Men (film): A scary. gory, and very strange cinematic ride

I don't remember where this got recommended to me but it ended up on my list for some reason. For the most part I am glad I watched it because it is a different kind of horror film but there is this one sequence towards the end of the movie that I think almost anyone that watches it is going to find extremely gross. I'm not going to spoil what happens but this has to be one of the strangest and disgusting sequences of events that I have ever seen in the history of me watching films.

Other than that the movie is pretty damn captivating all the way through and it once again, one of the few movies I have watched without looking at my phone at all, in recent years.

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When a film has the same mind behind it as the person who brought us Ex-Machina this is something that is going to drag me in without even knowing anything about it - which is exactly what I did. I knew nothing about this movie going in and honestly, you don't need to. While the start of the film could be considered a bit slow, they speed things along by creating an out-of-order montage of the events that got our main character "Harper " to the point that she is in where she is staying in an out-of-the-way cottage in the English countryside. She came here to relax and unwind and get away from the world and well, you can tell very quickly that this area that she is in has different plans for her than that.

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She starts to encounter some very strange people on her walks and even on the property that she is renting. All of the people that she encounters that are giving her a hassle are men, and at first I thought this was going to be some sort of preachy "patriarchy" something or other, but it turns out that it isn't. In fact, after you have seen this film it is going to be a bit difficult for most people to figure out what the story was at all. I just watched it and I am going to have to go and watch a video or read some sort of explanation as to what the hell I just watched.

One thing I didn't realize until reading about the film later was that many of the men that Harper encounters in this strange little town are all played by the same person, Rory Kinnear.

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It didn't occur to me while I was watching the movie that all of these people were the same actor but now looking back I can kind of see it.

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They did a very good job with the makeup and in one situation, some CGI to superimpose Rory's face onto a child's body. I thought the child did look a bit strange but at no point did I definitely know that this was CGI and this is impressive when you consider the rather small overall budget of less-than $10 million.

Basically, this film is a psychological thriller / horror that will have you questioning what is real and what is imagined. There are some rather convenient sections where certain people turn up at certain times and of course the ubiquitous episode of mobile phone not working when you need it to the most.

Should I watch it?

I'm gonna put this one on the list for people that can handle gore and some really obscene and difficult to watch scenes if you are going to make it through this. I know a lot of folks out there that would probably want to turn it off when some of the more gory scenes happen. Even though it does have these situations, they are few and far between so it isn't a gore-fest like the Saw movies are. I would say that the one particular 5 minutes of the film is far more disturbing than anything that Saw ever did though. You will need a strong stomach to get all the way through this. I will admit that even I fast-forwarded through a few parts of it because it was too tough to watch.

However, the acting performances by the lead actress and Academy Award Nominee Jessie Buckley and in-particular Rory Kinnear who plays a dozen roles, are quite outstanding and for the right person, this can be a great cinematic experience.