In one of the most joyous cases of cinematic irony this decade, a lot of people are seeing The Invisible Man. Filmmaker Leigh Whannell's reimagining of the 1933 Universal horror classic nabbed a mighty healthy $50 million in its first week—on a $7 million budget no less—and for good reason. Whannell brilliantly updated the story of a monstrous man turned transparent (in this case, Oliver Jackson-Cohen) into the story of a domestic abuse survivor, played in a jaw-droppingly powerful performance by Elisabeth Moss. It's great. It's really great. And if you haven't caught it yet, correct that mistake posthaste.

If you have seen it already, then you're probably itching for more. Below, we've rounded up the seven best movies to seek out after watching The Invisible Man.

Upgrade

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Image via Blumhouse

It's kind of crazy how long it took for Leigh Whannell to become such a name in Hollywood, considering the dude co-created the massively successful Saw franchise and was behind all four Insidious movies. (In which he also played Specs. Long live Specs.) But truthfully, we didn't get a sense of just how dynamic Whannell is as an all-around filmmaker until Upgrade, his first writer/director outing on a completely original idea. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Upgrade whips an incredible amount of ass. Logan Marshall-Green stars as Grey Trace, a mechanic living in a near-future society who is implanted with a piece of tech (voiced by Simon Maiden) that controls his limbs after an incident leaves him paralyzed. Upgrade's highly-stylized fight scenes—which are also often darkly funny, thanks to Marshall-Green's along-for-the-ride performance—utilize the same rigid, stabilized camerawork Whannell put to use in The Invisible Man, but here they serve another unique purpose. Every fight feels perfectly robotic and machine-controlled, and like Grey we're just being pulled along for the ride. If that effect becomes Whannell's signature—like Sam Raimi's POV whoosh or the synths of John Carpenter—he first put it to perfection in Upgrade.

Her Smell

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Image via TIFF

We'll definitely be discussing Elisabeth Moss's full-bodied and bloodily-committed performance in The Invisible Man once Oscar season rolls around. (And the Academy inevitably, once again, decides a performance doesn't count if it's too spooky.) But that's nothing new for Moss, who arguably put on the best performance of 2019 in Her Smell, written and directed by Alex Ross Perry. Moss is straight-up ferocious as Becky Something, the whirlwind at the front of punk-rock quartet Something. It's an unforgettable performance that, because Moss plays Something at both the bottom of a spiral and on the other end of sobriety, is filled with endless layers. Coupled with The Invisible Man (and her run on The Handmaid's Tale), Her Smell cemented Moss as a performer who makes a movie must-see with her name on the bill alone.

Candyman

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Image via Tri-Star

Thematically, the classic horror film The Invisible Man reminded me of the most is Candyman, director Bernard Rose's Clive Barker adaptation that turned Tony Todd into an icon. Like Moss's Cecilia Kass, the woman at the center of Candyman, Virginia Madsen's grad student Helen Lyle, is haunted by a specter infatuated with making her his belonging. (Candyman's "be my victim" is pretty much the call of the domestic abuser.) And like Cecilia, Helen's situation spirals into paranoia and public exile as everyone around her refuses to believe what she's seeing. Still scary, still important, and still one heck of a horror ride, catching up on Candyman comes with the added bonus of the remake, debuting this June.

 

Peeping Tom

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Image via Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distibutors

There's no better way to describe the way Whannell wields his camera in The Invisible Man than "voyeuristic." A lot of the film's terror comes from being watched; some of the scariest scenes are in the film's first half, the lens just lingering around corners or through doorways as Cecilia lives her everyday life. If that kind of slow-build dread is your bag, we have to recommend Michael Powell's chilling 1960 film, Peeping Tom. Carl Boehm stars as Mark Lewis, a serial killer obsessed with capturing his victims' expressions in their final moments. There aren't many movies that use the camera as disturbingly as Peeping Tom, which turns the audience into voyeurs even as it explores what it means to watch violence. Not for the faint of heart.

When a Stranger Calls

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Image via Columbia Pictures

Even if you know The Twist—it's become etched in pop culture stone by now, but no spoilers here just in case—the opening scene of When a Stranger Calls is the stuff the most hair-raising horror in history is made of. (It directly inspired Wes Craven's Scream, which is another movie you should seek out immediately if you've gone all this time without it.) The sense of not being safe in your own home—or any home, no matter how many locks you put in place—that runs through The Invisible Man is a byproduct of When a Stranger Calls. Carol Kane stars as Jill Johnson, a high schooler whose night of babysitting turns into a sadistic game with a psychotic killer (Tony Beckley). A film guaranteed to make ya' double-check the locks.

 

The Invisible Man (1933)

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Image via Unviersal

I mean, duh, right? But the original tale of a mad scientist's quest for transparency—based on the H.G. Wells story—is still a must-see for sci-fi/horror lovers that holds up remarkably well in 2020. The very idea of an "invisible man" can so easily go off the tracks into pure schlock, but the special effects dreamed up by John P. FultonJohn J. Mescall and Frank D. Williams work on a level that's still impressive. In his American film debut, Tony-winner Claude Rains makes an operatic meal out of the title role—mostly through voice-over, understandably—creating a character that deserves his place alongside Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Gill-Man in the all-time horror pantheon. Cheesy as hell? Occasionally! But a classic for a reason, one that's perfect for a late-night binge with fellow horror-heads.

Side-note: The sequel, The Invisible Man Returns starring Vincent Price? Not bad!

Memoirs of an Invisible Man

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Image via Warner Bros.

Is Memoirs of an Invisible Man a "good film"? That really depends on who you ask. I genuinely cannot help but enjoy this weird thing, but it was overwhelmingly panned when it debuted in 1992. Either way, this odd gem is a fascinating failure to check off your list if you're a film completist; worst case, you'll probably win a trivia night one day if you know it was directed by John Carpenter. Memoirs stars Chevy Chase as Nick Holloway, a stock analyst who is turned invisible during a hungover incident at a laboratory. Now a living science experiment, Nick must avoid capture from government operative David Jenkins (Sam Neill) with the help of documentary producer Alice Monroe (Daryl Hannah).