Though my thoughts go out to those in the path of Sandy, I gotta say, it's made for the perfect Halloween weather down here. What with the dark gloomy days and the wind blowing orange leaves all over the place. I feel as if at any moment I'll be jumped by a headless horsemen or a headed skellington. Thus it's perfect timing for me to share another Halloween Classic with you. Wrap your whole head in gauze and let out a maniacal laugh because tonight we're talking about 1933's "The Invisible Man."
So "The Invisible Man" is about a man ... who's invisible. Oh gosh I forgot the "spoiler alert" hashtag, sorry. "Yeah yeah," I hear you thinking, "what is it really about Zach? We know how you are." No really, it's actually about a dude who's invisible ... oh yeah and he's a complete psychopathic nutcase, I guess that's supposed to make it interesting? Let me explain, like many classic sci-fi movies this one is about an experiment gone wrong, and trying to clean up the mess afterwards. In this case it's about a scientist, a brilliant and really ambitious scientist, who has discovered the perfect chemical concoction to make people invisible. Though that was his intent, the "gone wrong" part is the minor complication of not knowing how to change himself back again.
Oh, and there's also the minor complication that he's decided it's more worthwhile to murder random people than cure his invisibility. Yeah, that too. Now Invisibo actually began his journey wanting to get back visible, but after an assault or two during an escape from the authorities he decides that it's time to go on a murder spree. Just for fun. To give you an idea of how nuts he's gotten, when he takes refuge with one of his old science buddies, Kemp, he implores, no well forces, Kemp to help find the antidote as his lab partner. Oh, that's not so bad, except immediately afterwards he goes on a tirade about killing random people. Seriously, here's the direct quote, "We'll begin with a reign of terror, a few murders here and there, murders of great men, murders of little men, just to show we make no distinction." Uh huh, a reign of terror you say? Yeah sure, sounds great.
As it turns out, the drugs that turned him invisible are causing him to go mad, and they weren't fucking kidding here. Usually when they say that in a movie it's just for effect y'know? Here it's understatement of the year, and the rest of the movie is basically Invisibo wreaking havoc across the countryside and evading his pursuers which isn't that hard since he's fucking invisible. So ... the drugs made you do it huh? Oh right, yeah, that's great, way to have a simple explanation for a movie about an invisible asshole murdering people for no reason. Seriously, I tend to really like the monsters in Universal Classics, but here? It's hard to get behind a guy who says shit like, "An invisible man can rule the world. No one will see him come, no one will see him go. He can rob, and rape, and kill!" But oh Zach, the drugs made him do it, he even says so (Because he can be trusted). Right, what is this a Universal Classic or a damned anti-drug PSA?
Alright alright, other than that how did I like it? Well, it's a Universal Classic, so as expected I really dug it. It had that charm I talk about all the time, that charm we don't see much in movies anymore. It may be my least favorite of the bunch though, and that may be because of what I said above. But on that same note, Claude Rains does a sublime job chewing the scenery as a kill happy invisible lunatic. And on a technical level "The Invisible Man" rocked. The special effects may be the most impressive of the 30s Universals, though the tradeoff was clearly in the makeup. Yeah sure Invisibo looks cool, but he's basically just a dude wrapped in gauze. What's more impressive is the special effects of when he's invisible and causing havoc, or when he's half invisible. I particularly like when he steals a poor sap's bike and rides away on it. And really, the scene when you first see--er--don't see his jaw is incredible. What they were able to accomplish back then is awe inspiring. I mean sure, now even youtubers can mimic these effects in their bedrooms. But back then? It took a village, so to speak.
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| You're naked aren't you? That's all I can think about. |
So yeah, I liked "The Invisible Man," it has a scene of a pair of pants dancing, what more could you want from a movie? It's quite the spectacle. Just don't expect the characters to be all that memorable. Though maybe a good question is why would you in such a movie? I don't know, maybe "The Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Wolf Man" spoiled me. Anywho, watch it for the special effects, which still floored me to this day. Happy Halloween.
By the way, you should really check out Stealth Bastard if you haven't.
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