Enys Men

Enys Men (Cornish for 'Stone Island') is a 2022 experimental folk horror film shot, composed, written and directed by Mark Jenkin. Shot on 16 mm film, it stars Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowe and John Woodvine.

Enys Men
A Cornish-language film poster for Enys Men
UK theatrical release poster in Cornish, thought to be the first use of the language in a poster for a distributed feature film
Directed byMark Jenkin
Written byMark Jenkin
Produced byDenzil Monk
Starring
CinematographyMark Jenkin
Music byMark Jenkin
Production
companies
  • Film4
  • Sound/Image Cinema Lab
  • Bosena
Distributed byBritish Film Institute
Release dates
  • 20 May 2022 (2022-05-20) (Cannes)
  • 12 January 2023 (2023-01-12) (Ireland)
  • 13 January 2023 (2023-01-13) (United Kingdom)
CountryUnited Kingdom
Box office$549,650[1]

The film was shot during the COVID-19 lockdown, and the crew prioritised creating a small carbon footprint during production. Enys Men premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was well received by critics.

Plot

Set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer's daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her as well as the viewer to question what is real and what is nightmare.[2]

The only feature that suggests a continuous, even though highly speeded up, flow of time is the appearance of a fruticose lichen growing on the flowers over three days, and simultaneously on the protagonist's body.[3]

Cast

Production

The film was shot in 21 days during the COVID-19 lockdown, which necessitated a smaller crew than was planned. The crew set out for production to have a low carbon footprint, producing only 4.55 tonnes of CO2 (compared with around 3000 tonnes for a typical film) which was offset.[4]

Release

Enys Men premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[3][5][6][7][8] In Bodmin, the film's opening night sold out within hours, and the film was a box office success for cinemas across Cornwall.[4]

NEON has purchased the North American distribution rights.

The film was promoted bilingually, with posters being produced in both English and Cornish.[9][10] It was thought to be the first instance of a distributed feature film having Cornish posters.[9]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 86 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "If its story's mysteries are ultimately less compelling than they might seem, Enys Men's retro aesthetic and intriguingly abstract visuals make this a chilly treat for horror fans."[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]

Mark Kermode, reviewing for The Guardian, gave the film five stars calling it "a richly authentic portrait of Cornwall" and saying Woodvine's performance was "quietly mesmerising".[12] Adam Scovell, writing for BBC Culture, said that the film was "a perfect, anti-romantic expression of Cornish eeriness".[13]

In an article for Far Out, Calum Russell wrote that Enys Men feels "like the spiritual continuation of Bait", Jenkin's previous film, and "more like an innovative art installation than a piece of narrative fiction".[14]

References
  1. "Enys Men". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  2. "Enys Men". Rotten Tomatoes.
  3. "Enys Men review – a supremely disquieting study of solitude". TheGuardian.com. 20 May 2022.
  4. "'Interest is off the scale': Cornish cinema fans snub Avatar for local folk horror". the Guardian. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  5. "'Enys Men' Review: A Gorgeously Grainy Folk Horror Steeped in Style but Starved of Story". 27 May 2022.
  6. "Cannes Hidden Gem: Unsettling Rocks and Cornish Creeps in Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men'". The Hollywood Reporter. 24 May 2022.
  7. "Cannes Review: Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men'". 20 May 2022.
  8. "'Enys Men' Review: An Artfully Constructed Folk Horror Film About Never-Ending Grief". 20 May 2022.
  9. "Enys Men: Film poster a Cornish language breakthrough". BBC News. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  10. Lee Trewhela (1 December 2022). "Enys Men: Cornwall director Mark 'Bait' Jenkin's new film gets early screenings in the South West". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  11. "Enys Men Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  12. Mark Kermode (15 January 2023). "Enys Men review – Mark Jenkin's Cornish psychodrama will sweep you away". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  13. Adam Scovell (12 January 2023). "Enys Men: The films that frighten us in unexplainable ways". BBC Culture. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  14. Calum Russell (11 January 2023). "'Enys Men' Review: Mark Jenkin's meditative homegrown experience". Far Out. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.