By this point in his career, you’re either in for Alex Garland or you’re not. The novelist (The Beach) turned screenwriter (Sunshine) turned director made a splash with Ex Machina, then adapted Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, then turned to TV with Devs. Each project has its own particular kind of gloss, a sort of antiseptic chill that even Annihilation‘s creepy flora and fauna couldn’t entirely shake.
Four years after Annihilation, Garland is back, once again working with the white-hot movie studio A24 (who released Ex Machina) for the ominously titled Men. Starring newly minted Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), the film now has a teaser that tells viewers very, very little, other than that Garland would still like to freak you out at least a little.
Buckley plays a grieving woman named Harper whose mourning is interrupted by… something creepy. The official synopsis says:
In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper (Buckley) retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to have found a place to heal. But someone or something from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her. What begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears in Garland’s feverish, shape-shifting new horror film.
Men also stars Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror) and Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You).
Garland’s next project with A24 is already announced: an “action epic” called Civil War that’s set in the near future and will star Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), Wagner Moura (The Shining Girls), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune) and Cailee Spaeny (Mare of Easttown).
But first, Men arrives in theaters on May 20th.
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