John Carpenter’s Bizarre Chevy Chase Movie Is a Different Kind of Nightmare

John Carpenter began his career with a little student-film that ballooned into a surprisingly influential, strange feature debut. Dark Star was the promising (albeit rusty) start of a truly mind-blowing run of genre films that spanned from 1974 to 1988. In this span of time, Carpenter delivered Halloween, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and Big Trouble in Little China, among others. This 11-film stretch defined his career forever, as all of those films have grown in reputation, reclaimed as masterpieces or cult classics that were misunderstood in their time.

Only on his 12th movie did Carpenter finally deliver a feature that remains a dud by nearly all accounts, and that movie is the mystifying, muddled, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, released in 1992. The film stars Chevy Chase as a stock analyst who accidentally becomes invisible and goes on the run from a villainous government agency that wants to use his abilities for purposes of espionage. Although it leads with an intriguing premise, Memoirs of an Invisible Man struggles to deliver because of the mismatched tones brought on by the various people who influenced the film, and now sticks out as one of the most forgettable efforts by both Carpenter and Chase.

‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ Was Far From a Passion Project For John Carpenter

Most of Carpenter’s great works saw him involved from their initial conception. Carpenter is on the ground floor of his many classics, with screenwriting or story credits, and a significant amount of oversight on the entire production. But Memoirs of an Invisible Man did not begin as a John Carpenter film. It was nearly made by Ivan Reitman, but he left the project after Chase was unhappy with the script, and the studio sided with the star. The script was originally penned by legendary screenwriter William Goldman, who envisioned the film as much more of a comedy. Chase clashed with Goldman, who also left the project. The film was lost in developmental hell for a couple of years before eventually landing in Carpenter’s hands.

Carpenter shaped the film around Chase’s vision, because it was clear that this was more of a star-driven project than anything else. That marked a huge shift in Carpenter’s approach, as most of his movies originated from ideas that he originally conceived. Most of Carpenter’s classics were also independently produced, so moving into a project with an A-List star and a big studio behind the scenes was a tougher experience for the hands-on director. In a 2023 Variety profile, Carpenter remarked, “It was a horror show. I really wanted to quit the business after that movie.”

Chevy Chase Clashed with the Comedic Tone of ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’

Despite Chase’s prolific star-run in comedy films, and his iconic appearances in the earliest seasons of Saturday Night Live, Chase wanted to branch out into new tones of performance with Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Chase explained to the LA Times in anticipation of the film’s release, “It’s about this guy’s dark, anxious, traumatic situation and the uncertainty of what will happen to him.” He primarily wanted the story to explore the loneliness that comes with being rendered invisible, and Chase took a lot of creative control over the script to expand on this idea.

The problem Memoirs of an Invisible Man quickly runs into is that it can never decide how much it wants to commit to Chase’s more serious side, or to remain a wacky, comedic send up of a classic monster-movie premise. There are a handful of decent gags, but in between them, Chase saddles himself to a fairly uninteresting, unremarkable character who stumbles his way into a half-baked conspiracy thriller. It’s like The Invisible Man meets Three Days of the Condor, but a much less fully realized version of both ideas. Chase’s usual bravado, charm, and comedy chops are rendered largely powerless. The only cast member who really brings something interesting to the film is Sam Neill, playing a delightfully hammy, evil government agent.

John Carpenter’s Movies Have a Strange Relationship With Critics

Memoirs of an Invisible Man remains the oldest of Carpenter’s films to not see a serious attempt at reclamation by either fans or critics. Carpenter was always in something of a losing battle with critics, who would hate his films at the time, and then hate his later films for not being as good as the films they used to hate. But this 1992 misfire is a far cry from the heights he reached with the likes of Escape From New York and other films released around that time. Carpenter didn’t stay down for long, as he quickly returned to horror with In the Mouth of Madness a few years later, one of his later works that is now held up as a great example of his mastery over genre filmmaking.

It was ultimately Chase who seemed unable to shake off the failure of Memoirs of an Invisible Man. The amount of passion and creative insight Chase brought to a project that critics and audiences both dismissed could indicate he was losing direction in his career. Chase had a few hits after that — primarily one last dip into the Griswold well with Vegas Vacation — but he was never as big as he was pre-1990s.

While the film is mostly a mess, Chase still offers a few moments of that classic movie star electricity. Unfortunately, Chase’s best moments come in the form of comedic gags that he wanted to limit throughout the runtime. The film also features some great special effects, including invisible gum chewing, or a remarkable scene where we see how rain affects Chase’s invisible form. Moments like this show something very promising at the center of this messy film. It is a frustrating watch, because it feels like two movies in conflict with one another, and that both of them could have been great on their own if the cast and crew could have committed to an idea. For Carpenter completionists, Memoirs of an Invisible Man isn’t a total disaster, and not even his worst movie — just don’t expect it to be some forgotten masterpiece.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is available to watch for free on Tubi in the U.S.

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