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The Invisible Man and Hitchcock, Specifically (MAJOR SPOILERS HERE, MAJOR SPOILERS WELCOME

posted 4 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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MAJOR SPOILER FOR THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020)

MAJOR SPOILER

MAJOR SPOILER

Here it comes:

About mid-way through the film, a distraught Elisabeth Moss seeks a dinner meeting with her sister in a trendy restaurant, with lots of upscale diners around them. Moss is trying to convince the sister that it is the invisible man(not Moss) who has sent to the sister angry, insulting e-mails ostensibly from Moss. The sister calms down a bit, sends the too-friendly waiter away with a bit of attitude("we're gonna need a long time to decide on the menu") and starts to calm down , seeing how distraught Moss is. Maybe these two can reconcile.

But then we notice -- floating in air above the table between the two women -- a big gleaming knife(from the dinner table) and then -- the knife comes down and slashes the throat of Moss's sister deeply and fatally. Blood all over the table. The knife falls -- Moss picks it up. All the patrons see -- Moss with a knife and a dead woman bleeding all over the place. All the other patrons, jump up, scream, and run away. The cops come to bust "killer" Moss.

Its the UN murder scene in North by Northwest, but done for R-rated blood and gore -- courtesy of Psycho's initial decades ago entry point and, notably, this throat slash(of a woman) rather uses the same look and technique of the throat slashing of the Lady on the Toilet in Psycho III(1986)

My audience screamed a little -- but I've read that the screams are bigger in fuller theaters in bigger cities that mine. And that's an achievement in this day and age: the scene is a true shocker, out of nowhere, with the Hitchcock reference(for those who are looking) and also a bit of LA Confidential( the famous scene where a hero gets suddenly killed mid-film -- since copied in Minority Report and The Departed.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

MAJOR SPOILER CONTINUED

This scene in The Invisible Man is the best scene in the film -- other than the twisty ending, which still isn't as good as THIS. Its legitimately scary, its bloody, the Hitchcock references are there for those of us who know them, its even a little bit funny(Moss is caught red handed as Thornhill was at the UN...though he escaped)...but it is also sad and also enraging. The sister was a good, innocent person(however rude to waiters -- was this to make her less sympathetic -- I think it was to divert our attention from the shock yet to come) and we are ENRAGED that the invisible psycho lover would do this to her.
Its the first time in the film that The Invisible Man kills someone -- and now the thriller is truly underway.

Not a GREAT thriller, mind you, but a good one -- with that great surprise shocker scene for applause...

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

As long as this post is a MAJOR SPOILER post, rather than give away the ending entirely, I believe I can note that one of the nifty aspects of how the story plays out is that at the end, in the final scene, The Invisible Man is finally visible, and after all the horrible, cruel, abusive, sadistic, gaslighting and murderous things this ultra-rich Silicon Valley scientific mastermind has done...he's rather a wimpish, weaselly looking guy , even if a handsome one. For purposes of the story, he is acting entirely NICE toward his ex-lover Elisabeth Moss. We are to believe that either he did NOT commit all those horrible crimes(another invisible man did)...or that he is so ice cold that he will let that other(dead) man take the fall for his evil.

But its the actor who intrigued me...such a regular looking guy. Nothing particularly terrifying about him. His invisibility gave him power.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

Spoilers continued.....

I've seen Invisible Man (2020) now..... and enjoyed it a lot until the ending, which left me scratching my head and not in a good way. On the one hand, the possibility that Cecelia kills the wrong guy at the end, that it was Adrian's brother all along seems preposterous & unmotivated. At the very least the film would not have played fair with us from the very beginning. We needed a scene possibly in flashback with Adrian & Brother and Cecilia showing the brother's barely-suppressed feelings for Cecilia, envy of Adrian etc. to make this possibility real - no such scene, no fair I say. I channel my inner Alma Reville when I say this. On the other hand, the other main possibility that Adrian's brother Tom was prepared to strap on an invisible-suit and kill like crazy for his brother ultimately dying in the effort (which Adrian anticipates!) seems crazy or even impossible too. Put this together wth the fancifulness of Cecilia's action-beat bathroom trip (i) being able to put on an invisible suit, take it off etc. ultra quickly, and (ii) being able to trust that her secreted suit has gone undetected for months in Adrian's house notwithstanding that it has to be most valuable thing in the world to Adrian. Arghhh.

Fanciful action beat hitting at the same time as duelling preposterous possibilities was *too much* for me. It undid a lot of the good will the film had built up with me till then. Good movie turns into trash? I think so. Too bad; the first 80-90 minutes were pretty great.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

Slight Gripe. At least one key shot from the trailer wasn't in the film: a ghostly handprint never appears on the misted-up shower-door behind Elizabeth Moss.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

Further gripe: Obviously it cuts the legs out from under Cecelia's 'suburban girl' character to have her do everything at the end but twirl her moustache and say '...For now *I* am the Invisible (Wo)Man'. Her plan for her summary execution crime is far-fetched in the extreme. She's got to operate under incredible time constraints to put on & take off the suit. And how sure could she really be not only that the suit would still be there & full charged up enough to work but also that it wouldn't present significant operator or 'learning to drive the suit' challenges? Moreover, she's sensationally needed to get the whole world to believe in invisible tech etc. to get herself off one crime and yet now she's counting on no one looking at that video-tape and seeing clearly that this is another invisible man attack, one for which she'd be the motivated, at-the-scene-of-the-crime prime suspect. She'd basically have to be some sort of super-villain maniac to even *conceive* of this plan let alone try to carry it out and then succeed. I simply find it almost impossible to believe that the nice, not-especially tech-centric, suburban girl Cecilia could do this or would even think of it. As with brother Tom's character, some scene or flashback could have laid *some* groundwork for the big change/reveal about Cecilia's character, but no such scene was present. Alma spare us.

Rarely have I seen a film so comprehensively trash its own characters in its final act as much as TIM (2020).

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I've seen Invisible Man (2020) now..... and enjoyed it a lot until the ending, which left me scratching my head and not in a good way.

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You're a tougher audience than I am swanstep...always have been, always will be. I think it is good that there are folks out there who don't just let plot matters slide....ha...these days I don't entirely GET the movies I see, I tend to daydream while plot points happen, and to tell you the truth, reading some of your analysis below, I'm realiziing that I have ALREADY started forgetting the plot details of The Invisible Man. Perhaps the only real surviving "big element" in my memory is that killing in the restaurant...

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On the one hand, the possibility that Cecelia kills the wrong guy at the end, that it was Adrian's brother all along seems preposterous & unmotivated. At the very least the film would not have played fair with us from the very beginning. We needed a scene possibly in flashback with Adrian & Brother and Cecilia showing the brother's barely-suppressed feelings for Cecilia, envy of Adrian etc. to make this possibility real - no such scene, no fair I say.

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I must admit, I found the whole "twist" to be wildly unmotivated. Brother B had to be WILLING to be as psychotic as Brother A...at least as far as murder and attacking go.

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I channel my inner Alma Reville when I say this.

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Hah -- and she sure knew how to advise Hitch on plotting.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Put this together wth the fancifulness of Cecilia's action-beat bathroom trip (i) being able to put on an invisible suit, take it off etc. ultra quickly, and (ii) being able to trust that her secreted suit has gone undetected for months in Adrian's house notwithstanding that it has to be most valuable thing in the world to Adrian. Arghhh.

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That trip to the bathroom DID seem rather quick given what she had to do. I dunno...sometimes Hitchcock would speed up time, too...but sometimes he was meticulous about it (i.e. giving Norman Bates exactly the screen time he needed -- off screen -- to go to Mother's room, get in her clothes and position himself to kill his victims.)

I also felt the husband was way too trusting at that point...but I guess..what else could he do?

What I DID like during this climactic scene was to FINALLY see this guy up close and personal and ...he was such a generic "non-star young handsome movie actor" type that he was at once underwhelming AND infuriating. He's acting so pleasant and conciliatory ...and WE know he slashed the sister to death. I gotta say his death was satisfying to me.

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Fanciful action beat hitting at the same time as duelling preposterous possibilities was *too much* for me. It undid a lot of the good will the film had built up with me till then. Good movie turns into trash? I think so. Too bad; the first 80-90 minutes were pretty great.

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Its true. The first 80-90 minutes built up a "pure ans suspenseful" piece about ONE man's torment of a woman, and we probably would have better enjoyed the climax not to have involved the brother at all.

But modern scripts seem to demand "twist upon twist upon twist" until the movie becomes ridiculous. This is what they did with "The Manchurian Candidate" remake years ago - they messed with the simplicity of the original model. Same with the "Charade remake. And the "Cape Fear" remake.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I forgot to mention this when first discussing The Invisible Man about a month ago(now, "an eternity ago" -- the entire 2020 summer blockbuster season is becoming invisible before our eyes, and The Invisible Man is already on pay per view to try to earn, with theaters closed.)

Decades ago, in the 80's, I think, there was a pastiche of comedy sketches on film in a movie called "Amazon Women on the Moon." It was an amusing VHS rental, that's about it.

But one of them was "Son of the Invisible Man," filmed(maybe by John Landis) in the black-and-white 1930's style of the original , as if it WAS a sequel from the 30's.

The gag, when it became clear, was pretty funny. The son of the invisible man -- played by a brave Ed Begley, Jr. -- drinks the potion and starts moving around a room with other people in it. He is cackling "I'm invisible, invisible you hear!" and holding up a glass of water and then a cigarette to show them floating in air.

Except: he's NOT invisible. The potion didn't work. All he is , is: totally naked (because the invisible man has to be naked to be invisible.) Yes, its a naked man lifting up a glass that all can see him holding, or smolking a cigarette that all can see him smoking. And he's quite naked front, rear, and side. But he doesn't know this, so he keeps prancing around naked in front of everybody.

It was a pretty funny gag. R-rated.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

But modern scripts seem to demand "twist upon twist upon twist" until the movie becomes ridiculous.

Yes, I suspect that *that* modern impulse *is* partly to blame here. I guess there are plenty of films that self-destruct in bizarre twisteramas these days, but I also tend to instantly purge such films from my memory, so I don't in fact have a list of such messes ready to hand. I know I've/we've been here before on this topic. You're right.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

This scene in The Invisible Man is the best scene in the film

I couldn't resist reading the scene spoiler... wow, it sounds pretty great. Upgrade - in the clip I referenced earlier - had a gory knife shock too. Director Whannell evidently has a gift for this specific sort of thing.

I have to say that I don't rate the famous, Whale-directed Invisible Man from the 1930s *that* highly, and no subsequent Invisibility-themed films have been especially distinguished that I'm aware of. This track record suggests that this property was a good target for a remake, and the basic idea of making the Invisible Man embody & literalize misogyny & Patriarchy that's acting everywhere but always insidiously/deniably is nifty; obvious but ingenious in the way that Get Out was. Execution sounds close to top notch. I look forward to seeing this one - maybe next week.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I couldn't resist reading the scene spoiler... wow, it sounds pretty great.

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I really couldn't resist writing about it -- I have seen quite a few thrillers and this "moment" worked so great -- its getting "hidden" references in some of the reviews out not to spoil it. (One critic said he wants to go back to theaters to watch this just to watch new audiences see it -- which I suppose folks did back in the day for Arbogast on the stairs --which was more of a surprise once the shower murder was known -- Arkin's final leap in Wait Until Dark, and the chest-buster in Alien.)

And the scene is so clearly referencing the NXNW UN murder that I finally felt the surprise that I suppose 1959 audiences felt when that happened THAT time(I knew it was going to, I'd seen photos.)

Moreover: 2020 young audiences probably have no knowledge of the UN murder scene at all -- so this is a "first time experience" for them.

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Upgrade - in the clip I referenced earlier - had a gory knife shock too. Director Whannell evidently has a gift for this specific sort of thing.

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"A good man with a knife, but only for professional reasons" -- as they said of Solozzo the Turk in The Godfather.

Let's face it: yet ANOTHER landmark horror motif from Psycho was that great big gleaming murder weapon, The Big Knife. There had been knife killings in movies before Psycho(Borgnine getting it offscreen in From Here to Eternity, the UN murder scene with a thrown knife, the rather brutal back-stab in the Man Who Knew Too Much -- the knife stays in the victims' back like an itch he can't scratch), but in Psycho, when Mother raises that big blade high after she pulls back the shower curtain, or when the bladeflashes and gleams in the light as she raises it at Arbogast -- audiences were horrified, I think, by the sheer SIZE of the murder weapon and the damage it could do.

And so we've had some stabbings and slashings since then that have referenced that big Psycho knife, time and again.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I have to say that I don't rate the famous, Whale-directed Invisible Man from the 1930s *that* highly,--

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Well, its effects were pretty astonishing for the time, I guess -- how Rains unspools the bandages from around his head -- but I think this went into history because of the CONCEPT -- its right up there with bringing a dead body back to life(Frankenstein) or a man who turns into a wolf(The Wolf Man/Psycho in simile)....here, a man who can go anywhere without being detected -- terrorizing al of us, and growing in ego-borne paranoiac power.

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and no subsequent Invisibility-themed films have been especially distinguished that I'm aware of.

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Nothing too major, though in the 90's, Chevy Chase did "The Memoirs of an Invisible Man" semi-straight as a spy story; and the 2000 "Hollow Man" (by Paul Verhoeven) posited Kevin Bacon's invisible man as a psycho who inivisibly fondles and rapes and kills with impunity (we also get the effect of the invisibility wearing off to reveal Bacon as an antomy chart come to life; its sickening.)

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This track record suggests that this property was a good target for a remake, and the basic idea of making the Invisible Man embody & literalize misogyny & Patriarchy that's acting everywhere but always insidiously/deniably is nifty; obvious but ingenious in the way that Get Out was.

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Yes, all of this is true. Sleeping with the Enemy is the template; the concept of a man who controls and abuses his "beloved" woman is chilling and enraging and , we know, all too true in real life. Make the man a poor lower class individual and you have a sad story of underclass misogyny, but make him a rich Silicon Valley genius...you've got yourself a thriller.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Execution sounds close to top notch. I look forward to seeing this one - maybe next week.

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Sorry about the spoiler. But years ago I recall reading the Django Unchained script before seeing the movie and it was fun to see things I'd read unfurl. Basically, I DID see the movie a first time -- on paper, rather than in the theater.

I'm reminded here of how myself and other kids on the recess schoolyard couldn't WAIT to report to each other about gory(or semi-gory) scenes we had just seen in movies at the theaters or on TV. You just want to share the excitement. Psycho got this kind of schoolyard chat-up, as did the lesser(but still fun) House on Haunted Hill. Its kind of uplifting to get the same feeling at my age. "I'm growing older but not up."

Also..even here...I've elected not to spoil EVERYTHING.

I hope you enjoy it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

UPDATE: While I would say this is likely the work of "paid internet advocates" (but maybe not) indeed there are now some articles up on the internet about "the restaurant scene in The Invisible Man" which suggest it really did 'hit big." Its a classic scene in its own way...and I think the fact that Hitchcock's invisible fingerprints are all over it can be said to be a most satisfying homage. Even if most people don't know that.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

here's the NY Times's so-so piece on the scene:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/movies/invisible-man-shocking-scene.html

The article traces the evolution of the sort of scene it is from Psycho to Parasite.

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Thank you for the link. This would seem to be the most "prestigious" of the articles on this "restaurant scene" and its illustrious forbears(one only a few months ago - the now enshrined "Parasite.")

I"d like to talk a bit more about the restaurant scene AND its forbears -- I won't cover any other major spoiler scenes in The Invisible Man perhaps until you (and others?) have seen it and have thoughts.

First of all, a "technical plot matter" about the scene: I'd have to see it again to double-check: I now think that Moss doesn't "pick up the knife" after the murder but rather that The Invisible Man PUTS IT IN HER HAND. That's a problem with him, he can be anywhere and he can force you to do physical things.

Recall that when the knife suddenly appears in the UN diplomat's back in NXNW, some critics said that Grant "pulls the knife out in his hand," but it is more like Grant, in trying to support the falling dead man, grabs the knife for support and it comes out in his hand, just in time for witnesses to see the knife in Grant's hand. So the same here with Moss, she has the knife PLACED in her hand in time for the witnesses to see.

The restaurant scene is grimmer, bloodier, sadder and more enraging than the NXNW scene(the sister is known to us and very sympathetic)...but it still has that element of humor: uh NO, Moss has been set up royally with witnesses! (A 1976 movie that did this bit "funnier still" was Silver Streak, where Gene Wilder ends up with a gun placed in his hand that has just killed an undercover agent -- and witnesses scream.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Its always interesting to experience a scene like this for the first time, and to feel your own senses "reacting in real time" -- the sisters are talking; why is that knife hanging in mid-air? The throat slash(very Psycho III toilet lady -- as if somebody wanted to duplicate the effect), the witnesses reacting and running....and the realization that this scene has been "pulled off"(which creates a certain delight.)

Others may have screamed. I didn't. Rather, I murmured: "Beautiful!"

Which reminds me of one time I saw Psycho with a big crowd and right after Arbogast's murder ended with him hitting the floor and the knife coming down at him -- the audience APPLAUDED. They were applauding Hitchcock for so taking us off guard -- making us scream -- and eliminating Arbogast as a possible hero "just like that." Applause seemed the only proper reaction OTHER than screaming.

I am here going to offer MAJOR SPOILERS on LA Confidential, Minority Report, and The Departed. Here's hoping others have seen these films.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

LA Confidential came first, in 1997, and one reason it is my favorite movie of the year and the DECADE is "that scene" -- another surprise killing which ended up getting its own articles in magazines and on the net(one writer called it "the best movie scene of 1997.")

Its the one in which Kevin Spacey, a tarnished dandy of an LA police detective named Jack "The Big V" Vincennes, sits in the kitchen of his boss, Chief Dudley White(James Cromwell) late at night with no one else in the house and reports on a big break on a murder case. Spacey's Irish boss gives Spacey a cup of tea -- and shoots him through the heart, just like that. It all flashes through our minds -- nobody's at home, the Chiefs "wife and three fair daughters" are away; the tea cup in Spacey's hands was meant by Chief Dudley to stop him from reaching from his own gun, the Chief is PART of the conspiracy Spacey has unearthed, and the sly Spacey dies laughing at his own joke("Rollo Tomasi" he tells the Chief as he dies -- a name that will come back to nail the Chief as his murderer.)

The surprise of the "early death"( Spacey is first billed in LAC and dies at the end of the second act so that others can avenge him in the third), when done right, has layers of value: shock, sadness...entertainment("Gotcha!"), reverberation.

But LA Confidential had been good for other reasons before Spacey gets killed, and good for still more reasons AFTER he gets killed. Its a truly great movie with that one great scene.

And that one great scene tracks back to BOTH the shower murder in Psycho(our star gets killed before the end) and the staircase murder in Psycho(an investigator gets killed just as he is solving the case.)

A few years later, Spielberg staged an almost identical scene(boss kills cop reporting to him) in Minority Report, and it seemed stale if you knew LAC..and not in as good a movie, either.(Minority Report starts with a great premise and rather grimly wastes it as the movie goes along.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

And a few years later, Scorsese gave us The Departed and rather killed ITS hero, Leo DiCaprio, outta nowhere in the climax of the film. Somehow this death (of a very big star) didn't play like LA Confidential, perhaps because Jack Nicholson(another big star) had been "surprisingly" killed shortly before, and two supporting actors would be "surprisingly killed" later, and then one more big star would be "surprisingly" killed right at the end(Matt Damon.) Too many surprises...it got old(though that didn't stop me from declaring The Departed my favorite of 2006.) Note: The Departed has one scene where undercover cop Leo reports to HIS cop boss late at night in the latter's kitchen -- I smiled: it was an homage to LA Confidential, I think. But the boss(Martin Sheen) was a good guy, after all.

In certain ways, this restaurant scene in The Invisible Man is the best one of these "surprise killings" since LA Confidential, because it plays out in a new and "appropriate" way. The Invisible Man pulls off this frame-up and killing BECAUSE he is invisible and this is the moment he "steps up in terror" -- he's a brutal killer now, a true horror menace. He also here "tightens the screws" on his ex-lover(Moss) sending her to what looks like the jail mental ward and greater mental torture. Hes a BAD invisible man.

Reports are that this "Invisible Man" has made about $50 million worldwide -- which isn't that much in today's terms. But it is low budget(while not LOOKING low budget), a hit on its own financial terms and seems to be the American studio sleeper of these winter months. Good for it!

I have a feeling that word of mouth on the restaurant scene will bring in some more cash for it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

One thing about Hitchcock:

Psycho famously (if you didn't see the 1960 trailer) had THREE big surprises along the way: Marion getting killed in the shower, Arbogast getting killed on the stairs, and the fruit cellar revelation.

All three surprises "tie into" the restaurant killing in The Invisible Man -- a sudden change in the narrative punctuated by violence. Except with Arbogast, we are waiting for him to get attacked, so his murder doesn't come as the surprise that the shower murder did. What DOES come as surprise is how quickly and brutally he is attacked and dispatched. That sudden turn DOES feel like the restaurant scene.

And I was trying to think if Hitchcock ever did that anywhere else in his films, and I could only think of one time:

Frenzy.

The close-up on Babs Milligan and suddenly Rusk is there: "Got a place to stay?"

No build up, no suspense, just the sudden, horrific realization that Rusk has been watching Babs and has now arrived to kill her.

This effect has been called "like riding a roller coaster in the dark -- you never know when the next dip is coming."

My favorite "fun" early exit is Samuel L. Jackson in that shark movie "Deep Blue Sea."

Jackson is top billed, but about 40 minutes in , he gives a long speech about how his group of survivors can and will survive a pack of killer sharks, and then he says:

"Now the first thing we're gonna do is" -- says Jackson -- and...a shark jumps out of the water and eats him.

THAT's a roller coaster ride in the dark. and "the star dies early."

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Back to the New York Times article on the restaurant scene in The Invisible Man.

SPOILERS for Parasite:

As "Parasite" floats securely into its historic position as the first international film to win the Best Picture Oscar, I continue to ponder its cult-like popularity(which still isn't at the box office level of your garden variety superhero movie, but more "meaningful" in terms of the quality of the film.)

I also continue to struggle with my inability to get as excited about it as others are. Honestly, I feel bad about that.

I"ve been pondering it, and I think the problem is largely MY problem, as "Mainstream Man."

Take my co-favorite of 2019(along with The Irishman)...Once upon a Time in Hollywood. It has STARS in it. Real ones. Leo and Brad are as big as it gets right now. Pacino is legendary. In his own cultish way, Kurt Russell is legendary. In an even more cultish way,Bruce Dern is legendary(like Pacino and Russell, Dern comes with History attached...and more years.)

And Margot Robbie seems to have paced Jennifer Lawrence as our "It Girl."

Meanwhile, the stars of Parasite are, I assume, known South Korean stars in international markets, but I got no real star vibes from them. They were convincingly drawn PEOPLE, but not stars.

And this: as the movies become more "international" I am realizing that we are perhaps going to lose the American-based emphasis on "great dialogue" -- the kind of stuff once written by Ben Hecht, John Michael Hayes, Ernest Lehman, Joe Stefano..Tennessee Williams... Billy Wilder....William Goldman...Paddy Chayefsky...Aaron Sorkin...and yes, QT...in favor of the rather simplified subtitled dialogue in Parasite (maybe subtitles are the problem -- you can't write too much wit in subtitles.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

But Parasite reminds us that Hitchcock, despite hiring great dialogue writers, would often go for "pure cinema" -- Psycho goes for 9 long minutes from Marion saying goodnight to Norman, to sinking in the swamp , with only ONE SENTENCE of dialogue in the whole sequence("Mother, Oh God, mother..blood...BLOOD!")

Parasite joins Psycho in demonstrating that what people say isn't all that important in a good movie.

Meanwhile, on point with the NYT article: the big narrative twist in Parasite isn't a "shocker" like the restaurant murder in Invisible Man, but its a pretty big STORY shift -- the relvelation that a man has been living in hiding in the bowels of the rich family's home, revealed when that man's wife desperately invades the house to reveal his presence before he starves or dies or thirst.

I personally reacted to this revelation along the lines of "THIS is interesting -- a big twist to be sure" ...but more along the lines of plot than of "shocked surprise." (To me, this is also where Parasite starts to further indict the "poor family" as villains -- they will now victimize their fellow poor people. I guess that's the point, the poor fighting each other to survive while the rich don't care?)

I honestly have to see Parasite again before I can react more "in depth" to it. Suffice it to say that its huge popularity in critical and awards circles is something I "get" without totally warming up to the film itself. But that's my issue, nothing personal.