Movie Review: 'Enys Men'

Enys Men (2023)

Directed by Mark Jenkin

Written by Mark Jenkin

Starring Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe

Release Date January 13th, 2023

Published June 21st, 2023

Enys Men, pronounced, N-is Main, is Cornish for Stone Island. That's the setting for the story unfolding patiently and disquietingly in Mark Jenkin's unsettling atmospheric drama. Mary Woodvine stars as a character only known as 'The Volunteer.' The Volunteer has taken on the job of chronicling the unexpected growth of new plant life on Enys Men, a place that hasn't seen new growth in some time. Each day, The Volunteer treks forth from her cottage to an oceanside cliff where she monitors the temperature surrounding the growth of this plant life.

She then treks back home to document the minute, often unchanging data. This goes on day after day after day, without a deviation from her pattern. It's a pattern that also includes a stop at an ancient well where she tests the height of the water by dropping a rock and tracking the seconds it takes to make contact with the bottom of the well. This too is unchanging until one day, it changes. Even this doesn't seem to shake The Volunteer from her routine. She makes note of it and goes on with her assignment. Occasionally, The Volunteer will share an awkward and rushed C.B conversation with a long time friend. Beyond that, The Volunteer appears to be alone. Until she isn't.

The disquieting nature of the narrative begins to truly take hold as The Volunteer begins hearing things on the roof of her cottage. It's a little girl, her own little girl, it would seem. Is this child here with her? There has been no evidence until this point that The Volunteer wasn't alone. The strange nature of the child first appearing on top of the cabin and then being a sort of ghostly presence inside the cabin, one that is only mildly commented upon, lends a further air of discomfort to what is unfolding. The Volunteer barely bats an eye over the sudden appearance of her apparent child. It's as if she's not at all surprised.

While we live in this growing tension, the outside world encroaching upon the insular world of The Volunteer's cabin, Enys Men begins to tighten its grip on us, ever so gently, until we begin to feel the tense squeeze of the plot and are forced into experiencing the growing tension because you simply cannot tear yourself away from the story unfolding. Enys Men is strange, unpredictable, and unafraid of patiently building, brick by brick, an atmosphere of increasing dread. Writer-Director Mark Jenkin masterfully holds us in place as he pays off the revelations of his story, until the film ends in the only manner, seemingly, it could possibly end.

Enys Men looks incredible. Writer-Director Mark Jenkin evokes the look of a 1970s English Horror movie, a very specifically aged look that makes Enys Men feel like footage that was shot some time in the 1970s and assembled for release as a found footage horror movie. It's not a found footage movie, it's very much a narrative feature, it's merely the look of something that was found in a vault years ago and pieced together in brilliant fashion. The look adds a haunting quality to the story unfolding.

Enys Men is not for everyone. If you lack the patience to allow a movie to build toward something, you won't enjoy Enys Men. This is a movie that rewards your patient and attentive watching. It's a movie that reveals things not with a flourish, but with subtle visual detail. The film builds momentum and tension in the third act wonderfully and, if you were on board for the brilliantly modestly paced opening act, you are greatly rewarded for your patience in the end by an incredible piece of filmmaking. I highly recommend seeing Enys Men whenever the opportunity presents itself.

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