Not All Men? Not According to the New Movie, "Men."

It isn't often that a film comes along with a strong message that simply cannot be ignored. A message so integral to the storyline itself that removing it would mean discarding the entire movie. Men managed to be one such film. With an unflinching, in your face theme of sexism and the inherent misogyny of society as it stands now and throughout history, Men managed to bring all of that to life through visceral, truly terrifying horror.

I am a woman. As such, I have a fear of men. It's an ugly thing, really, and yet nearly all women I have spoken to have, at one point or another, been terrified of a man. Whether it's being in a bad situation, walking alone at night, acquiring a stalker who can't take no for an answer, or even in the custody of police, women have an extra layer of fear to their lives that men simply do not have, and Men illustrated it in the most perfect form; through visceral terror.

Jessie Buckley stars in Men, a new film from Alex Garland and A24

I was brought up on horror films and video games. Spending an entire lifetime being subjected to things usually regarded as terrifying has made me rather steel nerved. Spiders and snakes are my friends. Scary monsters are nothing more than cool to me. I'm fascinated by the traps featured in the SAW franchise. I haven't been easy to scare since I was too young to know better. And yet Men had me twisted in fear from start to finish, simply by painting an all too relatable story of the way that men as a species can be the worst thing to happen to a woman.

***Minor Spoilers for “Men” Follow***

Told through the tale of Harper, a woman seeking solace in the countryside after the (maybe?) suicide of her husband, and played brilliantly by Jessie Buckley, it seems like a typical set up for a horror film. The difference comes in the masterful way that the film makes a threat out of something we see every single day of our lives; a regular man.

From the opening seconds, Men is wrought with dread, but it's in the quiet moments that this quickly becomes terrifying. As any woman who has ever tried to walk alone in the beauty of nature knows, you can never fully relax. You must always be on the lookout for danger. One of those dangers is, quite simply, men. Because even though we know it's "not all men" who mean to harm us, can we ever be sure which one is following us through the woods? And how can we be so sure that we can trust one if the right opportunity presents itself to them?

During a stroll through the lush woods and grassy fields, Harper is quickly subjected to not one, but two men who drown her solitude in terror, and one of them continues his pursuit of her to her house in one of the most ghastly, disturbingly shot scenes I've seen in a horror film in many years.

Jessie Buckley’s Harper can’t even take a walk. I feel ya, Harp.

Add to this the poignantly realistic portrayal of domestic disputes with a gaslighting partner who believes their happiness is the woman’s responsibility, as well as the depressingly accurate telling of how quickly those arguments can give way to physical, male against female violence, and you have the perfect concoction of a reality-rooted horror that manages to escape words.

While the real message of the film may have wound up getting a bit muddled by the finale (I myself even lost sight of the true meaning of the film as my eyeballs were assaulted with body horror that rivaled The Thing, all while listening to a collective "What the f***?" being shared between the other theatergoers.) I think the film, at its heart, had a lot to say about the disturbing way that the world, and men, treat women.

From the vicar making excuses for the assault Harper faced, to the policeman letting Harper's stalker walk free because he "took pity" on him, to even the most trustworthy face being a deceptive front, every male character (9 of whom were played masterfully by Rory Kinnear) depicts another aspect of the ingrained misogyny that this world harbors. There's even a "child" character who calls Harper a slur for not engaging in a game of hide and seek with him, which is quickly excused by another male character, instead placing the weight on Harper's shoulders to forgive him for his indiscretion instead of on him to apologize.

Rory Kinnear is the man of many faces, and I don’t like any of them. Sorry, Rory.

There are so many layers of intelligently detailed exploits of the reality that women face on a daily basis that it's hard to mention them all here. And with an overarching theme of how this "woman hating" has been bred into humanity ever since the days of the Bible, wherein Eve was blamed for Adam's decision, I could go even deeper into my thoughts on the film, but I digress. Instead, have a look at this article, masterfully written by Nina Renata Aron, which touches on how our culture is predisposed toward misogyny, and how, in spite of movements forward, we still have a lot to learn and a long way to go.

Just as is the case with Men, this article has a deeper meaning. I'm talking about the ways in which film as a platform can be used to bring attention to issues such as this, and how, in doing so, it starts important and difficult conversations about how much we are trained to ignore, and what, if anything, can be done to rectify it.

Men makes the ever-present sexism of the world, something we've admittedly all gone a little blind to, feel oppressive, angry and raw, and I was as much furious as I was frightened. In fact, I was furious that I was frightened. Because it made me realize that the way I feel every single day of my life is not normal, but rather a learned behavior to protect myself from the threat that is being a woman.

Photo by Anete Lusina:

I myself have encountered situations similar to the ones depicted in this film far too many times to count. I've been assaulted, stalked, violated, and harassed, all with no recourse. Even calling the police resulted in a simple shrugging off of my experiences, and a recycled "give us a call if anything else happens" that I could tell had been fed to thousands of women before me, and will be fed to thousands of women after me. Being told a man didn't "break the law" by coming up, putting his arm around me and grabbing my ass.

Being told a man "can't be arrested" for hiding in the bushes out front of my house, waiting for me to come home. Being asked "what did YOU do to provoke him" after being physically assaulted by a man. Those are all things I've experienced, as well as countless other women, and yet we still shoulder the responsibility of those actions. We develop protection tactics to hopefully preserve our lives, while inadvertently putting other women at risk of being the chosen target should she not be as aware, or as protected, or as weather worn by the world in which we live.

It's a fear no one should have to have, and yet, as a whole, the female population must live with a daily level of fear that has been driven into the very fabric of our reality for as long as anyone can remember.

This isn't the first time Alex Garland has told a story like this, either. His other most notable films, Ex Machina and Annihilation, not only brought to mind important issues of identity, worth, and other aspects of misogyny, but they also featured prominent, strong female leads who broke the molds of being either the love interest of the male lead, or being a "male character with ovaries," as is so often the case with attempts at female lead characters.

All over the world, women take the blame for men's actions. She shouldn't have been dressed like that. She should shouldn't have left her drink. She shouldn't have been out at night. She shouldn't have married him. She shouldn't have gotten in the car with him.

But for all the "shouldn'ts" that are heaved onto a woman's back, who is really to blame for all of these crimes? These awful things that women have to be frightened of every moment of their lives? It's time for the narrative to change, and for men to take responsibility for the things they do against women.

Men shows the underlying hatred of women that society has convinced us is normal. And more films should have that kind of audacity and unbiased view. This movie should be starting conversations, and that's exactly what I'm doing. So let's talk about Men, men, and what we can do to make better on this world of inherent fear, sexism, and misogyny.