Men

Men

In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to find a place to heal. But someone — or something — from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her, and what begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.

  • Released: 2022-05-20
  • Runtime: 100 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
  • Stars: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, Gayle Rankin, Sarah Twomey, Zak Rothera-Oxley, Sonoya Mizuno
  • Director: Alex Garland
 Comments
  • julieshotmail - 24 June 2024
    Damsel in distress for good reason
    "Men" starts with a scene conceivably all too real, and we're buckled up for some notes of wisdom and sense of karmic justice. The movie hums along with excellent scenery as we journey through the eyes of our heroine. But suddenly "Men" traipses off into some absurd reality, eventually double-downing on some morbid horror fantasy in the end. I don't get it. I am sure the creator has a message to say, but it is overshadowed by the grotesque imagery that you would rather not see. It's provoking, yes, but still gross. The captivating Jessie Buckley carries the movie as expected, complete with her damsel in distress costume hinting that this whole showdown might just be some semblance of an alternate fairy tale.
  • glenaobrien - 26 May 2024
    Refreshingly original feminist folk horror
    Alex Garland's Men is a feminist folk horror which, though its metaphorical approach is far from subtle, is a refreshingly original film in a genre all too often typified by worn out old tropes and cliches. Recently widowed Harper (Jessie Buckley) rents a manor house in the English countryside to try to put her past behind her. Her abusive late husband James (Paapa Essiedu) is the gaslighter of all gaslighters and even after his death continues to torment her. When someone in the nearby woods begins to stalk her, she soon finds herself being stalked by every man in the village (Rory Kinnear). She finds herself in a life or death struggle to escape the clutches of a self-perpetuating Patriarchy that reproduces itself in confronting body horror scenes to rival those in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).

    The film is beautifully photographed in lovely (albeit at times eerie) locations. Buckley and Kinear's acting performances are top notch. Yet the film has not met with universal acclaim by any means, perhaps because its message seems heavy-handed and preachy. There is something about all the men of the village that we can clearly see but Harper doesn't see. That's often how it is for women in abusive relationships. How often have you seen someone being gaslit (even strangers in a public setting) and wanted to say 'Run!'? Yet (at least for some) one abusive man follows another in a cycle that ends all too often tragically in violence and death. Garland's film takes you into that experience in a horror film that is genuinely disturbing, not so much for its fantasy elements, but for the way those elements mirror reality.

    Many will find this film triggering, and you will certainly need a strong stomach during the final act. Men grotesquely give birth to men but in the final scene a pregnant woman arrives on the scene in rescue mode thus signalling the solidarity of women in the face of male control. It is left somewhat ambiguous whether Harper manages to break the cycle of abuse but a subtly stroked axe blade and a wry smile suggest that in the end she has broken free of her tormentors. Alex Garland is an impressive film maker (Ex Machina (2015), Annihilation (2018)) and for me this entry is a worthy addition to that body of work. Now I have to see his Civil War (2024).