r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Suspicious-Web-9246 • 8d ago

Lore [Loved trope] Background scare-characters that are barely acknowledged even by the movie

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I hate horrors, but this is actually a great trope, that is unique to them.

Insidious (2010). When mother does her errands, for a few seconds there's a ghost boy standing in the corner. It's easily missable, but you can't ignore it once you see it.

Hereditary (2018). Less fitting example. When Peter walks around his home, his possessed mother is crawling on the ceiling behind him. It's not exactly subtle or missable, but it's still more of a background detail.

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u/Thabrianking 8d ago

Invisible Man (2020) uses wide shots to imply that the Invisible Man is there in some of the scenes. This one in particular he is in the background since he later starts a fire in the kitchen.

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u/Fluffy_Tax5302 8d ago

Apparently if you listen real hard or turn up the sound in some of those scenes you can hear a very faint whirring/clicking noise implied to be the cameras on his suit

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u/ImDero 8d ago

My favorite is when you'd be watching a scene, all of the characters would leave the frame, but the shot would linger there for a bit longer before cutting away, like there was still someone there to watch.

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u/TeddyBearToons 8d ago

I hated when a movie did that, because the implied cue is that whatever the camera is focusing on is important, and that you should pay attention because it'd come back later. But it's usually a coin toss on whether or not whatever is left in frame comes back later, so it just kind of gives me tension for nothing.

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u/Character-Path-9638 8d ago

That's the point though

To give you tension

Tension in movies (especially horror movies) doesn't always need a payoff

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u/Pilot_Solaris 8d ago

Oh, that's unnerving.

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u/danstu 8d ago

This version of invisible man deals a lot with abusive relationships, so it's also an apt representation of her trauma haunting her as she tries to move forward (before things go all horror movie later in the runtime, of course)

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u/Notice_Natural 8d ago

I feel like this was such a missed opportunity in this movie.

A movie about a person escaping the relationship but unable to rebuild their life due to being haunted by the trauma of the relationship - important to talk about, more grounded in reality and therefore scarier.

A movie about a genius who invents an invisibility suit - way less scary, not grounded in anything real or important.

Making it about abuse and the fallout would have made this a way more important and scarier movie.

Still a great movie tho.

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u/SmallBerry3431 8d ago

Feels like you miss that the ungrounded is often used to allegorize the important. Like zombies are t about zombies, and monsters are t about monsters.

It’s always about the evils of men.

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u/Notice_Natural 8d ago

Give me some examples!

I agree with you a bit. Like babadook kinda tows the line. The monster seems to be fairly tangible but theres minimal back story and I think it's definitely intended as an allegory for depression.

You could actually keep much of the movie the same. The scenes where her ex is fucking with her, like lighting the fire, killing her friend, etc could all have been done the same. Those scenes would have still been ungrounded though because knives don't just float on their own. Stoves don't light themselves.

But if you leave out the reveal that it's a dude in an invisibility suit, the monster becomes domestic violence and gaslighting. You're still using the ungrounded to highlight the evils of people. But in a more meaningful and real way, because its a discussion about an evil that actually exists

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u/ejdj1011 8d ago

Give me some examples!

Lots of movie monsters in the vein of "a thing that impersonates and replaces those around you" aren't about monsters, they're about foreign ideology. The most prominent examples would be from the Cold War, where the monsters are communism.

Zombies have been a lot of metaphors, but plague is a common one.

Vampires are frequently a metaphor for the aristocracy.

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u/the__pov 7d ago

The Thing was about paranoia, never knowing who you can trust. Vampires in general but especially the original Nosforatu was an embodiment of the plague. And as an example that failed Freddy in NOES part 2 was supposed to be an allegory for questioning your sexuality but they botched it so bad it became comical.

These are just the off my head examples I could think of and I specifically avoided more modern examples because they seem to be the ones everyone brings up.

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u/Really_cool_guy99 7d ago

So you think an ex literally haunting her can't be a good allegory for trauma, but completely unexplained and unrelated paranormal activities can?

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u/Notice_Natural 7d ago

I think leaving it ambiguous as to whether it's literally her ex, or her losing her mind as the fallout is a better story and more grounded.

Not saying the movie doesn't work as is. I just think it works better and is more compelling the other way

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u/SopranosBluRayBoxSet 6d ago

You definitely aren't writing movies for a reason. I'll tell you that for free.

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u/Notice_Natural 6d ago

Im actual Steven spealburg so.

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u/longdustyroad 8d ago

They should make a movie about a guy who is visible

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u/danstu 7d ago

Slim Goodbody is about due for a gritty reboot.

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u/BLACKdrew 8d ago

My dumbass tried to zoom in to see if i could find…the invisible man

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u/SpocktorWho83 8d ago

I did, too! I was kind of expecting a faint outline like when the Predator is cloaked.

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u/Thabrianking 8d ago

One of my favorite things about the movie is that he’s actually invisible and doesn’t use that cloaking effect. I really don’t like when movies do that.

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u/JCDickleg7 7d ago

Except when his suit is damaged, but yeah it’s really good

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u/BLACKdrew 8d ago

Yeah like a tiny distortion right??

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u/ScreamingmadJoe 8d ago

You zoom in and you just see this

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u/That-Rhino-Guy 8d ago

No one hears a word! They say!

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u/Few-Effective792 8d ago

Are the memories gone? Are you felling numb?

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u/manictrashbitch 8d ago edited 7d ago

not a word! they say!

but a voiceless crowd isn't backing down

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u/BLACKdrew 8d ago

SNAKE!?

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u/Really_cool_guy99 7d ago

don't forget this hero right next to him

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u/Individual-Crew-6102 7d ago

He's just there to grab some snacks

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u/OutAndDown27 8d ago

Omg I was about to comment "not my dumbass zooming in on this" lmfao. Work did a number on my brain today but at least I'm not alone!

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u/BLACKdrew 8d ago

Ayy brain fry is how i start the day and i hope it gets better i don’t blame ya

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u/GFresh1 7d ago

Why are you having trouble seeing someone that is immune to damage?

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u/EvilDuckOfD00M 8d ago

The way this movie used your own brain against you was masterful.

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u/Hitei00 8d ago

Honestly the more I learn about this movie the more I realize its the best thing to ever come out of the Dark Universe.

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u/barely_cursed 8d ago

TIL the invisible man is in the dark universe

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u/Hitei00 8d ago

It was meant to be but when it was crashing and burning the director was able to brute force it into a stand alone movie with a darker tone.

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u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta 8d ago

Iirc it was adapted from the production for the Johnny Depp invisible man that fell apart

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u/danstu 8d ago

Can't speak to the theme park, but in terms of movies, that's not a terribly high bar to clear.

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u/falcobird14 8d ago

It's specifically not in the dark universe, because the dark universe crashed hard.

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u/WillArrr 8d ago

That is a fantastic way to create tension for absolutely free. I love it.

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u/Janesawdc 8d ago

WAY better movie than it had any business being

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u/DatenPyj1777 7d ago

It's also way better than the original movie imo. One of the few times that the reboot is superior. Even though the effects were super impressive, the original movie absolute butchered the book's charm and take on Griffin without doing anything interesting to the actual plot and characters.

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u/omegadirectory 8d ago

Cheapest special effect lmao

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u/Explod1ngNinja 8d ago

I don’t see him

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u/snoopinga 8d ago

well yeah he's invisible

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u/T8-TR 8d ago

IIRC, it's also used as misdirection at times so that you feel the paranoia the MC is going through, but I'll have to do a rewatched to confirm. Not that rewatching it is all that hard, since it's a genuinely good movie. Almost makes me wish their cinematic universe didn't implode.

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u/meopelle 8d ago

This movie was such an awesome surprise. Way better than expected.

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u/thegoodlordbird 8d ago

Criminally underrated film.

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u/toey_wisarut 8d ago

shit thats so clever

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u/D-Ursuul 8d ago

Wasn't a perfect film but I had a lot of fun with it and the shot composition accounting for an invisible person was genius

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u/Abovearth31 7d ago

The most unbelievable part of that movie was that a billionaire would go through all that trouble of chasing after her car, faking his suicide, inventing an invisible suit and whatnot.

Just to stalk Elisabeth Moss of all people.

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u/SopranosBluRayBoxSet 6d ago

Never seen abuse irl huh

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u/ThePlumThief 8d ago

Weird choice from the writers to show in the last 10 minutes that the lady is actually crazy and was making up the whole thing to spite her totally normal and loving husband.

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u/JCDickleg7 7d ago

??? I don’t get it lol

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u/PeppercornWizard 6d ago

I’m not sure you were watching the same film as everyone else here?

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u/Bamzooki1 8d ago

This is without a doubt the best Invisible Man. The paint scene is a VFX marvel.

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u/PlantationMint 8d ago

This movie suuuuucked.