Cecelia (Elizebeth Moss) planned for weeks to escape her abusive boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). She should feel free when she learns that he is dead. But she still feels hunted, watched. And soon, things begin happening: misplaced portfolio that costs her a job interview, harsh email sent to her sister (Harriet Dyer) pushing her away, even physical violence against the teenaged daughter (Storm Reid) of the cop friend (Aldis Hodge) that she's living with. A pattern Cecilia recognizes. But who would believe her claims that she's being stalked by an invisible psychopath?
This made me so angry. Just immediate soul-scorching rage from opening to closing credits. Nothing I have watched this year has made me wish so much that I could spray acid from my mouth like a Jurassic Park dinosaur as this movie.
But fine. Horror movie.
This was Universal's last gasp at trying to make their "Dark Universe" a thing and it's pretty successful because it does not do that at all. It is an updated take on the 1933 Invisible Man and correctly remembers that the eponymous character is the villain. No longer content to just be a mad scientist (cost of living, probably), the 2020 version also makes him a rich, abusive narcissist. But the real horror comes from how readily the system allows him to use his money as a leash and then a cudgel, warping concepts of fairness to force Cecilia into smaller and smaller boxes. It is very well done, tightly paced, and well-plotted by writer-director Leigh Wannell. I'm just really angry that (minus the invisibility) this happens to women all the time. It's currently streaming on Peacock.
In fact, if you want to watch basically the exact same plot but without the sci-fi, there's Jennifer Lopez's Enough and the entirety of Lifetime's programming.
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