Vincent Price's First-Ever Horror Movie Is An 87% Rotten Tomatoes Sequel Of A Genre Masterpiece (2024)

Vincent Price's first horror movie was a must-watch sequel to a masterpiece in the genre. The classic movie actor enjoyed a celebrated career in Hollywood, with his most notable works being horror films. Over the course of his time in the industry, Vincent Price starred in a long list of great horror movies, including House of Wax, The Fly, and The Masque of Red Death. As for his first contribution to the genre, that was The Invisible Man Returns, a movie Price made in 1940 when his career was just starting to take off.

Much of Vincent Price's reputation as a horror movie star stems from the work that he did between the late 1950s and the 1970s. As a young actor, Price spent much of his time acting in dramas, taking supporting roles in movies like Laura and Leave Her to Heaven. Although these films preceded his heyday as a horror movie icon, most of them actually came after he had already played the title character in a horror film.

What Vincent Price's Invisible Man Sequel Is About

Seven years after The Invisible Man, Universal produced a sequel titled The Invisible Man Returns. However, its story wasn't exactly the follow-up the title implied. In the original 1933 classic, Claude Reins' Dr. Jack Griffin transformed himself into the Invisible Man with his experimental serum and embarked on a killing spree prior to his death at the end of the film. The Invisible Man Returns follows these events, but doesn't bring back Jack Griffin. Rather, it creates a new version of the Invisible Man via Vincent Price's Geoffrey Radcliffe, who was introduced as a man on death row for allegedly killing his brother.

At the beginning of The Invisible Man Returns, Geoffrey's best friend - and the brother of the original Invisible Man - Dr. Frank Griffin concocts a scheme to save Vincent Price's character from execution. Naturally, his plan is built on the Invisible Man's research. With the serum that Jack created in the first movie, Geoffey is turned invisible, allowing him to escape from his prison. Geoffrey uses his newfound abilities in an effort to clear his name of the murder he was sentenced to death for. All the while he has to avoid succumbing to the same loss of sanity that destroyed the original Invisible Man.

The Invisible Man Returns Is One Of Universal's Best Horror Movie Sequels

The Invisible Man Returns was ultimately one of several horror movie sequels Universal produced in an effort to capitalize on its most successful films. Unsurprisingly, most failed to match the popularity of their predecessors and while something similar can be said about The Invisible Man Returns, it's important to note that the gap between it and the original Invisible Man movie isn't as wide as the situation with some of the others. In fact, its approach to Vincent Price's transformation into the Invisible Man even earned it an Academy Award nomination for Best Effects.

It wasn't reviewed as well as the original, but was well-liked regardless, and its reputation continues to hold up today, as evidenced by its 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Helping it stand out as a worthwhile sequel was that it didn't become just a retelling of what happened to Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man. Instead of going down that route, The Invisible Man Returns opted to create a more sympathetic anti-hero in Vincent Price's Geoffrey Radcliffe. This element of the story made it compelling in a way that was different from The Invisible Man, which used Jack Grifin's sinister nature to deliver suspense and horror.

Despite Being The Star, Vincent Price Only Had One Minute Of Screen-Time In The Invisible Man Returns

The Invisible Man Returns is special in that it was the true beginning of Vincent Price's history with horror movies, but that's not the only thing unique about the film. Although Vincent Price played the main character in the film, the actor was only onscreen for approximately a minute. For most films, such little screen-time for the star is rare, but then, it fits with the concept of a character called "The Invisible Man." Because of his powers, Geoffrey Radcliffe is literally invisible for much of the film and covered in bandages.

In the face of this, Price still has second billing in The Invisible Man Returns, behind Cedrick Hardwicke. That's because Vincent Price has enough speaking lines in the film to be considered one of its leads. Voice work being the primary source of his work in his first horror movie is ironic, considering that his well-known, distinctive voice is tied directly to his reputation as a horror legend.