What a weird little feature, we bring you our Men movie review.
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. What begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.
Diving into a folk / 70s horror vibe Men is a very strange movie that reflects upon grief as its core subject. Anxiety-driven and surreal throughout this movie are certainly going to divide the majority of its audience.
Embodying the English countryside as its own character Men sucks us in before self-imploding towards its finale and completely loses me in this whirlwind of confusion and insanity.
A beautiful score delivers the creepy moments as Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury absolutely nail the audio dynamics of the film but no audio design on the planet can keep this script and plot in order as it waves and wobbles all over the place at times becoming completely incoherent.
Alex Garland has bought us more confusing features in the past such as Ex Machina but Men is more straightforward in its delivery as suspense combines with horror and whilst the ending loses me entirely the simple storyline is fairly easy to follow.
Consisting of a creepy young man, a questionable vicar and a naked man our lead is haunted by these figures and flashbacks of her past. There’s lots to ponder in this almost men-hating feature.
With hints towards police failing women, men’s abusive and manipulative behaviour and even verbal and sexual assault are all depicted here through numerous references and characters that Harper meets in her new town. This abuse leaves Harper to defend herself against these onslaughts but is it real? Are they just a manifestation of her past trauma?
That question is partly answered in a manic finale but even a disgusting and quite a jaw-dropping ending can’t quite allow me to fully embrace what I’ve just witnessed. In fact, I feel quite disappointed.
In a classic British slang description, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Our Rating
Summary
A film that seems like a straightforward horror before going off on a tangent of epic proportions. A film that at the end of the day just isn’t my cup of tea as I wish horrors would focus on scaring people rather than reflecting on our society, our species, our politics or any other ‘Jordan Peele’ esque nonsense that alienate me from the film I’m watching.
