Ah, Universal's Dark Universe. What a lark.

For those who don't recall, basically all it amounted to was a photo (literally) that promised sexy new versions of Universal's library of monsters, including Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, Dracula and so on. Names like Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie were attached, but nothing materialised and it all eventually disappeared.

Fast-forward to now, and Universal has instead decided to opt for a different tactic - one that's far smarter, to be honest - by giving their monster IPs to genre directors. First up is 'The Invisible Man', directed by Leigh Whannell.

Horror fans will know Whannell as one of the brains behind 'Saw' and 'Insidious', the other being James Wan of 'Aquaman' fame. Last year, Whannell directed the excellent-if-underseen 'Upgrade', which played like a mixture between 'John Wick' and 'Robocop'. This time around, Whannell's in more familiar territory by mixing horror and sci-fi together for something pretty special.

Elisabeth Moss plays Cecilia, a woman who is trying to rebuild her life after her abusive ex-boyfriend, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, commits suicide. The only problem is that she thinks he's still terrorising her, and that he's now invisible. The trailer does, admittedly, give a good chunk of the story away - but, really, what you're looking at here is a lot of slick visuals and a terrifying performance by Moss.

In short, all the makings of something pretty special. 'The Invisible Man' hits Irish cinemas on February 28th, 2020.