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Hidden figure: how The Invisible Man preys on real-world female fears

While the new interpretation of HG Wells’s novel might lean into Hollywood silliness, its portrayal of a woman being surveilled is scarily real

There’s a scene in the first half of The Invisible Man, a psychological horror film that reinvents the HG Wells character as an abusive ex-turned-stalker , when the protagonist, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), realizes she’s not alone in her room. She can’t be sure she hears breathing, or the slight brush of footfalls; she definitely can’t see anyone. But she can feel something is wrong – the gut-level sense one gets from having another heartbeat in the room draws her from bed. She checks the living room, the kitchen, the porch outside – there’s no one she can see, only an invisible person’s cold exhale on her shoulder. The scene is played for suspense – it’s the first introduction to the movie’s villain as invisible tormenter – but it also, for me, conjures a more relatable fear. The Invisible Man (her ex-husband, Adrian) paws through her room and touches her things; he strips the covers as she sleeps and photographs her without her knowledge. Waking up, she can sense something is wrong and yet, she has no idea how bad it is.

Related: The Invisible Man review – Elisabeth Moss brings murky thriller to life

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2w9WBbF
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