Men (2022)
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a24films.com
I love Alex Garland, I love A24, so naturally, I sought out this film. Men is a folk horror film. The Green Man element (the nature part) of the film really reminded me of former horror films like The Wicker Man and Midsomer… all under that folk horror subcategory.
Men is about a woman named Harper Marlowe, who is trying to heal and cope after her husband’s suicide. She goes on holiday at a nice quiet Cotson manor in a small village.
It’s anything but a relaxing stay, as slowly it becomes a horror story about a woman trying to survive all alone. At first, it’s just small, everyday out of place things, like seeing a shadowy figure on the other side of the tunnel. Seeing a naked man outside of an abandoned structure. Those kind of weird unsettling things.
While the first half of the film is slow-burning horror… the second part is more intense and in your face. It’s clear that someone, or perhaps something supernatural, is stalking Harper. Is it in her head or is it real?
Personally speaking, I would have prefer if the movie would have been vague about reality vs the supernatural… but at the end, it’s all supernatural, especially the end with the various birthing.
To me, how I interpreted the film, that the whole thing was in Harper’s head, down her her crashing her car.
Like Garland’s previous Devs television show, I thought the title was bad. My thoughts for Men is the same… the name is just a bad name for a horror film. I know it’s cliché, but they could’ve just called this A Haunting at Cotson Manor, and it would’ve been a better title.
Crimes of the Future (2022)
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crimesofthefuture.film
I love David Cronenberg and own many Cronenberg films, including Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly. I even thought eXistenZ was genius, but for whatever reason, Crimes of the Future didn’t sit right (pun intended for the weird chair in the film) with me.
I actually own Cronenberg’s student film Crimes of the Future from 1970, but it’s not related to the 2022 film… it only shares the title. In this new film, it’s about how humans have evolved beyond or adapted to their polluted environment.
The story is about this guy named Saul Tenser, who has this syndrome, where his body develops new organs. They would constantly remove these new organs and use the surgery as performance art. The whole thing is weird… but it’s definitely a Cronenberg concept of using surgery as a metaphor for sex (like how he used car crashes as sex in Crash).
While I think the concepts and ideas are interesting, it doesn’t make for a good story, in my opinion. The story doesn’t really go anywhere and it just felt boring to me.
Personally speaking, I wish Cronenberg would do more of a eXistenZ sequel, or expand, on the video game/reality story. You can certainly explore more and go further, because it’s a brand new world of Cronenberg’s creation and not bound by rules of the earth… even if it’s in the future.
If you’re looking for a fresh Cronenberg perspective, I suggest checking out his son, Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor. This is a hard-core science fiction/horror film that is a lot more exciting than Crimes of the Future. If you want to stay in the David Cronenberg films, I suggest watching Videodrome and Scanners… they are classic Cronenberg.
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