Enys Men

With ENYS MEN, Cornish director Mark Jenkin harks back to the folk horror films of the 1970s though really, this visually arresting yet structurally non-linear film is much more complex and moves between different time frames.

To put it upfront, ENYS MEN (Cornish for Stone Island) isn’t folk horror in a classical sense. Instead, one could describe it as a metaphysical horror and a nightmarish odyssey during which past and present blend to create an atmosphere of constant unease.

The year is 1973 (or is it…): when a wildlife volunteer (Mary Woodvine) arrives on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast in order to undertake observations of a rare flower, initially her daily routine consists of precisely that. Dressed in a red raincoat (echoes of Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Don’t Look Now’ spring to mind), she seems to be the only speck of bright colour among a stunning yet barren landscape peppered with stone sculptures (some Christian, some Pagan) and other leftover artefacts from bygone times – reminders that once, this island was inhabited by a small community consisting of fishermen, miners and Bal maidens (mine women) – some of whom did not perished due to natural causes but to accidents in the mines and while out at sea. A muffled SOS radio broadcast at the beginning of the film indicates the time the story is set in, at least the largest part of it. Studying local flora and fauna – and in particular the rare flower in question – the Volunteer returns to her equally barren looking cottage at the end of each excursion, scribbling daily entrances in her diary stating there is nothing to report.

Soon though (the date in her diary shows 1st of May) things change, because during her daily observations along the rugged coastline she notices that lichen has appeared on one of the flowers. The strange flowers are seven in number – is it coincidence that this is also the number of Bal maidens in an old painting in the cottage? Soon, not only does the lichen spread onto the remaining six flowers but the lichen also starts to grow on a scar along the volunteer’s abdomen. The hitherto straightforward narrative is now turned upside down and enters the world of time loops, namely when the protagonist sees her own double – both at her present age but also as a young girl (Flo Crowe) who survived a fall from the rooftop of the cottage and badly injured her abdomen when she plummeted through a greenhouse roof. Was the volunteer on the island before? Who or what calls her back now? Is she perhaps a ghost herself? Her only contact with the outside world is a boatman (Edward Rowe) who brings her provisions and with whom she enjoys a brief dance and a sexual encounter in the cottage… but when his dead body is found floating in the unruly sea we wonder whether the SOS radio broadcast at the beginning had anything to do with his boating accident and if so, which time-loop are we talking about? Or is he also a ghost?

In a later scene, the Volunteer encounters the spectres of dead miners and also seven Bal maidens, their ancient costumes suggest a different century altogether, just like the natural world around her, in all its rot and decay, refuses to make place for the modern world. One of the most unsettling moments arrives when the Volunteer opens the front door of the cottage only to be greeted by a gigantic stone sculpture which seems to have moved from a hill right towards her (imagine the Weeping Angels in DOCTOR WHO…) as if to give a stern warning not to interfere with the natural habitat and the age-old order of things on the island…

Director Jenkin doesn’t throw any specific conclusion at us, instead, we are invited to draw our own conclusions. This may not be easy, given the film’s multi-layered and somewhat confusing narrative which not only is non-linear in structure but glides between multiple time loops.
The general eeriness is further evoked thanks to the director’s own haunting soundtrack and his unique camera methods, which lend the film its vintage quality. Shot during the Covid lockdown, ENYS MEN necessitated a smaller film crew than originally planned but perhaps – and in an ironic way – this contributed to the overall feel and atmosphere which the film exudes – a film that could just as easily be shown as part of an art installation.

This Dual Format edition (Blu-ray and DVD) offers the following Bonus Material:
Audio commentary by director Mark Jenkin and film critic Mark Kermode (2023) / Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine in conversation with Mark Kermode (2022) / Film Sounds (2023, 86 mins): Mark Jenkin and filmmaker Peter Strickland discuss the subtleties of sound in film / HAUNTERS OF THE DEEP (1984, 61 mins): a Children’s Film Foundation adventure that shares many West Cornwall locations with Enys Men / Recording the Score (2022, 6 mins) / Mark Jenkin’s audio diaries (2022, 90 mins) / The Duchy of Cornwall (1938, 15 mins): the strange beauty of Cornwall / Image gallery / Theatrical trailer / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only).