In the past, plenty of filmmakers have experimented and played with various forms of crafting cinematic pieces of work. For example, one of the well-known manifestos, and filmmaking movements, is the one Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg wrote way back in 1995, “Dogme 95.” The purpose of that movement was to bring filmmaking back to its roots by avoiding the trappings of mainstream moviemaking.
Director Mark Jenkin Returns with ‘Enys Men’
Another director with his own set of rules is Cornish director Mark Jenkin. He obeys the ‘Silent Landscape Dancing Grain 13’ film manifesto not only because of his techniques and aesthetics, but for it to be a source of self-limitation. Jenkin shocked audiences and cinephiles worldwide with his feature-length directorial debut in 2019, “Bait,” because of its filmmaking procedures and thematic resonance of class conflicts, interpersonal relationships, and the balance between peace and violence. The film eluded back to the ascendance of sound and the end of silent cinema.
It left me genuinely impressed as I kept learning about Jenkin’s way of curating and preparing the various scenes while filming and in the editing room. However, that isn’t the only reason why I loved it. “Bait” felt like a horror picture without actually being one. The atmosphere is eerie, and its black-and-white cinematography adds to that mysterious and dread-induced sensation. In addition, there was a long-enduring fear of loss in the film, where tradition, heritage, and identity were deemed lost as time passed. The characters feared for their respective futures as an ongoing deterioration of their hometown.
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Three years have passed since Mark Jenkin’s acclaimed breakout work, and now he’s back with his sophomore feature, “Enys Men”—a film that has been described as a hypnotic and silent descent into madness. And like Jenkin’s previous feature, this is a horror film, but far more explicitly, as its narrative confines in the genre more than before.
A Lone Woman’s Rituals Add to the Film’s Sense of Dread
“Enys Men” (with its Cornish pronunciation being more like ‘Mane’) is set in April 1973, on the titular windswept and deserted island off the coast of Cornwall, an old miner’s spot and spectator to an abundance of shipwrecks. The setting is already filled with dread as the cathartic sensation of isolation jumps out of the screen and covers the viewers’ minds with a melancholic haze.
To add to that sensation, the place contains some strange white flowers on the cliff edge below an abandoned mine. Flowers of that color (like daisies, dahlias, jasmines, or tuberoses) aren’t meant to represent death, as many might expect. Still, it means purity, innocence, and sympathy—the transition of a loved one to the spiritual realm, the cycle of life. An unnamed middle-aged woman, credited as The Volunteer (Mary Woodvine), stationed at the island, looks after these flowers, and documents their growth. She studies the petals in sheer silence and examines the soil samples.
The woman is alone in her cottage, the only structure or building one can see. That’s where she goes to note down her daily notes of the changes these flowers have done and any other observation that might seem curious about why they are, or aren’t, showing growth. The audience doesn’t know who the woman is, why she’s there (or when she’s leaving), and the reason for the documentation of such flowers. Jenkin keeps contextualization to focus on a strengthened atmosphere fueled by disorientation and dread. Time feels like it never continues; the events happening in “Enys Men” feel like they are in a never-changing setting.
‘Enys Men’ Uses Atmosphere to Chill Rather than Un-needed Scares
The first twenty to thirty minutes revolve around the woman’s daily rituals. And since her life revolves around repetition (without context), it feels like there’s no passing of time. The film tests audience’s patience during these moments, and some might even question the movie’s description of horror. However, when you think you have grown accustomed to what’s happening, Jenkin catches the viewer off-guard, including the weirder side of the already strange narrative.
“Enys Men” can seem otherworldly, implementing folk horror elements (“The Wicker Man” and “Blood on Satan’s Claw”), although not dwelling on them enough to ruin its atmospheric sensation. The film doesn’t need thrills or scares to frighten the audience. Instead, it relies on atmosphere, sound, and imagery to create the shocks contained in this feature. The movie revolves around that hypnotic sense of repetition and time as if it doesn’t continue.
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In a way, “Enys Men” reminds me of Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” a film that captured the disappearance (and aftermath) of multiple girls and one of their teachers in the way of a ghost story. In both Weir and Jenkin’s features, there’s a sensation of the dead and living breathing the same air; they intertwine the past and present to gnaw at one’s reflection of timelessness, solitariness, and untwisting psyche. Although the missing girls aren’t present in “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” they haunt the film as if they were metaphysical wraiths. The same thing happens to the flower’s caretaker in “Enys Men,” where she gets a barrage of haunting mirages.
A Construct of Unconventional Filmmaking
Mark Jenkin constructs this feature with an unconventional filmmaking method that equally mesmerizes and confounds both to its favor. It is a mysterious feature with very little dialogue that relies more on imagery than conversation to expand its themes. Its withy atmosphere and soundscape create a poetic visualization that poisons your mind with its manifestation of grief and melancholy. Purposefully, Jenkin leaves questions without answer to ensure audiences feel the film’s effect with a more potent unsettling punch; you feel like you’re hallucinating and slowly blending in with the ether. The elliptical editing pulls you in and out of the wistful lull.
“Enys Men” is a slow-burning picture, even if its run-time is a flat ninety minutes, that makes us reflect on our identities and separateness through the links between the past (the time before our existence) and the present. It is a weird experience, but one worth flooding your soul in thanks to the distinctiveness of Jenkin’s craft. It is always fascinating to see directors experimenting with filmmaking techniques. And Jenkin is one of those doing some of the most ingenious works visually in today’s age.
“Enys Men” is part of our continuing coverage of the 2022 New York Film Festival (NYFF).
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