The cyclical churn of repurposed content has been going on for decades, to the extent that Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man endures as an example of what happens when way too many grubby fingers end up prodding at the same IP.
A thinly-veiled remake of 1933 classic The Invisible Man – which was itself a literary adaptation that gave rise to dozens upon dozens of imitators and loose interpretations – the blockbuster $90 million hybrid of existential sci-fi and grisly body horror didn’t find much favor among critics outside of its top-tier visual effects.
However, it did spawn a direct-to-video sequel half a decade later that swapped out Kevin Bacon for Christian Slater, before the Dark Universe lined up Johnny Depp to star in another remake as part of the most ill-fated franchise in history. Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man did the trick and then some, and there’s a sequel tentatively in the works alongside Elizabeth Banks’ The Invisible Woman, to give you an inkling of how transparent protagonists are never going away.
Hollow Man does possess plenty of entertainment value if it’s viewed as a schlocky B-tier horror with an A-grade budget, which might be why FlixPatrol has surprisingly named it as one of the most-watched features on Rakuten this week. It isn’t as disastrous as its lukewarm Rotten Tomatoes score might suggest, offering an unhinged reminder of why Verhoeven was once one of the most in-demand and bankable big-name directors in the entire business, with no stone left unturned in terms of sheer excess.
