The Invisible Man Returns

I actually could have sworn I reviewed this so many years back.

Nine years after Jack Griffin went insane through experiments on the visible spectrum, we follow a man named Geoffrey framed for murder who with the help of Jack's brother becomes invisible to achieve justice or revenge as the doctor desperately seeks a cure before the madness sets in, in this 1940 minor classic. This is a very well done sequel with enough links to the original but ultimately being it's own thing, you don't even have to watch the first film to follow it and enjoy it. Vincent Price before he became synonymous with the horror genre is our unseen lead and at first you might not be able to tell it's him since he went for a more american-lite accent and yet very much like Claude Rains can get so much emotion and fringing insanity through just his voice alone with not an awful lot of physical acting involved, though I will say his striking height helped accentuate his presence. The film's effects are much more complex and sophisticated in the seven year gap between productions to the point where I really was rather impressed and wondering how they achieved certain tricks, they no doubt used the same black velvet technique but the wire work is insane here and some shots go on for quite some time, no editing shortcomings to be had, so it's a strong improvement on a film that already had some groundbreaking effects. I like the relationship betwen Geoffrey and his love interest Helen, she's a real ride or die even when the mania starts to seep in she's stalwart in helping her man and even I couldn't believe the happy ending to this movie so hell yeah Nan. Usually the title monster bites the dust seconds before a The End in these Universal horror pictures so I'm a happy camper. You would think considering we see Jack Griffin's brother named Frank in this he would be the invisible man and would have a much bigger focus, but he's a solid supporting character racing against the clock to cure Geoffrey, and once again a real one willing to help in any way and you can tell he's rather conflicted with the idea of potentially having to kill his friend before he kills others, it's a solid performance. Of course it wouldn't be a 40s Universal Monster movie without Sir Cedric Hardwicke in there somewhere who despite being top billed isn't in it a great deal and I kinda wish he was considering his importance to the plot later. The visuals are decent, obviously they were workshopping more on the effects side but the sets, the woods, the costuming all still look on par with any other movies in this series but I would have loved to see more spooky atmosphere. In many ways I like it better than The Invisible Man and yet in the same vein as Star Trek it won't surpass the original's popularity and iconic presentation. It's a very good movie but undoubtedly a B-tier addition to the hallowed halls of classic movie monsters, so I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and I hope I saved the best for last as we conclude the whole Halloween season with the finale to the Frankenstein trilogy tomorrow.