2023 Movie
Dir. Mark Jenkin · United Kingdom · English
A folk horror film that is as visually stunning as it is confusingly vague
After 90 minutes of watching folkloric spring and a lone volunteer’s descent into madness, it soon becomes clear to the audience that Enys Men sacrifices its narrative for visual and sonic feats. The soundscape of dripping water, whistling wind, and crunching footsteps layered upon a montage of old-grain textured visuals qualify this as a sensory piece of art. But merely showing how the repetitive and lonely life of the volunteer progresses into troubling hallucinations, body horror, and mysterious apparitions makes this arthouse film too vague to parse. There’s no doubt that director Mark Jenkin can create an immersive and atmospheric film, but the ASMR of it all falls flat without a graspable story underneath.
A wildlife volunteer on an uninhabited island off the British coast descends into a terrifying madness that challenges her grip on reality and pushes her into a living nightmare.
"A real trip, and more than just another retro ‘folk horror’ to chuck on the pile."
— David Jenkins
"It's admirable that Jenkin resists the temptation to over-explain or wrap up proceedings with a neat narrative bow, but there's a limited impact to him just rearranging the existing pieces on the board."
— Leila Latif
Enys Men is a folk horror film about a woman who is sent to observe a rare flower on an uninhabited island, but soon begins to experience strange and disturbing visions.
The film is shot using a 16 mm camera, and that choice gives the final product most of its character. But paired with minimal dialogue, it’s clear how much of this appeal begins and ends with the editing. Whether to fit the folk setting, enhance the unsettling wide shots, or smother us in the protagonist's loneliness, the camera does all the heavy lifting. It would be a stretch to call this horror, but the attempts at it visually are commendable.
I'm not usually a fan of "ending explained" articles but it's a must for this one.
Cannes
1 nom
Kerine Wint is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. When she’s not absorbed in anime and weird docu-series, she reviews speculative fiction for Fiyah Lit Magazine or designs album covers and magazines. As for her film taste, One Cut of the Dead (2017), The Lure (2015), Inu-Oh (2021), and Dear Ex (2018) sum it up pretty well.
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