2025, Leigh Whannel (The Invisible Man) -- Amazon
Of note, we never finished Whannel's The Invisible Man because we just weren't into watching another abusive spouse movie, which is ironic because we assumed throughout this entire movie that THIS was also going to be a metaphor for male toxicity and abusive husbands, like last year's The Beast Within. I wasn't in the mood to be faked out again.
The preamble sets us in Oregon where a young Blake is raised by his angry, militaristic father on an isolated farm. These woods are known to be haunted by a curse called "hill fever" or "face of the wolf". While hunting, the two encounter an unknown snuffling, growling creature but drive it off.
Twenty-five years later Blake (Christopher Abbott, Poor Things) is an unemployed writer and stay-at-home dad living in NYC with his journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner, The Royal Hotel) and building a strong relationship with their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth, Subservience). There is some tension between the two which is not helped by his request to move them to rural Oregon for the summer, so he can settle his father's affairs. His father, who has been missing for quite some time, has finally been declared legally dead. Blake has not been home in decades.
After the obligatory fly-over shot of a winding road and dark forest, I would have assumed the story would have done the usual debate between pristine wilderness beauty and the threats just beyond the threshold of the wood, but nope, almost immediately, their moving truck crashes, the local guiding them is killed by the Unknown, and Blake is nicked by its claws. The family rushes through the dark, on foot, to his father's house, the snarling and huffing beast on their heels. The house is off the grid, no power, no phone lines, no cell reception, but all the first floor doors and windows are behind strong bars and screens. They are safe for now.
They are not safe. Blake's "infection" quickly takes hold, this curse having nothing to do with full moons. He is quickly transforming, frightening his wife and child. And frightening himself. He no longer understands them, and sees as a monster would see, clear in the dark, veins pulsing. Its been hours and he is already becoming something other than what he was. All the while, the beast that clawed him is still out there.
So, not a metaphor for an abusive husband, but a decent family oriented horror that was born from Whannel and his wife holing up for COVID 19 year, feeling isolated and imminent mortality seeping in. I wish the movie had embraced more of that original script treatment, actually given us more of that isolation and fear of an infected family member, but considering the shit show that built the movie (the umpteenth failed attempt at remaking/rebooting the 30s movie) I can see why they rushed headlong into two werewolves duking it out in the woods. Still, there was ... something there, but to be honest, Werewolf by Night had more fun with the whole wolfing out thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment