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This article is missing information about the film’s themes and analysis. Please expand the article to include this information. Men’s valentines gift baskets details may exist on the talk page. Men is a 2022 British folk horror film written and directed by Alex Garland.
Following the apparent suicide of her husband James, Harper Marlowe decides to spend a holiday alone in the village of Cotson, Hertfordshire. Flashbacks reveal that Harper, tired of James’s emotional abuse and manipulation, intended to divorce him, leading James to threaten her with his suicide. After James punched Harper in the face, he immediately attempted to apologise, but Harper angrily locked him out of the flat. Upon arriving at the country house she is renting, Harper eats the forbidden fruit. Then she is greeted by its eccentric but well-meaning owner, Geoffrey, who gives her a tour of the house.
Harper later goes for a walk in the nearby woods and comes across a disused railway tunnel. At the other end, a human figure begins screaming and running towards her. Frightened, Harper runs back through the forest until she reaches an open field. The next day, during a video call with her friend Riley, Harper spots the same naked man in the front garden, his face covered with bloody scratches, further disturbing her. Realising that the front door is slightly open, Harper quickly shuts and locks it, but the naked man sticks his hand through the letter box.
Harper calls the police and the man is arrested, with one of the arresting officers resembling Geoffrey. Harper visits a church, where images of the Green Man and Sheela na gig are carved on a font. Outside, she meets a young boy and a vicar who both bear a likeness to Geoffrey. Distressed by the recent events, Harper contacts Riley, who offers to drive to the village in the morning to accompany Harper for the rest of her holiday.
As Harper attempts to text Riley the address, her mobile phone’s service is repeatedly interrupted. She sees the policeman outside, but as the lights flicker, he disappears. One of the pub’s patrons then appears and chases Harper, who retreats into the house. As she arms herself with a knife, a window breaks in the kitchen. As Geoffrey goes into the garden, the lights flicker again and the naked man emerges, chasing Harper back into the house. When he reaches through the letter box and grabs Harper’s hand, she stabs him through the arm.
He pulls his arm out, the stuck knife ripping his arm in an extreme injury resembling the one James sustained during his fall. Both the boy and the vicar appear inside the house in turn, each of them now similarly injured. While attempting to drive away, Harper accidentally runs over Geoffrey. He aggressively pulls Harper out of her car, takes control of it and chases her before crashing into a stone wall. The naked man, now in full Green Man form, approaches Harper, his ankle now severely broken and matching another injury on James’s corpse. The naked man gives birth to the young boy, who in turn gives birth to the vicar, then Geoffrey, and finally James, heavily mutilating their bodies.
Rory Kinnear as Geoffrey, the owner of the holiday house Harper rents. You can help by adding to it. On 6 January 2021, it was announced that Alex Garland would write and direct a film for A24, his second following Ex Machina, with Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear in talks to star. Men was released in the United States on 20 May 2022 by A24 and in the United Kingdom on 1 June by Entertainment Film Distributors. 260 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6. The website’s consensus reads, “If its narrative and thematic reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, magnetic performances from a stellar cast help Men make the most of its horror provocations. 5 stars, writing: “It culminates in a protracted, effects-filled birthing sequence that manages, after 90 minutes of man-hating, to be aggressively misogynistic.