release Date: January 12th, 1940 Directed by: Joe May Written by: Joe May, Kurt Siodmak, Lester Cole Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner Cast: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Alan Napier
Universal Pictures, 81 Minutes
Review:
The title is somewhat misleading, as this is a different character entirely. Although Dr. Jack Griffin’s brother Frank is a new character in this film and weirdly, Jack is referred to as “John” in this movie.
The film stars Vincent Price, a legendary horror icon in his first ever horror role. Price would gain more fame and legendary status several years later after starring in House of Wax. Regardless of that, Price played a likable and not so horrific character as this film’s incarnation of the Invisible Man. His character, Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe is sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit. Knowing that he is innocent, the brother of the original Invisible Man injects himself with the invisible serum so that he can escape and clear his name.
One thing leads to another and we get the happy ending.
Alan Napier who played Alfred in the 1960s Batman TV series has a big role in this film. Vincent Price would later go on to star as the villain Egghead in that same series.
This was a solid sequel and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t a rehash of the original film, it was a pretty original idea and it was executed greatly.
Rating: 8/10
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The Invisible Woman (1940):
Release Date: December 27th, 1940 Directed by: A. Edward Sutherland Written by: Kurt Siodmak, Joe May Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Frank Skinner Cast: Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, Oscar Homolka
Universal Pictures, 72 Minutes
Review:
With Universal pumping out an insane amount of sequels to their horror franchises, they wasted no time in releasing The Invisible Woman the same year they released The Invisible Man Returns. Sequel-mania was running rampant at Universal!
This was the first film in the series to really take a plunge. There was nothing really “horror” about it and in fact, it was a comedy.
The plot sees a recently fired department store model get revenge on her boss after she is made invisible by a loony scientist. It was basically like the plot from 9-to-5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. Except it was about one woman and she was invisible.
This is a pretty forgettable film and had it not been wedged into this series – ending up in box sets like the one I own, it would’ve been lost in the sands of time.
Rating: 4/10
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The Invisible Agent(1942):
Release Date: July 31st, 1942 Directed by: Edwin L. Marin Written by: Curtis Siodmak Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Hans J. Salter Cast: Ilona Massey, Jon Hall, Peter Lorre
Universal Pictures, 81 Minutes
Review:
This film takes The Invisible Man formula and gives us something pretty awesome: an invisible agent fighting the Nazis and a Japanese associate during World War II. Additionally, Peter Lorre is in this as the Japanese villain, which is intriguing, bizarre and just totally awesome! Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays the villainous Nazi, making his second appearance in this series, as he also played the villain in The Invisible Man Returns.
This is my favorite sequel in the series, as the plot is awesome and it was well-executed.
Coming out at the height of World War II, this must have been an exciting film to watch. The special effects are once again top notch and the acting was good from all parties involved.
Rating: 6/10
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The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944):
Release Date: June 9th, 1944 Directed by: Ford Beebe Written by: Bertram Millhauser Based on:The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Music by: Hans J. Salter Cast: Jon Hall, John Carradine, Evelyn Ankers
Universal Pictures, 78 Minutes
Review:
The final film in the series gives us John Carradine as a scientist who is another new character with the power of invisibility.
New character wants to harness the power, new character gets the power, new character seeks revenge against those who wronged him. Sound familiar?
Well, at this point the traditional formula of this series has run its course and unfortunately, we didn’t get something as original and new as the previous film in the series.
This film isn’t a complete waste and it is okay but you’ll watch it swearing that you’ve seen it already. Plus, I really love John Carradine.
Rating: 5/10
More Universal Monsters reviews are coming as soon as I rewatch them. Next up will be the Wolf Man series.
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