Sightlines · reception

How Men was received

2022 · Alex Garland · Men on Sightlines

The arc

It opened to sharply split reviews: some critics called it a bold folk-horror nightmare, others a heavy-handed thesis film. Four years on it's still divisive, but its grotesque finale has earned it a cult of people who will defend it no matter what.

What’s debated

Is it a rich, strange folk-horror allegory about grief and male violence, or a film whose meaning stops at its one-word title?

Its footprint

The body-horror finale became a 'you have to see it to believe it' moment that people describe to each other in disbelief, and the blunt title is a running joke in how people talk about the film.

Where it stands

A divisive A24 curio, as likely to land on 'most disturbing endings' lists as on 'worst of the year' lists.

Did you know? Rory Kinnear plays nearly every man in the village, including the vicar, the landlord, the policeman and even a young boy.