This is a curious analogy, I can’t fault it. What did you think about Soderbergh’s Unsane, if you’ve seen it? I feel this film is a 100 per cent on what we’re talking about now, with a very similar atmosphere but none of the invisibility stunt gimmicks to divert the viewer’s attention away from the ‘Am I crazy?’ narrative.
I thought that the film was very mediocre. I never actually felt that it was a question with the main character's sanity, and I also found many aspects of it SO unbelievable--like the idea that male and female patients would be housed in the same bedroom and that a woman would be tied to a bed and then left unattended in a room with male mental health patients. I get that the facility was meant to be poorly run, but that's a step too far.
I mean, did you feel like you needed more from the film to understand that she was traumatized from her relationship? Like CiCi, we only have her word that the relationship was abusive.
I liked the invisibility set-pieces because for me it really hammered home just how bad of a position she is in. If someone came to you and said that an invisible person just choked them, what would you say? Is there any chance in the world you would believe them? I thought those scenes were effective because CiCi can't tell herself that maybe she is imagining it (the way you might if you caught a glimpse of someone or thought you heard a voice).
It might also be the fact that I’m a relativist and think it’s very hard to judge what ‘sane’ means in practical terms. I agree with you (if I understood correctly) that it is to the film’s credit that we already know she’s not actually crazy, as in the werewolves analogy (i.e. we as the audience definitely sense from the get-go that she’s in the right - there’s also the meta-spoiler of us knowing the damn thing is called The Invisible Man for a reason).
Right. My attitude with this movie is very much something like what you get in
Fright Night or
Bad Moon. Watching someone come to accept this supernatural/impossible thing is the journey you go on with them. And in this case, "sanity" merely means a correct understanding of the physical reality of events, ie is Adrian alive? Is he in the house? Is he here even though you can't see him?
And where I see us as the audience getting pulled in is when we do not know if Adrian is there. For example, there were at least two scenes where CiCi held back from saying something because she
thought Adrian might be in the room. And both times, we as the audience never found out if he was there. It creates a nice friction because you want her to speak up, but you understand her fear. You don't know if she is making the right choice or not. Maybe my favorite thing in a horror movie is when you don't know whether or not the character is doing the right thing.