The Invisible Man is among my favorite of the Universal Monster classic movies. There’s something about a man’s sanity disappearing alongside his physical body that speaks to something very real and very dangerous. Led by Claude Rains’ sinister turn as the titular villain and James Whales’ boundary-pushing direction, it remains one of the might terrifying things to come out of the 1930s. Which makes it all the most shocking that the property has not been touched for over 90 years.

When The Dark Universe was a thing, Johnny Depp was cast as the titular invisible dude and his casting was met with mixed reactions. Understandably so, what with Deep’s career doused in all kinds of personal drama with his professional output failing to ignite much enthusiasm at the box office. When the Depp film was scraped in favor of a version led by Elisabeth Moss and helmed by Upgrade director Leigh Whannell, who stepped in to both write and direct, suddenly everything seemed hunky dory. And the first trailer seems to only confirm that the Dark Universe might indeed be in store for some major rejuvenation.

Check out the trailer below:

What starts off as a nice little abusive relationship and a friendly suicide turns into a Hollow Man-esque nightmare with Elisabeth Moss fending off not a ghost or apparition but her flesh and blood husband, just one no longer sensitive to the visible light spectrum. Moss is one of my favorite actors and Whannell showed tons of promise with Upgrade so I am enthusiastically curious about what they are able to bring to the table here.

What you can’t see can hurt you. Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss (Us, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale) stars in a terrifying modern tale of obsession inspired by Universal’s classic monster character. Trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy and brilliant scientist, Cecilia Kass (Moss) escapes in the dead of night and disappears into hiding, aided by her sister (Harriet Dyer, NBC’s The InBetween), their childhood friend (Aldis Hodge, Straight Outta Compton) and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid, HBO’s Euphoria). But when Cecilia’s abusive ex (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House) commits suicide and leaves her a generous portion of his vast fortune, Cecilia suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of eerie coincidences turns lethal, threatening the lives of those she loves, Cecilia’s sanity begins to unravel as she desperately tries to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see. Jason Blum, our current-day master of the horror genre, produces The Invisible Man for his Blumhouse Productions. The Invisible Man is written, directed and executive produced by Leigh Whannell, one of the original conceivers of the Saw franchise who most recently directed Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3. The film is also produced by Kylie du Fresne (Upgrade, The Sapphires) for Goalpost Pictures. The executive producers are Whannell, Beatriz Sequeira, Charles Layton, Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant, Couper Samuelson and Jeanette Volturno. The Invisible Man is a co-production of Goalpost Pictures Australia and Blumhouse Productions, in association with Nervous Tick, for Universal Pictures.

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