Enys Men

I watched this in a quite full small cinema in Blaenau Ffestiniog. I live horror, love independent cinema and really love independent British cinema.

However my goodwill can't detract from this one being a bit of a pretentious stinker. As an aside I hope 'Bait' isn't like 'Enys Men'.

I just could not get into it. This might have something to do with having to sit through half an hours worth of abstract art-film beforehand. But regardless, the story, the motivation of 'Enys Men' is completely shrouded in unnecessary mystery. Yes, to give it its due the viewing was incredibly intense, almost unbearable but without any payoff. The ending doesn't tie up the loose ends, which I quite like as a narratorial device but frustrated me on this occasion.

I enjoyed Bait, Jenkins' previous film so I had an idea of his odd dated style. Bait had a much more conventional narrative whereas Enys men is very layered, rhythmic and dream-like. Things like linear time and space are almost blurred occasionally. This film is highly symbolic in an almost Lynchian sense. It's unsettling in a psychological way and not in a traditional horror sense. The horror is from everyday tragedy and the haunted memories this creates.

The film is unfortunately rather boring because of the highly repetitive nature of the same person doing the same boring routine day after day. What this film lacks is stylishness and modernity. Jenkins seems obsessed with the ordinary and mundane. There are several close-ups of seagulls flying, waves crashing, woman making tea, reading a book, over and over again..... But if all you show in your films in the ordinary mundanity of life then your films will be feel that way to the viewer. Slowly more unsettling/bizarre elements are fragmented into this bland everyday existence but it doesn't break up the dull pacing.

At least after the end of the film me and my friend felt compelled to question what it all had meant. What was the point of this symbolic image or that one.

The main theme seems to be about complex unresolved grief. Grief that haunts us over and over. Survivor's guilt - what we should have done to save the person but didn't do. However, there is something more complicated than one person's grief being explored here. There is a whole Island's worth of historical grief but it is unclear how that relates to the main character in the film.

I couldn't say I would recommend this film. Maybe someone more familiar with the type of grief it was exploring would get something more out of it.

On an island there's a woman you will find, she has strange habits and she's losing most her mind, strange flowers keep her busy, cascading stones may make you dizzy, into a void that one assumes, was sometimes mined. She has a scar across her midriff from a cut, it went quite deep and nearly opened up her gut, along the mark she's growing lichen, perhaps she's rather over ripened, on the horizon, a strange rock protrudes and juts. On occasion she receives a man in boat, we find out later that he's buoyant and can float, although he clearly cannot swim, or make the most of his four limbs, as he's puffed up showing signs of a great bloat.

Imaginative stuff, but a little too abstract.

An infuriatingly dull and frustrating watch which seems to hint at lots of interesting ideas that don't develop in any way. I loved bait and while this uses a similar aesthetic it lacks anything approaching a story, character development or depth. It's also mind numbingly repetitive.

I see other reviews saying that people might not "get" what this film is really about or saying. If that's the case then gods sake please enlighten us on what there is to understand rather than smugly pontificating. I feel like in reality it's not a lot. And if it requires some prior understanding of 'Cornish culture' to understand what's going on then sorry, I don't realise I had to revise before I watched it.

This is mostly a response to these depressing reviews. Have you never watched a moody film before?

You should already know from Bait that Jenkin is an experimental filmmaker. It's an unconventional film which is about experiencing a mood and atmosphere. The film won't spoon feed you the same storytelling tropes you've already seen a million times before, so if that makes a film "bad" to you then stay away. Don't try to understand it, just watch it.

I much preferred this to Bait. I liked the sound design, the blurring of nightmare and reality and the body horror elements.

What's he got against lichen, though?