The Invisible Maniac 1990

Dornwinkle, Peter Noel Duhamel is introduced as a brilliant young boy who carries a dangerous edge. A psychiatrist tells his mother that he’s a genius in need of steady nurturing, but that his potential for madness looms if left unchecked. This warning sticks with him as a neighbor’s peeping incident becomes a seed of deep-seated trauma, leaving the mother to lash out with harsh judgments about women that will haunt him for years.

Twenty years pass, and Dornwinkle has carved a path as a scientist specializing in molecular reconstruction. He stages a high-profile demonstration of an invisibility serum for a roomful of the world’s leading minds, but the display collapses into farce and humiliation. The setback snaps his patience, and he murders four of the visiting scientists in a furious outburst. Convicted of quadruple homicide, he doesn’t go to a traditional prison; instead, he is confined to a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.

After a daring escape, Dornwinkle re-enters society under the alias Dr. Kevin Smith and takes a job as a substitute physics teacher at a high school. The students plot to harass their new instructor, a scheme he overhears, and the chemistry around him begins to bubble with danger. He continues refining the invisibility serum, and its use begins to warp his dreams, pulling him toward a disturbing fantasy life involving the girls in his class. The classroom becomes a pressure cooker as the harassment escalates, and even the school’s principal, Mrs. Cello, seduces one student before attempting to manipulate Dornwinkle herself.

When Dornwinkle rebuffs her advances, she threatens to report him and to trigger disciplinary action, and he responds in a brutal moment by killing her with a letter opener. That act, combined with the serum’s unpredictable side effects, pushes him further into rage and a murderous spree.

Now truly invisible, he starts picking off people one by one: Bubba, whom he kills with a sandwich, and Betty, who falls victim to a fire hose. Joan is drowned in a fish tank, and April is strangled. Vicky, one of his students, is killed in the girls’ shower when a radio is tossed into the water, causing electrocution, while Gordon waits outside. Gordon is killed after Dornwinkle—still unseen—pulls him off the roof in a deadly assault. After he and Mrs. Cello’s office encounter, Chet and Bunny uncover Vicky’s corpse in the girls’ locker room, blaming the mute janitor Henry in their panic.

Dornwinkle confronts Chet and Bunny; his visibility briefly returns and Chet’s struggle becomes a brutal fight as both men become invisible. A shotgun blasts, ending one life—the other survives long enough for police to arrive, misreading the scene as a suicide by Dornwinkle. As the serum wears off, Chet’s body is revealed, exposing the truth.

Newscaster Tammy Edwards reports on the sensational events, and the final stretch of the tale sees the invisible Dornwinkle regaining control, laughing as he strips her naked in a shocking, depraved twist.

Throughout the chaos, a constellation of characters threads through the story: the mother who first faced a troubling diagnosis, Dornwinkle’s colleagues and students who witness the downfall, and the authorities who close in as the body count rises. The film blends clinical intrigue with dark psychological horror, turning an experiment in science into a perilous descent into rage, invisibility, and irreversible consequences.