Patriarchy Then and Now—With a Twist: The Postmodern Horror of Alex Garland’s Men

Alex Garland’s Men (2022) has been widely noted for one particular seven-minute sequence of body horror, though it has been most commonly read as a work of folk horror. After all, its main horrors occur in the English countryside, where the principal character retreats after having suffered a terrible trauma in London. Unfortunately, her trauma in the city is largely related to the effects of patriarchy, and she will quickly discover that a retreat into the traditional past is hardly a way to escape patriarchy. However, any definitive interpretation of what happens in the countryside is defeated by the postmodern structure and logic of the film. Nevertheless, the main implications of the film in terms of the persistence of patriarchy over time are abundantly clear.