You could easily make the argument that the best films beg more questions than they provide answers, igniting a range of conversations and interpretations as varied as the life experiences of the theatergoers themselves. Based on that metric alone, Men earns an A+. Writer/director Alex Garland has stated that the diversity of intelligent opinions on the film is less a reflection of the film than it is a reflection of the viewers themselves. Unfortunately, this subtle but important point was missed fittingly by the gentleman a few rows in front of me who, as the credits rolled, cut off his female companion to bestow upon her what he believed was the artistic explanation of Men.
Risking falling victim to his same fate, I’ll attempt to offer my own views on Men to you, dear reader, but at least with full awareness that these views are mine and mine alone.
In Men, our heroine Harper is played by Jessie Buckley, who shone as a serial killer’s girlfriend in Beast and most recently received an Oscar nom for her portrayal of an overwhelmed young mom in The Lost Daughter. Here, too, Buckley faces a daunting task, playing a young woman on the mend after a recent tragedy took the life of her husband. Retiring for a fortnight to the English countryside, Harper at first welcomes the reprieve from the bustle of London. But someone ominous is lurking in the woods, the female friend Harper FaceTimes is hours away, and the men of the town seem to be unhelpful, creepy, and even offensive. As danger closes in from all sides, Harper must figure out how to survive the night.
After Annihilation and Ex Machina, we knew Garland’s latest effort wasn’t going to be your average horror film, but Men does check many horror boxes. Garland employs a range of tactics, from ominous and thinly veiled threats from local villagers, to some fun jump scares and impressive play with light and dark, to gore that strikes you as unexpectedly as a car accident and commands your attention just as disturbingly.
Pack down on top of it all the devastatingly terrifying feeling of being alone in a new place without knowing the difference between the house settling and an intruder, and you have an effective horror film. Let’s just say we’ve all taken those desperately-needed, post-breakup, Airbnb getaways, but if you’re on the cusp of one yourself (or even worse, on one of those trips) save seeing Men for when you’re sleeping in your own bed again.
The film also boasts a shorter cast list than character list, with Rory Kinnear 
masterfully playing a range of local townsmen who evoke in the viewer everything from rage to sympathy to disgust. Meanwhile, Buckley showcases range in an entirely different way, channeling all stages of grief into one character throughout the film, deftly navigating emotions from fury, to fear, to subtle awe.
But it’s not just the scares and top-notch acting that make this film one to watch. It’s the themes that unwind then fold in on themselves again like the petals of a peony—grief, recovery, guilt, and that age-old classic of the persistent and pressing weight of expectation men place onto the shoulders of women all while gaslighting them into submission. The film also employs nature’s cycles of life, death, and rebirth as symbols for everything from the timeless dance between man and woman, to the internal metamorphosis of trying to move on from a former love. With enough literary references to fill a college English final, Men will have viewers digging deep into the history of quoted passages in search of answers.
Far from a heavy-fisted metaphor clobbering its viewers into submission, Men inches its way into your mind as a horror film, morphs into a fable, and shatters into something no one can fully explain. Simply put? A stunner. But don’t take my word for it – check it out, come up with your favorite interpretation, and by God, please do your best to avoid mansplaining it to your companions.
SpecialK Verdict: See Men. Form an opinion. And let the conversations commence.
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