What Is It?
The 2022 folk horror movie, Men, which was written and directed by Alex Garland.
Here is how A24 describes this movie:
In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper (Jessie Buckley) retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to have found 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 in visionary filmmaker Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation) feverish, shape-shifting new horror film.
My Thoughts
My brother GC and I watched this movie last night.
When I saw the trailer for this movie, I knew that it was probably going to be weird & symbolic, and that made me want to see it.
I saw reviews saying how the last 20 – 30 minutes got wild, crazy, confusing, and that most of them did not like the end; and they were correct about that ending being a wild, crazy, confusing, and symbolic end.
This movie is artsy, symbolic, confusing, pretty well shot, and Rory Kinnear & Jessie Buckley had good performances.
Unfortunately, this movie did not set up the marriage / relationship of the main character & what led to its downfall, you have to assume that it was a toxic relationship from the start.
This movie did not try to really explore or explain the themes, symbolism, et cetera; and it did not really make clear that it even had a message exactly.
There were some amazing, creepy, nasty, disturbing, unique, creative, and well-done body horror & transformation / birth scenes; they need to make a werewolf movie.
This movie had some nice visuals for the house and wilderness and church, but it felt emptier & so confusing & incomplete in its message / meaning that I would rate it a 5 – 6 out of 10.
This is not a movie that I can recommend to most people, but it is worth watching at least once for something different & to see if you can figure out its meaning / symbolism.
The end,
- John Jr
John Jr's Blog 