Enys Men (UK, 2022)

As regular listeners to the podcast may know, I am a sucker for folk horror, especially that from the UK. The initial mentions I saw of Enys Men a few years ago described it as folk horror, although I’ve since encountered other opinions, categorising it as an experimental film and even questioning whether it is horror at all.

Personally, I have no problem describing Enys Men as folk horror. While it doesn’t necessarily tap into the themes of old, pagan beliefs so common to the genre, it is definitely rooted in landscape and history. More importantly, perhaps, it perfectly captures the aesthetic. This is a film set in 1973 — the year in which The Wicker Man was released — and it embodies the spirit of the time to an almost uncanny degree. And that’s good enough for me.

Enys Men is currently streaming on Channel 4 in the UK.

Synopsis

A researcher is stationed alone on an island off the coast of Cornwall, making observations about a small patch of endangered flowers. Her days follow the same routine, taking temperature readings, dropping stones down a disused mine shaft, and reading in bed. Every entry she writes in her research notes is almost identical. Only the dates of these entries and her dwindling supplies of tea and petrol suggest time is really passing.

The landscape is barren, but she seems connected to it, from the bay where a plaque commemorates the loss of a lifeboat crew to the standing stone that looms ominously in front of her cottage. A sense that something terrible is approaching grows as the anniversary of the disaster approaches.

The researcher’s reality begins breaking down when she challenges the visions she’s having of the people who used to live on this island. Time starts to behave oddly. Lichen sprouts from the flowers and then from her own body. Her visions increase as the lichen spreads, fracturing her connection to the present.

General Thoughts

British folk horror is fixated on the 1970s. This is the era when the films and TV programmes that defined the genre were made, and somehow we never left it. Even so, it’s rare to see a film that so perfectly captures the aesthetic of the time as Enys Men does. I would not have been surprised to learn that it really was made in 1973.

The austere landscape of Cornwall dominates this film. Every external shot contains something essential to the area, from the moors and craggy seashore to the standing stones and abandoned mines. The way the film draws us into the countryside fits its ecological themes perfectly.

Throughout the film, our protagonist reads A Blueprint For Survival by Edward Goldsmith. This is a short book but she never seems to make any progress, adding to the sense that time is not really passing. The book itself is an ecological text that advocates for smaller, simpler communities to avoid environmental collapse. This echoes both the isolation the protagonist is experiencing and the visions of the former community she experiences.

It is refreshing to see a horror film where the protagonist is a middle-aged woman. Horror is so often a young person’s genre, and while things have changed, casting still tends to reflect that. Mary Woodvine’s performance is marvellous, and there is an aching honesty about the way she embodies her character.

Verdict

Enys Men is a strange, unsettling film. Everything about it feels like a lost artefact from 1973, from it being shot on 16mm film stock to the sparse electronic soundtrack. The naturalistic lighting, deliberate editing, and lingering shots of the landscape could very well have come from a documentary you might have caught at the time, late at night on BBC 2.

There is very little dialogue, and it is over an hour into the film before we really see our protagonist interact with another person. This adds to the atmosphere, but makes following the story challenging. What narrative we get is minimal and fractured, using disconnected images to hint at larger truths. Although very little actually happens, the mood is saturated with dread.

All of this adds up to a film that will alienate most viewers but absolutely delight a small contingent. It is unashamedly experimental, aiming to create an emotional state rather than tell us a story. In that, it is completely successful.

I can’t imagine Enys Men being the highlight of anyone’s Halloween watch party, but it may be a film to save for some wet and windy evening when the ghosts of the land are calling.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Heretic (USA, 2024)
The Sadness (Taiwan, 2021)
The Uninvited (USA, 1944)
The Lodge (UK/USA, 2019)
WolfCop (Canada, 2014)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
The Monkey (USA, 2025)
Sister Midnight (India/UK, 2024)
Roadgames (Australia, 1981)
Nightmare City (Italy, 1985)
Dangerous Animals (Australia, 2025)
Dead Talents Society (Taiwan, 2024)
Winterbeast (USA, 1992)
Byzantium (UK/Ireland, 2013)
The Ugly Stepsister (Norway, 2025)
A Page of Madness (Japan, 1926)
Heart Eyes (USA, 2025)
Grafted (New Zealand, 2024)
Arrebato (Spain, 1979)
Hatching (Finland, 2022)
Abigail (USA, 2024)
Ganja & Hess (USA, 1973)
The Devil’s Bath (Austria, 2025)
Pieces (Spain, 1982)
Infested (France, 2023)
Best Wishes to All (Japan, 2022)
A Cat in the Brain (Italy, 1990)
Enys Men (UK, 2022)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954)
Perewangan (Indonesia, 2024)
Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.