Men is the new A24 horror film and will surely be one of, if not the most divisive film of the year, as I expect audiences to HATE it. This won’t be for everybody, and I can already see it getting a D on Cinemascore. However, the film is the latest from writer/director Alex Garland, who I’m a big fan of, and I applaud him for never shying away from making ambitious films. If people thought that Annihilation didn’t have commercial viability, they haven’t seen anything yet, as I fully expect Men to alienate the audience even more than that film.
Men centers around Harper, who, in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to find a place to heal. However, in typical Garland fashion, someone or something from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her. What begins as simmering dread soon becomes a fully formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.
Garland continues his mission to challenge us with movies that make us feel and think so much with this film. He never gives us easy answers, and this is the type of film that stays with you and makes you want to analyze and theorize so much, which is a feeling I love for a filmmaker to give me. I feel this is his second-best film as a director after his debut, Ex-Machina.
As a fan of 80s horror, I loved his use of practical effects when the film gets violent and weird in its excellent third act, one of the best I’ve seen in a horror film in the last few years. The best way I can describe the last 15-20 minutes is that it’s a mix of Brian Yuzna’s excellent horror film Society and Episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return. It’s truly one of those you have to see to believe its third act, and in my opinion, the third act is what will make or break the film for viewers. It’s immersive and disturbing.
The imagery is fantastic thanks to mesmerizing cinematography that uses red in a very hypnotic way. I also loved how he used the score so effectively in the film. The film has a couple of flashbacks, and it’s crucial to pay attention to them as they are essential to the third act.
My beloved Jessie Buckley delivers yet another masterful performance. Garland does the same here, similar to how Charlie Kaufman was challenged in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. She’s so good at playing roles that rely on facial expressions to display horror and confusion. The level of emotions her character goes through would break most women and in those moments is when Buckley shines the most.
Rory Kinnear is one of the best British character actors working right now, and this might be the best I’ve seen of him. As we saw in the trailer, he plays pretty much every male character that Buckley encounters, and I was blown away by his range as every character has a different personality and a different look. You can tell he loved the challenge because he reveled in trying various tics. Some of the roles played were incredibly eerie and terrifying. His ability to take on all those different roles came in clutch, given how this was shot during the pandemic, and allowed Garland to overcome the lack of not having a lot of actors. I have to praise Garland for how he effortlessly put so many of Rory’s characters together in the same frame at times. The editing in those moments was awards-worthy. I also loved how it’s never outright said that every character’s nature aside from her husband looks the same. It seems she sees every man as being the same as her.
I enjoyed Paapa Essiedu’s work on I May Destroy You, so I was happy to see him in a new project, and he was so good here in the small but crucial role of Harper’s dead husband. This is an entirely different role for him, and I loved the intensity he brought to the table. However, I was shaken by his work here as I expected him to be soft-spoken, given the vibes the trailers gave me about his character.
Men is a slow burn, and I won’t lie, at times I got bored, mainly in the first act, which is the weakest part of the film, in my opinion. I know the film’s budget wasn’t very high, but while I loved Rory’s performance, seeing his face as a teenager was unsettling and not good. I wasn’t creeped out. I kind of laughed because it was so bad and uneven.
Men is the most accurate definition of elevated horror and won’t be for those that only like mainstream horror that relies on easy jump scares and cheap gore. If you like challenging horror films that make you want to revisit them to analyze other aspects, then definitely give this film a try soon.
