Men review – Alex Garland’s folk horror is an anti-masculine misfire

In this modern era of masculine reckoning, that title lands with a single syllable of doom. Alex Garland's third filmic effort as writer-director, Men, was perhaps dreamed up following accusations that his films contained an anti-feminist slant. Not a theory this writer would subscribe to, by any means, though a take that could very well have inspired his folk horror about how thousands of years of “men on top” has resulted in a toxic, patriarchal swamp of a society, and how our past relationships continue to haunt us into the present.

Jessie Buckley, fresh from her stellar work in The Lost Daughter, reaffirms she is once again one of today's most commanding screen presences, despite being dealt an underwritten role. Here she is Harper Marlowe, a troubled woman who has retreated to the English countryside in order to escape the terrors of the past: in this case, a violent, toxic relationship with ex-husband James (Paapa Essiedu). It should be a chance to recoup, but things are off right from the start.

The film's most inventive turn (gimmick?) is that actor Rory Kinnear plays all of the men she encounters while out in the country, from bumbling toff Geoffrey to a creepy priest, by way of wigs and prosthetics, a visual manifestation of the wounds that have scarred Harper and left her distrusting of the other sex. Nobody outright says “You men are the same!” in this movie, but that is undeniably the message it wants to leave us with.

Garland's greatest skill as an artist, ever since his smart, compulsive debut novel The Beach, made into a lesser film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and more recently with Ex Machina, Annihilation and his underrated TV series Devs, has always been an ability to blend self-aware pulp with intelligent commentary on culture, humanity and science. But here he descends into the realms of the allegorical to crippling effect: this is a movie without anything remotely tangible to chew on, just minor observations cloaked in vaguely intriguing “horror” imagery that occasionally veers into unintentional parody.

The film eventually falls into the tropes of the cat and mouse chase thriller, with a final touch of cosmic body horror nightmare. But the script is so lean that the images are mostly left to speak for themselves – and they don’t really tell us anything. As an assortment of men casually dismiss, talk down to, and try to come on to Harper, the point is made within minutes and Garland is left with nowhere to go. There’s also an uncomfortable line between comedy and horror here that I’m not sure is entirely deliberate. And while Kinnear is well-cast, there’s a feeling that he is never quite used enough – not to the degree that his multiple appearances overwhelm us as they are supposed to overwhelm Harper.

The film’s aesthetic is crisp and attractive but also uninventive; none of the weird visual flourish that Garland showcased on his far superior and trippy Annihilation. As Men restates the same basic point over and over again, it's hard to gain any real insight as to what the film intends to tell us outside of “Men, bad” (or why all the men look like Kinnear and not Harper's husband). It’s rare that this filmmaker turns out anything that is not at the very least interesting – but in leaning too far into the allegorical Garland has sacrificed what makes his unique brand compelling. It is difficult to come away without thinking a better film could have been made from the same concept.

Men was screened as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2022. It will be released in UK cinemas on 1 June.