\n<\/p>\n
The name Universal is in quotation marks because the 2000 film Hollow Man<\/strong> isn\u2019t a part of the traditional Universal lineup. But we all know it should be, and it\u2019s regarded as a spiritual successor; but let\u2019s keep that between us, we don\u2019t want a call from California from an unhappy entertainment lawyer. Although as much as this film was so unfairly panned, Universal might appreciate the publicity 26 years later.\u00a0To clarify, Hollow Man<\/strong> is a Columbia Pictures<\/strong> film, so they had to be really careful how they marketed this to avoid the same kind of phone call. The studio based its <\/em>version on H.G. Wells\u2019<\/strong> novel with a completely different backstory than Universal\u2019s, so the public domain prevailed once more! <\/p>\n This one is special \u2014 albeit a little more pervy \u2014 than the original, with\u00a0Paul Verhoeven<\/strong> (Robocop, Starship Troopers) at the helm. He\u2019s known for his questionable male gaze antics (Sharon Stone\u2019s crotch shot in Basic Instinct<\/strong>? Anything Elizabeth Berkley<\/strong> did in Showgirls<\/strong>, perhaps?) so giving him control of an invisible man surrounded by beautiful women is an invitation to open a toxic sandbox. And he uses that here, but in a way that exploits the idea of sexual assault, which just comes off creepy, not frightening. For instance, in the film, a beautiful lab assistant is using the bathroom, pants down, sitting on the toilet, but she feels like invisible eyes are watching her. Is Verhoeven suggesting our antagonist wants to watch girls pee?\u00a0And why make the audience see\/feel that when it turns out to be a false alarm? In another scene, our heroine is sleeping, and her undergarments are being pulled off by invisible hands. It\u2019s all filmed in a sexualized manner, but it turns out to be a dream, although it\u2019s never really clear. <\/p>\n That heroine is Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Shue<\/strong>. She\u2019s not an action star, but thanks to Verhoeven\u2019s no-nonsense directing abilities, she doesn\u2019t embarrass herself in the part. She has to go up against the mad scientist, Kevin Bacon<\/strong>, who hams his way through the titular role even though we don\u2019t actually \u201csee\u201d him throughout most of the movie; he\u2019s hidden behind a digital illustrator\u2019s handiwork.<\/p>\n You\u2019re going to notice those digital effects. You are. But honestly, they are better than most of today\u2019s B-movie generated slop. Strangely, the FX don\u2019t pull you out of any moment. It\u2019s amazing that almost 30 years ago they were able to get this much out of a binary program, but today we get the likes of Krypto in Supergirl, looking like a cartoon \u2014 just use a real dog; it\u2019s 2026!\u00a0<\/p>\n Hollow Man<\/strong> isn\u2019t a great film, but it passes nicely enough as popcorn fodder; perfect for today\u2019s distracted movie viewer scrolling on the phone, only looking up when the music changes pitch. Universal\u2019s official reboot, 2020\u2019s The Invisible Man<\/strong>, directed by Leigh Whannell, is the superior adaptation here, and he even uses some traps, perhaps unintentionally, from Verhoeven\u2019s version, but to a much more domestically violent degree. <\/p>\n I\u2019d recommend a double feature of both directors\u2019 films. Watching them in one sitting is worth more than a single viewing of 2025\u2019s Wolf Man<\/strong> (also directed by Whannell), or Tom Cruise\u2019s The Mummy<\/strong>. And as far as the Universal Monster universe goes, the saga of quality will continue once Robert Eggers\u2019 Werwulf<\/strong> releases come December. <\/p>\n You can find where to watch both by visiting JustWatch.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The name Universal is in quotation marks because the 2000 film Hollow Man isn\u2019t a part of the traditional Universal lineup. But we all know it should be, and it\u2019s regarded as a spiritual successor; but let\u2019s keep that between us, we don\u2019t want a call from California from an unhappy entertainment lawyer. Although as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11617],"tags":[24167,24159,24160,5975,24161,24166,24162,24163,24164,2171,170,213,13369,22237,24165],"class_list":["post-34131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror-global-news","tag-adjacent","tag-columbia-pictures","tag-elizabeth-shue","tag-forgotten","tag-h-g-wells","tag-hollow","tag-hollow-man","tag-kevin-bacon","tag-leigh-whannell","tag-man","tag-monster","tag-movie","tag-universal","tag-universal-monsters","tag-wolf-man"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hollow-man-2000.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"HORROR GLOBAL NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The name Universal is in quotation marks because the 2000 film Hollow Man isn\u2019t a part of the traditional Universal lineup. But we all know it should be, and it\u2019s regarded as a spiritual successor; but let\u2019s keep that between us, we don\u2019t want a call from California from an unhappy entertainment lawyer. Although as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34133,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34131\/revisions\/34133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}