James Whale is my man. This really wasn’t the film I was expecting for some reason. Didn’t expect the snowy town setting at all or the fact that the Invisible Man himself is basically the villain of his own movie. I guess Hollow Man wasn’t as radical a change in character as I thought?

I adore these early optical effects, so crude and clunky but in 1933 they blew people’s minds. Would have loved to have been in the meetings as they tried to figure out how to bring this stuff to life. So much fun. Also Whale always has a really good handle on the larger ensemble of his movies. There are always memorable faces in the frame. There’s a reason you remember the oddball townsfolk with pitchforks in Frankenstein. Even in this film, about a guy with a face you can’t see, you’ll swear you can picture him.

Watched on blu-ray