Continuing with our New Year, New horror theme is the low budget british folk horror film, Enys Men, which translates from the Cornish as Stone Island.
The film stars Mary Woodvine, the director’s partner, as a wildlife volunteer living on a secluded Cornish island in 1973 as she studies a rare flower. Repeating the same daily observations, she slowly experiences strange visitations when the island’s standing stones exert an ill influence on her mind. Or do they?
Written and directed by Mark Jenkin, the film’s narrative sounds somewhat simplisitic, but this could almost double as a slow burning lost cult classic with its eerie use of 1970’s cinematography that make the film so authentically grainy. Apparently, Jenkin used an original 1976 Bolex hand-held and hand-wound camera that could only shoot for 27 seconds, making it look and feel as if it could have actually been made in that era - without the use of VFX.
There is a genuine appetite among cinema goers for folk horror, and so few classics. Enys Men looks set to be another worthy entry into the genre.
Enys Men is on general cinematic release now.
Watch the trailer below: