Having just considered the theologically sophisticated After School (1988), it is time to look at a later film that is just as sophisticated and entertaining as that classic. Of course, I am speaking of Invisible Enemies (1997), a short film that explores in great detail the Protestant point of view while borrowing some plot elements from John Carpenter's They Live (1988), namely a pair of glasses that allows the viewer to see the invisible world that exists around them.
Some of your universe's critics are unkind to the deep exploration of theological debate. For example, reviewer Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi writes, "the script is hilariously inept, even if we set the religious stuff aside. The constant interruption of the flashbacks by the superfluous father-son exchange breaks the flow, the characters are cardboards, and the emotional climax involves an absurdly contrived situation." And reviewer AvantEmoji calls the film "One of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen."
Read on for the truth about Invisible Enemies...
The film begins in the distant future of 2024 A.D. A middle-aged man and his teenaged son ride up an elevator to a vacant warehouse loft. The father says, “You know I’m always telling you that life isn’t neutral?”
“Always,” replies the son, whose name is Trip.
“I want to tell you how I found that out, okay? I want to tell you a story.” First, however, Trip’s father, named Jackson, hands Trip a pair of wire-frame spectacles. “What I saw through those changed me, Trip.”
Jackson begins his story, set in the 1990s. He and a young blind woman named Cindy are going for a trust walk in a suburban neighborhood, which involves Jackson walking with a blindfold covering his eyes. “Learn to trust all your senses,” Cindy tells him. Then her cane taps against something in the grass: a glasses case. Jackson decides to keep the fateful spectacles.
Later, Jackson sees the glasses are inscribed with a Latin phrase. Before he can investigate the meaning, he is dragged to class by his roommate Dre. In class, the professor is giving a perhaps relevant lecture about the foolishness of only believing what you can see with your eyes. "Five years after the discovery of X-rays," the professor says loudly to his class, "FIVE YEARS...Lord Kelvin, the most renowned scientist of his day, was still decrying X-rays are a hoax because he had not seen them work."
The professor then shows a film in class -- a film we do not see, but based on the audio it is a film suitable for elementary school children about how microscopes allow us to see previously unseen worlds. As the film plays, Jackson opens the glasses case and puts on the glasses. Suddenly, he yanks the glasses off. Whatever he has seen must be very disturbing!
He quickly tries the glasses on again, but this time he keeps them on longer. However, whatever he sees (the filmmakers do not let the audience in on his perceptions) must be very disturbing. He runs out of class.
Back at his bedroom, Jackson uses his new-tangled computer to attempt to translate the inscription on the glasses. "Yikes," he says. "This could take a while."
The film cuts to Jackson driving a car (apparently the translation is still in progress). He, perhaps unwisely, puts the glasses on again as he drives. As he drives past houses, he sees flashes of arguments occurring inside each house -- one man tells his son that if he lives in his house, he must obey his rules, so the son says he will move out; another man says that if something is expected then it's not cheating.
Jackson arrives at his destination, a rooftop lounge where Cindy and Dre are coincidentally arguing with two other students about believing what they cannot see. "You don't believe in angels and demons because you can't see them?" Dre asks incredulously. "I believe in all kinds of stuff I can't see. Gravity, radio waves, X-rays."
The group is a Bible study group, so Cindy reads a passage from her Braille Bible.
Jackson interrupts the study session. "When I ran out of class today -- you guys don't know about that, but you do -- it was like I was going crazy or something. I thought I had like a brain tumor. What I had was these." He shows everyone the glasses. "When I put these on, I can see what's going on in other people's lives. You guys, this is serious. I finally got it. It's like the devil's collecting souls and he's got like a zillion ways to do it. He's trying to destroy us! It's all right here, in plain Latin."
Jackson admits he hasn't translated the Latin yet, but he is certain that everything he does is affected by the spiritual realm, and the devil is trying to deceive them.
Dre tries the glasses but he doesn't see anything unusual or spiritual. "We all thought you were funny in high school," Dre tells Jackson, "but nobody's laughing now."
Jackson goes home and uses the computer to translate the phrase word by word. (It should be noted that this is a very important scene, as it takes about 10 minutes out of the film's 37-minute runtime.) We never find out what the inscription fully means, but has something to do with the devil and visions of evil.
Later, Jackson, Cindy, and Dre visit Jackson's mother's house, where Jackson tries to smooth over an argument between his sister Allie and their alcoholic mother. "I worry about you," Jackson tells his sister. "Look, just don't turn into Ma, okay?"
Allie replies sarcastically, "This is the weekend. And as long as I can keep it together during the week, what I do with my weekends is whose business, Jackson? That's right. It's my business!"
At night, Jackson puts the glasses on again. As he walks through the dark house, he hears voices (apparently through the glasses) from his sister's bedroom.
"The most important task -- have you accomplished it?" a demonic voice says.
"The window is found, my lord," says another demonic voice.
"Ah, none too soon. Tellus , a boy has found it. A boy!"
"He has looked through?"
"He has."
"We must remain hidden. Adjust the window, and silence the boy."
"My lord, he is not ours."
"His friend," says one voice, and we see a photo of Dre, "who serves their book in the light, but images of flesh in the dark."
The voices then turn to the subject of Jackson's sister Allie. "She is distracted. She will be at the gathering tonight. Touch her."
"And the coward at the door?" the other voice says, referring to Jackson. Suddenly, a demonic wind opens the door and shoves Jackson against the wall. A demonic face appears and growls, "I'll take those glasses, boy!"
Jackson says, "Oh, Lord Jesus!" This is enough to send the demon back to wherever it originated. Jackson is able to keep the magic glasses. "Allie! They're gonna try and take Allie tonight!"
Jackson runs out of the house, where he bumps into Dre, who asks what is going on. Jackson tells Dre the glasses allow him to see things that others cannot see. The inscription, he says, translates to "To one man, a vision of the Devil."
"Jackson..." Dre protests unbelievingly.
"Dre! I know about the pornography," Jackson says, his mouth screwed up with disgust.
This convinces Dre, as of course the only way Jackson could know about Dre's pornography habit is if a demon told him through magic spectacles. Jackson drives Dre toward the warehouse where Allie's party is being held. (In a masterful bit of storytelling, that warehouse is the same place where the grown-up Jackson is telling his son Trip the story of the glasses.)
At the warehouse, young people are drinking and smoking. Jackson and Dre arrive, then immediately split up to search for Allie among the dancing young people. Their job is made easier, however, when the crowd starts chanting Allie's name. They watch her as she walks blindfolded along one of the rafters near the ceiling. (The debauchery in this film is truly shocking, though of course she has a rope tied around her waist.)
"Put the glasses on," Dre says, and Jackson obeys. He sees transparent demons around Allie. Suddenly, the rope slips away from her; she is no longer safe on the rafter. Then an invisible demon starts to pound the rafter with its fist, causing Allie to become shaky.
Dre punches a random partygoer while Jackson climbs up a fence to the rafter to help his sister. The demons attempt to stop him by shooting lighting from their hands but this is ineffective. Jackson stands on the wooden beam and says, "Jesus, I can't do it alone." This results in a blinding light shining on him. "The struggle is not against flesh and blood. The struggle is with the lord Jesus Christ."
Light pours out of Jackson, dispelling the demons. He helps Allie and all the partygoers applaud.
The next day, in the film's denouement, Jackson, Dre, and Cindy sit on Jackson's family porch and vow to be better people as the camera circles around them a la De Palma. "I just can't help thinking about me," Dre says. "I never meant to get in so deep." (Of course, he is speaking about pornography.)
"Who does, Dre?" Cindy asks. "I never meant to be so sarcastic. I was just really angry about being blind, you know."
"You got that right," Jackson says. "Everybody was scared of you in high school."
Cindy responds, "We're not unarmed in this battle. We've got the Bible. We've got each other. Actually, we've got the whole body of Christ. The spirit of God lives within us."
Realizing Allie might still be open to demonic influence, Jackson leaves Dre and Cindy to pray. He goes to Allie's room and attempts to convince her the only way to be safe is to follow Jesus. He admits he hasn't been the best brother but Allie scoffs, saying, "I've done ten times worse than anything you've ever dreamed. You don't even want to know the stunts I've pulled." (If they are worse than walking blindfolded along a rafter with a rope around your waist, I confess I too don't want to know anything that could be even more horrific.) Jackson cajoles Allie enough for her to give in.
The film shifts back to the future of 2024. Jackson admits to his son that the glasses don't work anymore. "I've tried from time to time, but all they did was give me a headache." He tells his son that he hasn't brought up the glasses until now because he wanted his son to know that "the glasses wouldn't be the point for you. You'd know that this is about the power of Christ. Now, you know that, don't you?"
"Yeah. Do you ever...miss them?"
"You know, I guess I do. There was something physical that you could touch and see, hear. But as Cindy keeps reminding me, we walk by faith, not by sight."
"Speaking of whom, she is really going to be waiting for us now." The film has waited until the end to reveal the biggest twist of all: Jackson married Cindy.
The End
Invisible Enemies is an illuminating film. Despite its short run-time, it imparts a variety of life lessons. In particular, it is helpful to know that sarcasm and masturbation are avenues for invisible demons to lure people into doing dangerous things like walking on rafters in warehouses. Perhaps more importantly, it teaches us that these demons will disappear when Jesus's name is invoked. I admit that I plan to try this stratagem the next time I suspect an invisible demon is trying to make me lose my balance by pounding on the rafter on which I am trying to walk. That is a lesson that might save my life, and it might save yours as well.