Invisible Man Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
The Universal Monsters are one of the fundamental building blocks of the horror genre in Hollywood as we know it, where just about every horror film ever made can be related back to one of their many creep shows. Sometimes this connective tissue is thematic, but often it's an overt homage to the monstrous titular character.
We've spoken before at /Film about the best Invisible Man films you haven't seen, but now is the time to rank the best of the best from the entire multiverse of invisibility films. And I mean the entire multiverse. True-to-form horror, slapstick farce, raunchy sex comedy, and family-friendly romps are all fair game on this list, so allow me to be your guide into the land of invisible people as I rank the top 20 from worst to best.
20. The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man
Comic books and graphic novels aren't solely about caped crusaders and mutant heroes; sometimes they're wish-fulfillment fantasy stories about using the power of invisibility to get your rocks off. Loosely based on the "Butterscotch" comic books by Milo Manara, Rolfe Kanefsky's "The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man" is a softcore comedy flick from 2003 starring Scott Coppola (no relation to the other Coppolas) as an aspiring actor named Norman who discovers a serum that gives him the ability to turn invisible. He uses this newfound power to enact revenge on those who have wronged him and hook up with hot babes he would have never stood a chance with otherwise.
It's about as good as any direct-to-video sex comedy from this time and is loaded with unintentional hilarity. Actresses must pretend they're getting railed by a man that isn't there, an orgy exorcises a poltergeist, and as Norman discovers he's not the only invisible man, there's a fight scene between the two. Let me repeat myself: there is a fight scene between two invisible men. It also features a performance by B-movie legend Michelle Bauer, which is worth the price of a rental alone, but somehow the invisible gimmick never gets old. Is this a "good" movie? No. Is this a movie you should watch with a group of friends and turn it into your own personal episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000?" Absolutely.
Y'all, the opening credits are in Comic Sans. You know what you're getting the second you press play.
19. Invisible Dad
Low-budget maven Fred Olen Ray is going to end up a few times on this list, as the man directed an entire franchise of "Invisible Man" movies. 1997's "Invisible Dad" is a father-son comedy where a son gets so mad at his dad that he wishes he would disappear. He gets his wish thanks to some nondescript technology that makes it happen, and the duo is tossed into a schlocky adventure that looks nothing like the VHS cover art. "Invisible Dad" gets points from me for being a Trojan horse: a film that is advertised like a family-friendly kiddie comedy but is ... definitely not that.
The titular invisible dad laments that he can no longer see his manhood, a woman ends up losing most of her clothes in invisible madness hijinks, Karen Black is the only person here who knows how to act, and the dad can only be fully invisible with all of his clothes off — which means canonically he's just hanging around his kid with his wiener out for most of the movie. But for all of its cheap '90s goodness, "Invisible Dad" has some shockingly fun practical effects. CGI be damned because computers can't compete with the awkward charm of fishing wire dangling something midair. The film does have a few moments of cheeseball computer effects complete with a sparkle filter, but it'll have you begging for the in-camera glory of a headless suit jacket.
18. The Amazing Transparent Man
Speaking of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," this is a film that ended up in a season 6 episode of the legendary riffing series. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer ("The Black Cat," "The Man From Planet X,"), "The Amazing Transparent Man" was shot back-to-back with Ulmer's "Beyond the Time Barrier," and is about a mentally disturbed former U.S. Army Major who forces scientists and escaped criminals to steal nuclear materials so he can perfect the invisibility machine a former scientist prisoner of his had been working on. The goal is to eventually create an army of invisible soldiers to be used as bioweapons, but the ending result is that all of the soldiers turn into invisible ... ZOMBIES! If that wasn't bad enough, the atomic ray gun/invisibility machine is slowly killing him with radiation poisoning, because if there's one thing a movie like this needs, it's even more plot points. "The Amazing Transparent Man" is a kitchen sink explosion of B-movie tropes and themes, but the fact it is still watchable is worthy of praise.
17. Mr. Superinvisible
Did you know that legendary Disney actor and the original Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's "Company" also starred in a 1970 Italian science-fiction movie where he and his sheepdog both turn invisible? Well, now you do! "Mr. Superinvisible" is a mid-career film from prolific filmmaker Antonio Margheriti, featuring Jones as scientist Peter Denwell. This is an extremely tame film compared to some of the wacky sex comedies, but without the coherent albeit nonsensical madness of Jones' Disney flicks like "That Darn Cat!" or "The Shaggy Dog." The invisibility gags are pretty bonkers, with fires being set, bar patrons being tricked into thinking a dog is talking, a pie fight, and even an exploding fish tank in a restaurant. Ultimately, it feels like someone tossed "The Invisible Man" and Jones' filmography into Google Translate and ran with it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
16. Hollow Man 2
I feel like I could just write "hollow sequel" and hit submit and no one would be upset about it. I truly don't understand why anyone would ever want to follow Paul Verhoeven, and yet people keep doing it! This direct-to-video sequel stars Christian Slater as a soldier named Michael Griffin who turns invisible at the hands of a government experiment gone awry. The effects don't look nearly as good as they did in the first film, but Slater is going for it in this role. He's not seen for much of the film for obvious reasons, so instead must menace and terrorize using just his voice, which he does to great effect. This film takes more of an action-first approach, turning the Hollow Man into more of a Terminator-like character with invisibility instead of a maniac. It's mostly forgotten, but it's still nowhere near as bad as people claim it to be.
15. Invisible Kid
The 1980s loved painting nerds and geeks as perennial underdogs who deserve all of our empathy for being at the bottom of the social ladder, along with access to hot, naked women as a reward for their years of being looked down upon. The irony, of course, is that these "Revenge of the Nerds" type movies also portray them all as revolting sex pests and total creeps. Great news! "The Invisible Kid" takes a similar approach but adds in the sci-fi hijinks of invisibility. And yet, somehow, the film nabbed a PG rating. Karen Black appears yet again and delivers a performance far too good for a film of this caliber, and there's a weird subplot about rigging a high school basketball game. And yet there's something incredibly charming about this cheeseball of a film ... it's probably all of the homoeroticism.
14. Invisible Mom
Of all of Fred Olen Ray's wild-as-hell invisibility movies, "Invisible Mom" is undeniably the best. Namely, because the titular mom is played by "Cujo" and "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" star, Dee Wallace. Firmly in the camp of comedy, "Invisible Mom" borders on farce. As with "Invisible Dad," the invisibility does hinge on the idea that mom is running around in the nude for a good chunk of the movie. However, this one is far more playful in its approach to invisibility pranks and conflict, feeling like the kind of film you'd catch on the Disney Channel in the middle of a Sunday afternoon in 1998. This one feels the most in line with a film like "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and similar family-friendly sci-fi flicks, with plenty of cartoonish side characters like a nosy neighbor who is constantly spying with binoculars.
13. The Invisible Agent
"The Invisible Man" was a huge hit in the 1930s, but by 1942, the United States had entered World War II. Studios had lost interest in films in the excess or cynicism of the Great Depression, and instead were hoping that Hollywood would inspire patriotism throughout the country. Thus, the horror story of the original Universal tale was given a genre change, turning "The Invisible Man" into the comedic action spy thriller, "The Invisible Agent." This was the most commercially successful of all of the "Invisible Man" sequels and even nabbed an Academy Award nomination for the special effects that brought this Invisible Agent to the big screen. And yet, this is arguably the least interesting of all of the "Invisible Man" films because it feels like so many other spy films of the era with a character who happens to be invisible tossed in for fun.
Jon Hall plays Frank "Raymond" Griffin, the grandson of the Invisible Man, who utilizes the secret formula to spy on the Nazis. He works with a double agent named Maria played by the always fantastic Ilona Massey, and I can't help but think her character was an inspiration for Bridget (Diane Kruger) in "Inglourious Basterds." Thanks to his invisibility, Frank can effortlessly sneak around behind enemy lines and even bombs a German airfield. To call it wish fulfillment is putting it kindly, but the film's greatest crime is not continuing the trend of Invisible Men going absolutely mad with power. An Invisible Man with restraint? Yawn. Also, subtracting points for the unnecessary bit of yellowface. I know it was commonplace in the 1940s, but still. Yuck.
12. The Invisible Man's Revenge
I'm probably going to catch some heat for putting this above "The Invisible Agent," but the film's willingness to at least attempt to put the franchise back into the monster movie territory earns extra points in my book. The titular role, played by Jon Hall, is an assumed-to-be homicidal criminal named Robert Griffin who escapes from a mental institution and winds up crossing paths with a mad scientist called Dr. Drury, played by John Carradine. The good doctor asks Robert if he'd like to be a guinea pig for his new invisibility serum, which of course works wonders. There are a handful of ridiculous comedic relief characters thrown in (including an invisible parrot that will certainly make you want to throw your TV out a window), but there's something oddly commendable about how far Universal was willing to go in presenting Robert as an irredeemable monster from the very start.
"The Invisible Man's Revenge" has a real mean streak to it, even if some of the films that predate it were better in execution. Rather than play into the idea that the invisibility serum has made him drunk with power and caused him to lose his mind, Robert is treated like a psychotic danger the entire time. When he decides to enact his revenge plot, the audience is not supposed to cheer for him because we know he's in the wrong. It's a shining example of how much less fun movies became after the Hays Code went into effect.
11. The Man Who Wasn't There (1983)
What I would give for the opportunity to see this in 3D as intended, because there is no way it's any good. First of all, this is not the Coen Bros. film of the same name; this is a wild-as-hell-forgotten film starring Steve Guttenberg as the titular man. Brian Saur of the Pure Cinema Podcast once described the film as "a more edgy/sexy R-rated live-action Disney Hitchcock riff but dumber," and honestly ... I can't describe it any better.
10. The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly
Right now we're in a heyday of multiverse movies and cinematic crossovers, but the Universal monster series laid the groundwork for it all. Of course, we all know about Abbott and Costello meeting any number of monsters, but sometimes Universal decided to throw two monsters together for the hell of it (and by hell of it, I obviously mean profit off of their popularity). And then there's the unrelated, unofficial, unlicensed crossover feature "The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly" from Japanese director Mitsuo Murayama. The film centers around the investigation of a series of mysterious murders where people are getting stabbed but no assailant can be found. But just before the murder, witnesses claim to hear a buzzing sound.
As it turns out, he's a man with a shrink ray. So, no, this is not a 1958 "The Fly" Brundle creation, just a stabby-man with a shrink ray. He can also fly, and it's never explained but with a title like this, who needs logic? Luckily, a different scientist has perfected the invisibility ray (despite it causing cancer), which will ... somehow make it easier for the police to catch the killer. Listen, this movie is 10 pounds of nonsense in a 5-pound bag, but it's the kind of silly fun to watch with friends at a party if only to admire the audacity of it all.
9. The Invisible Maniac
Writer and director Adam Rifkin has a genuinely bonkers filmography. He's famous for writing family films like "Mouse Hunt" and "Small Soldiers," directing the coming-of-age classic "Detroit Rock City," and the offbeat documentary "Giuseppe Makes a Movie," and contributing the "Wadzilla" segment to the anthology film "Chillerama" about a kaiju sperm. But one of his earliest directorial adventures is "The Invisible Maniac," which takes the original H.G. Wells story and turns it into a full-blown '90s exploitation comedy (and somehow slasher?) and simultaneous horny fantasy with an unapologetically juvenile sense of humor that goes there.
The titular maniac is a genius named Kevin Dornwinkle with a penchant for snooping on naked women, he somehow grows up to be a physicist working on a "molecular reorganization serum," which is an invisibility serum that also unleashes your most primal desires. He ends up getting a job teaching physics at a high school, but the serum triggers a rampage of sex and murder. Yes, the film has absolutely aged like milk in the sun, but there's a contagiously frisky spirit that overpowers its lack of subversion or intrigue. It's a borderline skinflick with invisibility chaos and inappropriate touching of high school girls ... yet it's still wildly entertaining.
8. Memoirs Of An Invisible Man
After John Carpenter delivered what is arguably the best Big Brother-esque sci-fi film of all time with "They Live," he came back in 1992 with his own Invisible Man movie: a dramedy starring Chevy Chase. The film was originally supposed to be directed by Ivan Reitman but after many disagreements with Chase, the "Ghostbusters" director walked, leaving the door open for Carpenter. The film was a critical and commercial disaster, and yet I'm ranking it all the way up here at #9. Why? Because "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" might be Carpenter's most underrated work. When you're known as "The Master of Horror," anything other than a groundbreaking piece gets pushed aside. This one has all but been forgotten, but it's a hell of a lot better than it gets credit for being, and the credit goes exclusively to Carpenter, who has not been quiet about what a miserable experience it was to work with Chase.
The invisibility effects are truly fantastic for an early '90s film, and it's obvious Carpenter was trying like hell to make a serious piece about the ways invisibility would ruin a man's psyche, but Chase is too busy hamming it up for the camera and ending up in blackface randomly in some weird attempt to be funny. The entire film feels hijacked by Chase, but if you tune him out and focus on the other elements (especially Shirley Walker's ridiculously great score), there's a really great movie here. If only Sam Neill had been the leading man and Chase was ... not here.
7. Invisible Sister
I will not tolerate any Disney Channel Original Movie slander, because any umbrella that hires LeVar Burton to direct a sci-fi film ("Smart House"), "Twin Peaks" director Duwayne Dunham to direct "Halloweentown," and Nick "original Michael Myers" Castle to make a Christmas movie where Bryan Cranston is a con-man in a Santa suit ("Twas the Night"), is worth celebrating. And given Disney's love of body-swap films like "Freaky Friday," it makes total sense that they'd dabble in an invisible tween story with "Invisible Sister." Based on the book of the same name by Beatrice Colin and Sara Pint, the story follows introverted cynic Cleo (Rowan Blanchard), who is desperately trying to get out of the shadow of her popular sister Molly (Paris Berelc).
Thanks to a science project gone amok, Cleo gets her wish when Molly turns invisible. From here, the film echoes the sister-swap film "Wish Upon a Star" with Katherine Heigl and Danielle Harris, where the two opposite sisters have to learn how to empathize with each other to protect the big invisibility secret so it doesn't ruin their lives. The invisibility CGI is very clearly done on a DCOM budget, but the entire film serves as an examination of how you may feel invisible in high school, but never really are. It's a new spin on the way invisibility is typically treated in these films and a solid gateway film for the Invisible multiverse of more adult fare.
6. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
"Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was a huge hit for Universal, so comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were fast-tracked to make more films like it (six more in total), including their meet-up with the Invisible Man. Of all the Universal Monsters, the Invisible Man is the one that feels tailor-made for comedic hijinks, proven by how many films in this oddly specific subgenre are comedies and not monster movies. The duo play a pair of amateur private investigators who are approached by a boxer named Tommy Nelson, who claims he is being framed. Through some random bits of happenstance, they get their hands on the invisibility formula of Jack Griffin (the original Invisible Man), and although Nelson is warned the serum may make him go mad, he takes it anyway to be invisible in an attempt to clear his name.
Clearing his name also includes Costello going undercover as a boxer, with the invisible Nelson actually doing the boxing for him. Hilarity ensues! No, seriously, it's one of the best Invisible gags in the entire canon. Admittedly the film feels like a bunch of sketches sewn together, but it's still a lot of fun and plays into the comedy legends' strengths. Unfortunately, the film does go where many, many invisible stories go with what we now can recognize as non-consensual sexual touching, but at this point, it feels like these types of scenes are the rule and not the exception with invisibility films.
5. The Invisible Man Returns
The title is a bit misleading as Claude Rains' Jack Griffin is definitely dead by the end of "The Invisible Man," but swapping him out for Vincent Price in what is arguably his first, true leading-horror role is nothing to complain about. Price plays Geoffrey Radcliffe, a man wrongly found guilty of murdering his brother and sentenced to execution. Fortunately, a sympathetic Dr. Griffin (John Sutton) gives him an invisibility serum which allows him to escape from prison and find the truth about his brother. But as we know from "The Invisible Man," the invisibility serum also brings about madness, so not only does Radcliffe need to figure out who killed his brother, but he also has to do it before he loses his mind. The film attempts to replicate James Whale's untouchable original, and while that's a fool's errand, it holds its own.
4. Hollow Man
Paul Verhoeven is one of those filmmakers that you either get or you don't, and his wildly voyeuristic take on the Invisible Man is for Sickos™ and freaks. Kevin Bacon steps into the titular role as Sebastian Caine, but instead of being corrupted by the newfound invisibility, pulls a Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrence in "The Shining" and plays the guy crazier than cat s**t from the jump. "Hollow Man" is depraved [complimentary] but a pretty tough watch if you aren't prepared for it. The film takes the same invisibility beats shown in dozens of other films but doesn't try to pretend like our leading man is redeemable. Becoming invisible unleashes all of Caine's worst impulses, and Verhoeven has no problem explicitly depicting them.
3. The Invisible Woman
Again, I know it seems blasphemous to have this film ranked as high as it is, but hear me out. Throughout this ranking, you may have realized that the overwhelming majority of invisibility films are not the monster movies of the original, but slapstick comedies. Fans can lament that mere months after "The Invisible Man Returns," Universal pushed out "The Invisible Woman" and leaned hard into comedy, but in doing so they laid the groundwork for decades of future invisibility films. There's no risk of this feeling derivative of the films that came before it, because it's not trying to capture that lightning in a bottle and instead do something completely different. And luckily, the humor is legitimately hilarious. John Barrymore gets to be a ridiculous mad scientist, Charles Ruggles is a one-man walking farce, and Virginia Bruce uses her invisibility powers to whap people with a giant mallet. It's goofy as hell but a total delight and all of the inherent nudity jokes have aged shockingly well. Oh, and Shemp Howard of "The Three Stooges" is here, because why the hell not?!
2. Invisible Man (2020)
They say you should never remake a classic, but in the case of Leigh Whannell's "The Invisible Man," we should all be thankful he didn't listen to that advice. 2020's "The Invisible Man" is a thrilling sci-fi horror flick with a palpable sophistication and tension that just won't let up with a career-best performance by Elisabeth Moss. The story still plays into the idea that the Invisible Man is a dangerous threat, but instead of being corrupted by invisibility, he's using it as a weapon to continue his reign of domestic violence against Moss' Cecilia.
Yes, the Invisible Man is scary. Yes, the horror of not being able to see him is anxiety-inducing. But the true horror is knowing that Cecilia is right in realizing she's being hunted, but we must watch everyone close to her not believe her. There is this constant lingering sense of hopelessness that feels all too familiar, and the fact that Whannell was able to breathe new life into an almost century-old character is worth celebrating.
Try not to scream too loudly during the restaurant scene.
1. The Invisible Man
It should be a surprise to no one that James Whale's original "The Invisible Man" is at the top of this list because the Invisible Man is undoubtedly the scariest of all the Universal Monsters. Instead of being a misunderstood victim of circumstance ("Frankenstein," "The Wolf Man,") or a creature made monstrous as a means of survival ("The Mummy," "Dracula," "Creature from the Black Lagoon"), Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) is a stark-raving madman leaning into all of his worst instincts. As I noted in my ranking of the Universal Monster movies, "Dr. Griffin feels like the predecessor to some of cinema's greatest wise-cracking villains, as he revels in the pleasure of taunting his villains not unlike Freddy Krueger. Griffin loves his life of torment and destruction, and has no interest in changing himself for anyone."
He's the first of the Universal Monsters to be terrifying because his actions are truly monstrous, rather than simply looking like a monster. There's a bleak sense of humor running throughout, but it's not the slapstick silliness of the films that would follow. Instead, it's an unsettling bit of levity that only enhances just how dangerous Griffin truly is. Because we meet him after he's already taken the invisibility serum, there's no way for any of us to know if it really was the monocaine compound that made him crazy, or if this is just his true being finally showing face ... without showing anything at all.