“Men” is a 2022 British folk horror film written and directed by Alex Garland. The film stars Jessie Buckley as a widowed woman named Harper who travels on holiday to a countryside village but becomes disturbed and tormented by the strange men in the village, all portrayed by Rory Kinnear.
The plot follows Harper, who is dealing with the apparent suicide of her husband James. She decides to spend a holiday alone in the Herefordshire village of Cotson. 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. She then witnessed him fall from an upstairs balcony to his death, being partially impaled by a fence.
The film was released in the United States on May 20, 2022, and in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2022. It received generally positive reviews, though its narrative approach received some criticism. The film is described as a haunting exploration of grief, as it trudges an arduous road toward healing. The English countryside where Harper seeks refuge after a horrifying loss looks peaceful and inviting until strange happenings and uncomfortable encounters thwart Harper’s ambitious plans to bounce back. As a result, irremediable grief turns into a sinister undercurrent of malaise, and soon, sheer dread takes over.