Paul, You Little Freak

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Hollow Man / The Invisible Man (2020)

Written by Caleb Madden

As has been well established by now, I’m not really a horror guy, and I suppose by extension I’m not really a monster guy either. However, I have always found myself drawn to one Universal monster from a young age. The Invisible Man has always been a favorite of mine ever since I watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on AMC. So today I want to do a little dive on the modern remakes: Hollow Man and The Invisible Man (2020).

Paul, You Little Freak

Let’s start by talking about the lesser, but still fascinating, Hollow Man. Hollow Man is Paul Verhoeven’s 2000 adaptation of The Invisible Man (1933). This movie is deeply weird and basically asks the question: “What would you do if you got turned invisible?” Well, I’ll tell you what Paul would do. He would be a total freak and start losing his mind. At least that is what happens in Hollow Man. Kevin Bacon is turned invisible and becomes a super villain who rapes and then murders many, many people. This movie has its flaws but it is an interesting watch considering the subject matter.

Okay, Now I’m REALLY scared!

Flash forward 20 years to The Invisible Man (2020) remake. Now, this movie is excellent in almost every regard. It is a genuinely horrifying metaphor for abuse and those affected by it, particularly women. We follow Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) as she runs away from her horrible abusive relationship with a leading scientist in “optics technology.” Soon after she gets away, he is found dead in his mansion, and all seems to be better. But that is not the case because her abuser faked his death and uses an invisibility suit to continue to torture and abuse her. And what’s worse, no one believes her because no one can see him. I really can’t describe how genuinely upsetting and horrifying this film is. Please, please watch it.

Make it Twisted?

What I find interesting about these two films is that they both have an extremely dark take on their source material. Hollow Man more closely follows the original film. However, in the original Dr. Griffin is driven mad by his invisibility. In these two films both of the invisible men are already horrible people and then use their invisibility to continue to be horrible people, but even worse. And here is where I find these movies so fascinating: they are explorations of the depravity of man. 

Both of these movies are extremely bleak in their view of what people would do if they were given the power to always hide from what they do. Both are asking the audience: What would you do if you were invisible? Probably do something horrible.

Today’s Scene

Hollow Man:

The Invisible Man: