Not to sound like a dick or nothing, but was it just me or did this re-imagined remake suck?
If you know me in real life, then you already know that the original black and white film from the 30’s is one of my favorite classic horror movies. Being the open-minded person that I am, it would be no surprise to hear I was really excited to see Dr. Griffin been brought back to life, especially during this climate, I mean, a crazed egotistical murderer involved in domestic abuse? Whaaaat!?
The Invisible Man (2020) trailer blew my mind, it really did. I couldn’t wait for February 28 to arrive, I couldn’t wait to see with my two own eyes all the bizarre, dark, evil, and real-life things this terrible yet fascinating character had in store for us. Plus, it was my understanding this movie was previously meant to go to Johnny Depp before he was cancelled and dropped by Universal, so I was low-key ready to re-re-imagine in my mind Depp as Dr. Griffin. (Girls get what I mean.)
So yeah, February 28 came and went and I was left frustrated with the whole thing. What went wrong? No, really, what happened? Why was I so dissatisfied with the new movie?
Was it because The Invisible Man (2020) was not truly about the Invisible Man, but about the girlfriend of the Invisible Man? Was it because said girlfriend—whose character was played superbly by a topnotch actress—left a bad taste in my mouth, like, f*cking don’t take the money, woman, you already know what you are getting into with that jerk; you’re out, you made it, you’re finally safe, what are you even doing at the jerk’s brother’s office!?
Or, just hear me out, was it because Hollywood has been cowed—slowly but surely due to the MeToo movement—into producing safe content with safe ratings that the Studio decided to show barely any domestic abuse? Heck, they hardly even discussed any domestic abuse (the trailer showed the extent of it). What I am trying to say is that if you are going to remake a classic Universal horror movie and you are not going to make the iconic villain the main character, but instead you are going to be ‘edgy’ and focus on the re-imagined MeToo girlfriend of said iconic villain, then lean in the domestic violence angle, hard. Do not be such a beta about it. Show us intimate violence, show us how terrible the bad guy is, give us a reason to feel sorry for the victim. (This movie did none of that.)
The way I see it, I did not enjoy this movie either because it was an unfortunate case of Don’t Show, Don’t Tell, or because I was expecting modern violence carried out by this limitless classic Monster. Honestly, I just wanted to see if Universal had the balls to explore the real horrors of domestic abuse.
Well, I guess I will put this 2020 movie behind me and continue loving the original 1933 version.
In Love and Fear,
—Marath
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