Men review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month, I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, and some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
MEN review
It was on the list to watch. Not for any particular reason. Certainly looked interesting. Shout to my friend Lucy though for saying I should definitely watch it. I think I saw a headline of another review of this film where this person said it was a great movie, but they hated watching it. Kind of sounds about right.
A24 whom you know I gush over for their movies succeeds again with 2022’s Men. Got to include that Alex Garland made this film. He of writing 28 Days Later and the director of Civil War. Simply put, it’s a mix of folk horror, body horror and abuse. That’s very simply put though.
Jessie Buckley plays the character of Harper, a British woman who is on a vacation (sorry, on holiday) after what we believe is the suicide of her husband. Surreal shots of a falling man in slow motion precede much of this. She rents a lovely home in Herefordshire from a man named Geoffrey who seems, odd but nice enough. The home is possibly as old as Shakespeare he mentions. You can’t help but know something interesting is going to happen after she eats a pear from the garden in the back of the house only to be told by Geoffrey that she mustn’t – forbidden fruit. Little odd things happen to her as she explores the area. A naked man with a cut up face follows her on a walk then shows up at the house, sticks his arm through the mail slot, and is the arrested.
Those things are good little scares and creepy elements for a horror film but aren’t the real fear in this film. The audience is shown flashback scenes to the situation between Harper and her husband James. Filtered in this hazy, orange color we see the couple engaging in arguments. Not your simple little things, either. Harper is talking divorce and James really takes it to another place when he mentions he will kill himself if she does that. James is emotionally and physically abusive and essentially says that if he does kill himself, it’s her fault. You side with her as this scene becomes a little more uncomfortable. Then it becomes frightening. James hits her and she falls into the kitchen, crashing into some cabinets. He makes a hollow attempt to apologize which she then becomes furious and throws him out. We then see him fall to his death, and in a later flashback, see his mangled corpse. Shattered ankle, and one arm impaled on a gate almost split in half.
Later on her holiday, Harper visits a church where she sees objects embodying the Green Man – a symbol of rebirth. She encounters a teenage boy who calls her a bitch and then meets a priest. The two sit and talk and the topic moves to James. As the two get deeper into it, he tries to suggest that if she had just apologized to James, none of this would have happened. Angry as hell, she leaves and finds her way to a bar where she sees Geoffrey again – and we can’t help but notice the patrons in the bar are all men, and all kind of look like Geoffrey.
After returning home, a bird enters the home, where it is critically wounded and killed by Geoffrey. The naked man returns and once again sticks his arm through the mail slot, but this time Harper stabs him midway up the arm. He then proceeds to pull his arm back out of the slot, fileting it down the middle. We’ve seen this injury earlier, have we not? After this, the younger boy and the priest from the church appear, both similarly injured. They torment her and attempt to rape her.
At the conclusion of this picture, the naked man returns appearing as the Green Man who gives birth, yes literally, to the teenage boy and the strange, Cronenbergesque forms of delivery continue until James is delivered back into this world. The two sit on a couch and when asked what he wants, his reply is her love.
If you watched Men you were confused, maybe you laughed, and you probably needed to read about whatever it was you just saw.
What I saw was the story of every woman’s fear and unfortunately, often reality of the world’s treatment from men. Horrible gaslighting as we see in the scenes of them arguing, and the suggestion that she should apologize for the abuse from her husband. The film’s title is pretty simple but says a lot and while this film has no concrete answers, we get questions about how people are treated. Maybe a reminder of how men still hold so much control. I have mentioned before about A24 making excellent films – films that deal with real life horror. What else do you need? Remember not to eat the forbidden fruit.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn8mMn_r5TE