Unmarked spoilers below!
- The prologue has Cecilia sneaking out of Adrian's mansion with constant dread that he might wake up and do some horrible things to Cecilia. She drugged his water, but we may not realize this on the first viewing or trust this to work 100%. Once she reaches the garage, the dog Zeus accidentally bumps Adrian's Audi, while Cecilia is removing a shock collar, and sets off the vehicle's alarm. Cecilia makes a break for the mansion walls to climb over with Adrian now awake and on his way and very angry while "Psycho" Strings play energetically to emphasize panic.
- Throughout the film, the camera lingers on a seemingly empty corner of the room, with the obvious implication that Griffin is standing right there. Or maybe not...
- This even carries onto the film's poster depicting a very chilling image of Cecilia's teary right eye, barely illuminated by a streak of light, as she looks back toward a completely pitch black void. You just know there are two people in that photo, not one.
- Griffin in general is just unsettling. Remember, the Griffin from the 1933 film had some appeal to him at least. Sure he was a mass murderer who actually ended up killing a hundred train passengers at his most bloodthirsty, but just try to take him completely seriously when he skips down a trail singing a merry song in nothing but trousers. This Griffin does no such thing. Instead, he's a stalker with the means to harass someone without anyone seeing him. Speaking of which...
- Just the fact that this movie is about a woman being stalked by her abusive ex-boyfriend wearing an invisibility suit. The thought of someone who emotionally and physically tormented you now having every opportunity to hurt you and your loved ones out of spite is horrifying. An abuse victim's worst nightmare.
- Even if you remove the sci-fi elements of the movie, the plot pretty much remains the same. It's almost like a sci-fi version of Gaslight.
- The opening scene is one of the most unbearably tense in recent memory. Even before we know who Cecilia or Adrian are, we can see just how frightened Cecilia is, and just how bad it would be if the man in the bed woke up. Which, of course, he does.
- At one point, Cecilia pauses in an empty hall to put on her pants, sneakers, and sweater. During this, the camera pans to an empty hallway and just lingers there for several seconds. Is there already an Invisible Man there? Is Adrian gonna wake up? The tension is absolutely real.
- After hiding at James's house for two weeks, Cecilia is barely able to get as far as the mailbox when someone in a hoodie runs by, causing her to run back inside.
- Cecilia buys a new ladder for James and reveals she's opened a bank account to pay for Sydney's college education. The three then start to be playful with each other. Then the camera goes to the end of the hallway, the perfect vantage point for someone to be watching from a distance...
- The first visible sign of Adrian's presence. Cecilia is making breakfast and is called away by Sydney. A knife is knocked off the counter, and we don't hear it fall on the ground. Then someone turns the stove on full blast, starting a fire.
- Probably one of the best examples in a Blumhouse movie to date. There is a scene where Cecilia goes outside and takes a deep breath, her breath visible in the cold air... with the Invisible Man's breath right beside her. What makes it work is that there is no jumpscare noise, no jittering camera moves. Just Paranoia Fuel at its best.
- During a job interview, Cecilia finds that the project she had to present was stolen and then faints. The doctors find out that it's due to diazapan. This being part of Adrian's ploy to gaslight her is scary enough, but the thing is he effectively drugged her without her even noticing. Just think how easy it is for an invisible person to contaminate something that you eat, or drink, to drug you and make you lose control of your body or your mind.
- On that note, the scene of Cecilia being dragged in the psychiatric hospital is also pretty horrifying.
- From the trailer and deleted scenes:
- The scene where Cecilia is taking a shower and a handprint slowly appears on the fogged up door...
- "There's someone in that chair..."
- The first night where The Invisible Man haunts Cecilia by pulling away the covers from her and Sydney while they sleep, and then quietly taking pics of her. Then when Cecilia tries to get the blanket back, she sees footprints holding it down, and they start walking closer toward her...
- Cecilia finding the things Adrian has stolen in the attic. And his phone. As she sees the pictures he took while she was sleeping, the phone gets a text from an unknown number."SURPRISE"
- And before that, she calls Adrian's phone to confirm that he's nearby. And when it goes off, it goes off in the attic.
- In a shot that's oddly terrifying in its simplicity, Cecilia has barricaded herself in the attic, armed with only a can of paint to defend herself. She pours it down into the seemingly empty space before her... and a good chunk of it lands on the Invisible Man, who's already climbing the ladder.
- This simple yet very effective jumpscare is terrifying for another reason. Cecilia, and by extension the audience, know that there's an invisible presence nearby, so she dumps the can of paint to try and catch a glimpse of it. What we don't expect is the white paint to reveal said presence on the ladder directly beneath her, staring her in the face. He was right there in front of her and none of us had any idea.
- Then immediately afterwards, it's shown that Adrian has already cleaned the paint off the suit and we see him physically attack Cecilia for the first time. She's being held in midair and is then tossed aside like a rag doll, indicating just how strong Adrian is.
- The guards when the Invisible Man chases Cecilia in the hospital. It doesn't matter how strong you are, you can't be ready for an attack that you never see coming. Watching legs and arms being twisted and broken seemingly on their own with no warning is horrific.
- The more terrifying thing about it too is that much beforehand, the Invisible Man was using gaslighting-like tactics to paint Cecilia as mentally unhinged... but now, right there, he doesn't care anymore. He's beating the living snot out of the hospital guards without caring if they now see him (and arguably even provide witness accounts that Cecilia was telling the truth).
- Emily's death truly shows just how chillingly effective The Invisible Man's power is. One moment, she's allowing herself a moment of vulnerability with her sister. The next, she catches a glimpse of a knife floating in mid-air...then Emily's throat is cut, her arm lifted up, and the bloody knife shoved into her sister's hand.
- Let's not even add to the horrifying atmosphere: After Emily dies from her injury, the scene has no noise as the screams of the restaurant patrons fades and we witness Cecilia's reaction from horror and sadness before she's eventually pinned down by the staff and arrested.
- The invisibility suit the Invisible Man wears is entirely black and has hundreds of tiny cameras embedded in it, making the Invisible Man look like he's covered in eyes.
- When Cecilia refuses to just have the baby and go back to Adrian in order to make her problems go away, Tom simply remarks that she's not in the right mind to make a decision and says "We'll be watching."
- James and Sydney getting attacked in their own home. James, especially, looks so beat up.
- Even after he’s revealed to the public, Adrian still manages to turn the situation to his advantage, setting up his brother to be killed while Adrian himself pretends to have been held prisoner all this time. Cecilia is offered freedom from him as long as she officially states he was innocent, a promise which he may even have intended to keep as it would still mean she’d spend the rest of her life having submitted to him and under his control, a horribly tempting offer after the hell she’s been through. Fortunately, she does find one way out that he was unable to see coming.
- Then there's the none-too-subtle way he taunts Cecilia about the truth she can now never prove.Adrian: That shouldn't come as a... surprise.
- Then there's the none-too-subtle way he taunts Cecilia about the truth she can now never prove.
- The ending scene with Cecilia walking away from Adrian's mansion with Adrian dead can come across as chilling with the song "Denouement"
playing. It's as if the music is conveying that the protagonists got a hard-won victory but it seems very bitter-sweet, even ominous.
