“What the fuck are you?”
Story: After the death of her emotionally manipulative and abusive husband, Harper rents a lovely home Herefordshire. She’s gone there to heal from her recent past, and to deal with her trauma, grief, and guilt. But she sees odd men everywhere. Odd men who all look the same. Is she an unreliable narrator? Or is this screenplay just a messy slog overstuffed with metaphor? Spoiler – it’s a bit of both.
Scares: Lots of dread and odd creepiness.
Splat Factor: A bloody Sue-of-side, stab wounds, and a weird body horror climax.
Subgenre: Weird Patriarchal Horrors
Year Released: 2022
Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Original
Trick or Treat?: I’d been fascinated by the trailer for this film when it hit theaters. But I never seemed to get around to it. Now, after watching it? I can see I was simply trying to avoid a clunker. Oops.
There’s a weirdness here that writer/director Alex Garland may have tried to use as metaphor, but failed at fully accomplishing. Instead, Men feels weird for the sake of it. Men is simply odd. Okay, beautifully odd, but odd nonetheless.
I wanted to like this one. I really did. I’m a fan of Garland’s other work, and the premise of a woman who’s trying to deal with tragedy and move on from an abusive relationship sounded amazing. But the film dumps its themes and symbolism at your feet, expecting you to do something with it all. And honestly? It wasn’t that commanding of a story for me to want to put the work in.
As with his other films, Garland knows how to work with a top notch cinematographer. Absolutely gorgeous country scenery pulled me in immediately. Lush woods, tiny bluebells, a beautifully spooky bridge tunnel perfect for echoes.. But this beauty quickly turns desolate, and strange. Couple that with the similarity unique musical score – a mix of religious madrigals/hymns, and echoes – and the film is an hour and a half of fever dream that ends in one of the most eldritch abominations of a climax ever put to film. Sadly, I don’t mean that as a compliment.
There’s a fascinating story about a woman trying to get past a traumatic experience in here. Cranking the weird up to 11 waters down that punch. And I love weird! Oddity is an example of how to do something like this without getting lost in the sauce. Men could have learned a thing or two.
Perhaps I’ll feel different about this one after I’ve sat with it for a while. But I doubt it. This one’s definitely not for everyone.
FYI – there’s a scene where a crow that crashed through a window is put out of it’s misery. In case, like me, you’d want to know if things like that happen in a film.
Score: 2 out of 5 pumpkins. One for the talented Jessie Buckley, who’s trying her best as Harper. Another for the beautiful cinematography.
