The Invisible Man (1933)
This post is part of my ongoing project to watch my science fiction blindspots. You can find my list of upcoming movies for this project here.
The Invisible Man sits at the intersection of several of my personal interests: practical special effects, darkly moody set pieces, and villainy. Its cinematography in particular serves these things well. All flashy work is reserved for the special effects themselves—the camera remains mostly rigid and locked off at a middle distance, where the camera tricks are clearest. No busy distance shots, few intense close-ups. Just a handful of people, mostly shot from the waist up, reacting to objects floating through the air on strings, to stop-motion footprints in the snow, to Claude Rains sniggering as he peels the bandages off his head. The shots of Rains’ clothing dancing emptily across the screen read as almost whimsical; Rains’ invisible man is delighted with his power, and the movie itself takes delight in the camera tricks it uses to demonstrate that character’s power and delight.
That delight in trickery, while so much fun to watch, is also why I had a difficult time fully embracing the movie. Like other Universal horror movies of its time, the tale is written as a caution: don’t meddle with power beyond humankind’s control, lest you attempt to play God. Rains’ character, once fully invisible, goes mad with power and with the chemicals he’s used to make himself invisible. His end goal is domination, but first he desires chaos, wreaking mischief in a sleepy village, then going on a murder spree. To its credit, the movie treats the invisible man’s body count as nothing but frightening, and the support players do their best to convey the horror of the situation they’ve found themselves in: prey animals to a predator whom they can’t see, nor properly defend themselves against. The mischief scenes are what undermine the mood. It’s fun to watch a bicycle take off down the road by itself, and to watch a cigarette smoke itself in midair. But the tone is one of whimsy, akin to The Invisible Man’s predecessor The Haunted Castle. Here are some impressive camera tricks: watch and wonder as we fool your eye and make you wonder how we did it.
