Jessie Buckley

Rory Kinnear

Paapa Essiedu

Gayle Rankin

Sarah Twomey

Zak Rothera-Oxley

Sonoya Mizuno

Nick Freemantle

Austin Aplin

David Simpson

Heather Leat

Clare St. John

Danni Lizaitis

Barney Shakespeare

Rob Hardy

Phil Chapman

Jennifer Groves

Raquel Guirro

Edward Chiswell Jones

Jamie Edgell

Dominic Hailstone

Howard Bargroff

Ben Barker

Robby Brown

Niall Cropper

Gillian Dodders

Zoe Freed

Danny Freemantle

Glen Gathard

James Gregory

Natasha Haycocks

Rebecca Heathcote

Dayo James

Mitch Low

Robert Malone

Keith Morrison

Adam Oakley

Fergus Pateman

Richard Spooner

Jasper Thorn

Jodi Corpe

Sara Fagan

Julian Hutcheson

Samuel James

Chang Kim

Sebastian Lochmann

Sunita Parmar

Nicole Stafford

Viktoria Stieber

Tristan Versluis

Billie Watkins

Raquel Álvarez

Jo Berglund

Andrew Hewett

George Knowles

Adam McCreight

Oliver Crockett

Bas Schwarz

Adrián Dimas

Rupert Coulson

Rachel Park

San Davey

Miroslav Shestakov

Claudia Bradbury

Paul Bailey

Richard Leggett

Christina Low

Cahal Bannon

Jake Roberts

Kharmel Cochrane

Mark Digby

Lisa Duncan

Zoe Liang

Glenn Freemantle

Geoff Barrow

Ben Salisbury

Matt Curtis

Arvo Pärt

David Mir

Allon Reich

Andrew Macdonald

Alex Garland

Rachel Clark

Ryan King

Kate Molins

Neil McConville

Fredericka Lathbridge

Sam Phillips

Monty Eliot

Horror

Thriller

Fantasy

DNA Films

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

countryside

vacation

woods

flashback

church

police officer

apple tree

grieving

intruder

body horror

loss of husband

house rental

Chris Sawin

People will hate _Men_ if they go into it wanting a straightforward story or a film that has one, clear cut meaning once those end credits crawl across the screen. _Men_ doesn’t offer either of those things. The film features stunning cinematography, a mesmerizing forest sequence, and a thrilling score that is as unsettling as it is operatic. Rory Kinnear is exquisitely chilling. This is the type of horror film that is purely, disgustingly, and gloriously nasty and ambiguous. _Men_ is simultaneously a film you shouldn’t think too much about and yet absolutely think about all the time once it’s over.

**Full review:** https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Men-2022-Review-A-Bizarre-Graphic-and-Unforgettable-Folk-Horror-Film

CinemaSerf

"Harper" (Jessie Buckley) heads off to rural Gloucestershire in England to take a break after the apparent suicide of her husband "James" (Paapa Essiedu). On arrival at the manor house she has rented for a fortnight, she is welcomed by the typical country squire type in "Geoffrey" (Rory Kinnear). She goes for a walk, during which she notices that she is being followed - and the man following her is naked. Spooked, she returns to her home to find that this is just the start of some seriously bizarre goings on in this tiny hamlet. What flaws this all from the start for me is that we see everyone in this community - the policeman, vicar, schoolboy, pub landlord as variations of the same man - Kinnear, yet the "Harper" character does not seem to clock this; she certainly doesn't acknowledge it, and that just doesn't work for me. If I were in a village where everyone looked the same, I'd have been out of there in a shot. Anyway, she lingers on for a while as things become more perilous and she is clearly the focus of the malevolent intentions of this creature - and it all builds to quite a clever feat of special effects and not a great deal else. There is a largely undeveloped underlying plot line about her on-the-rocks marriage that may have had some bearing on the conclusion, but to be honest I was rather bored by the repetition of it all by then. The exterior photography is nice enough and Buckley is competent, but Kinnear's roles are all about the skills of the make up artists. The dialogue is nothing special leaving the score to work hard to try to create a sense of peril that, in the end, I felt was just ... lacking. It's no worse than many of the recent Blumhouse efforts, but that doesn't make it very good, either.

Manuel São Bento

MORE SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS @ https://www.msbreviews.com/

"Men is undoubtedly one of the most unique, macabre, weird, expectedly divisive films of the year.

Rob Hardy's cinematography is truly impressive, navigating viewers through eye-popping visual details with the help of mesmerizing makeup and VFX. The score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow is also quite atmospheric and haunting.

Nevertheless, Alex Garland exhaustively repeats his obvious, heavy-handed message to the point of losing all emotional connection with the underdeveloped protagonist. The last act focuses too much on excessive, unpleasant gore to prove a point over and over again unnecessarily, functioning as a distracting, underwhelming conclusion.

Jessie Buckley - extraordinary - deserves much better, as does the versatile Rory Kinnear, who plays multiple roles."

Rating: C

Nathan

Men, directed by Alex Garland, is a movie that fails to live up to its potential despite having some redeeming qualities.

The cinematography is fantastic and haunting, with creative shots that add to the overall experience. But this quality dips towards the end, with the director focusing more on horror elements in the tune of slasher/home invasion instead of psychological. The sound design is excellent, and the sinister feel really adds to the movie's overall mood. The acting is good, but nothing too spectacular. No performances really blew me away. However, the body horror in the movie is fantastic, and it had the hair on the back of my neck standing up. Even though I do think it is not entirely needed, I have to give props in that department.

Unfortunately, the script is pretty dreadful. The message is very in your face, overly complex and did not work for me. It was quite a turn off too, as it seemed as though the director was trying to say all men were the same and were terrible human beings. I know it had deeper meaning than that, but that surface level message is undeniable. I mean honestly, every person she encounters is such a massive piece of shit, not one person would have held out a helping hand? 

Something that did really bother me was that the movie starts off as a creative psychological horror, but takes a spin in the third act that divulges into body horror mixed with slasher elements, which really takes away from the intriguing first 45 minutes of the film. Combine that with dreadful pacing, which will result in the audience feeling like they're waiting for the movie to be over. 

Overall, Men is a forgettable movie that had potential, but unfortunately, failed to deliver in many aspects.

Score: 40%
Verdict: Poor

Men, directed by Alex Garland, is a haunting exploration of grief, trauma, and the sinister dynamics of gender, wrapped in an atmospheric and unsettling narrative.

Rory Kinnear delivers a truly epic performance, embodying multiple characters with an eerie and disturbing versatility that is nothing short of remarkable. His ability to switch between personas, each more unsettling than the last, adds a layer of dread that permeates the entire film. Kinnear’s portrayal is both chilling and mesmerising, leaving a profound impact that elevates the film’s haunting themes and invites deep reflection.

Jessie Buckley is equally superb as Harper, a woman grappling with her past while confronting an escalating series of horrors. Her performance is deeply emotional, grounding the film with a raw, visceral intensity that makes her character’s journey compelling and harrowing. Buckley’s ability to convey a wide range of emotions, from vulnerability to defiance, makes her a perfect counterpart to Kinnear’s unsettling characters.

Men is the first film in a long time to move and terrify me equally. Garland masterfully balances psychological tension with moments of sheer terror, creating an unnerving experience that is as thought-provoking as it is captivating. The film’s blend of unsettling imagery, superb performances, and a deeply unsettling atmosphere make it a standout in contemporary horror, leaving a lasting impression that is difficult to shake.

Men( 2022)

What haunts you will find you.

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A review by Chris Sawin

Written by Chris Sawin on Sun May 22 2022

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