‘The Invisible Man’ Director Refused to Let Blumhouse Spoil His Film Even More in Trailers
Zack Sharf
The biggest complaint against movie trailers is they give the entire plot of their respective films away, ruining all the surprises a director has in store for moviegoers. Such was the case for Blumhouse and Universal’s upcoming horror release “The Invisible Man,” starring Elisabeth Moss and directed by “Upgrade” filmmaker Leigh Whannell. Universal dropped the movie’s official trailer February 7, and it gave so much of the film’s plot away that many horror fans were left thinking the entire film had been spoiled (trailer posts warned viewers not to watch it and complained the film’s whole plot had been given away). The trailer started filling in the background of the title character and included one moment where the invisible man appeared visible. So much seemed to be revealed in “The Invisible Man” trailer that film writer Britt Hayes compared it to a “Cliff’s Notes version of a movie.”
“You have to reveal enough that people are going to want to go see the movie, but not too much that having seen the trailer will negatively impact your experience of seeing the movie,” producer Jason Blum tells Digital Spy about backlash to “The Invisible Man” trailer. “That’s a very fine line. I, of course, clearly err on the side of you can’t show too much, and Leigh disagrees with me and he’s probably right.”
Director Leigh Whannell adds, “It’s somewhere in the middle lies the truth. It is a very predictable reaction these days from people online. What’s the classic quote? ‘Thanks a lot, guys. You saved me 15 bucks, and I don’t even need to see the movie anymore.'”
