Men Theory: Alex Garland's Next Horror Movie Is A Biblical Allegory
The upcoming feature horror film Men directed by Alex Garland will likely serve as a biblical allegory based on the Garden of Eden. There are several elements in the trailer that hint at the film being a parable, including the film's cinematography, set design, and choices of cast and character blocking. With Garland’s filmography consisting of deeper, often symbolically religious-themed films, it isn’t a stretch to infer that Men will offer a grander meaning than solely the shapeshifting nightmare it promises.
Men is a 2022 horror film being distributed by A24, a well-known production company that is well known for hit films such as Midsommar 2019 directed by Ari Aster, and The Lighthouse 2019 directed by Robert Eggers. The company's history in film production has been familiar especially to the horror scene, having prolifically released original horror features in the past several years. This track record will include Men which is set to premiere at Cannes before its wide release in the US on May 20th, 2022. The trailer depicts Jessie Buckley (star of Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things) playing Harper, a widowed wife in need of a new start in the English Countryside following her husband’s suicide. She meets a character played by Rory Kinnear (having recently appeared in David Jenkin’s Our Flag Means Death) where she decides to settle down. Rory Kinnear appears to play several characters, including a mysterious figure who stalks Harper, a manipulative priest, and some kind of innkeeper amongst other antagonistic personalities. Though the A24 film trailer is rife with horrific imagery implying shapeshifting and home invasion, what stands out the most is the film's Garden of Eden symbolism.
The story of the Garden of Eden revolves around the first man and woman God ever created, so considering the contents of the Men trailer, it is unlikely to be a direct retelling of the biblical tale but a parable instead. It isn't altogether coincidental that aside from Harper’s husband (played by Paapa Essiedu) appearing for expository context, Men’s cast consists of one man and one woman, paralleling Adam and Eve with Buckley and Kinnear. Taking into account Alex Garland’s history in film with religious symbolism, alongside the critical success of films like Darren Aronofsky's mother!, the prediction that there’s more than meets the eye in this new folklore horror is credible.
The trailer for Men contains several instances of both symbolism and on-the-nose references pertaining to the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden. A prime example of this comes when Jessie Buckley approaches a tunnel and shouts into it, hearing her own voice echo. Whether the tunnel leads to the English countryside Harper has decided to settle down in or in the opposite direction of it entirely is unknown, but the tunnel very clearly has a unique design. The theory's Reddit post points out that the tunnel’s stones are arranged to look like snake skin (Serpent theming is regularly used in other biblical tales, an example being David Tennant's costuming in Good Omens), and also that the title card drop at the end of the tunnel appears the same. These scales can naturally be seen as a reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden who approaches Eve when she is alone and tempts her to eat fruit from a forbidden tree. Eve choosing to eat the fruit she was banned from ends up convincing God to cast both her and Adam out of Eden. “Forbidden fruit” is referenced by Rory Kinnear’s first character in the trailer when he jokingly warns Harper against eating the fruit in the “garden.” While on-the-nose, the interaction serves to foreshadow a train of events that may resemble the original biblical story.
While the countryside Jessie Buckley's character has discovered appears to be flawless and serene as Genesis' Eden is, after she eats the fruit, she could begin to see the deterioration of its tempting tranquility by way of the supernatural occurrences escalating all around her. There is a brief instance shown where all the fruit from the referred tree falls from its branches as she watches in horror. Another scene shows Harper watching as a man disappears from thin air in front of the same tree. It is unknown if Kinnear will play a character to symbolize the serpent, but it could be assumed every character he plays can be lumped into the role of Adam, though perhaps a twisted version of him who acts as both snake and companion.
There are title cards intercut between scenes from A24's Men in the trailer that divulge what appears to be various Green Man statues. The Green Man is a legendary pre-Christian idol that is often hung or displayed as a motif even in European churches today. He symbolizes fertility, rebirth, and growth in nature such as the turn of Spring. This aligns with the superfluous woodland imagery in Men and how the film looks to explore the religious and mystical facets of a garden, especially as the proverbial representation of Eden.
mother! is a 2017 Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream) psychological horror which can, in conjunction with Men, be described as a biblical allegory. Jennifer Lawrence plays the wife of Javier Bardem, acting as a substitute for Mother Earth in Aronofsky’s parable. The film effectively represents the worldly conflict of climate change by depicting an abusive relationship between the husband and wife they are portraying. The abuse Lawrence’s character faces in the film is allegorical to the disrespect the environment has earned.
The reason mother! could function as a parallel film to Men is because of the relevant framing of their narratives. Both features develop a character that can be placed in a modern day location and predicament and have the film still manage to translate its folklore symbolism through an extended religious metaphor. mother!'s Bardem and Lawrence play the roles of God and Mother Earth through the lens of marital domestic violence, much like Buckley and Kinnear will reflect Adam and Eve through a relevant struggle men and women face in modern society. It is likely Garland’s Garden of Eden parable will play out in the lens of a widow traumatized by both the death of her husband and her newfound mysterious stalker. From the shared themes of masculine oppression that can be extrapolated from the Men trailer alone, the isolating male gaze and unsought pursuance can be related to a universal female experience and may sympathize the proverbial Eve substitute "Harper" even further.
Evidence that Men will be a Garden of Eden parable can be derived from not only the trailers, but Alex Garland’s previous directorial work. His psychological sci-fi thriller Ex Machina takes place in beautiful green pastures of its own, isolated from a world that is shown to be less desirable than the land Nathan (a scientist played by Moon Knight’s Oscar Isaac) prospers and brings to life new creations and robotic beings. The main robot Nathan creates and the programmer he invites to spend time at his place of work and luxury can be loosely related to Adam and Eve as well, since the film shares themes of creation and exploration of sexuality. The creation of life and its simultaneous self-destruction is a cinematic element that bleeds over into Garland’s 2018 sci-fi horror Annihilation. A more overt parallel to the story of the Garden of Eden is expected from a director who so often incorporates its motifs in his work. Through the narrative, cinematography, and set, Men is all but confirmed to be a biblical allegory.
There is remaining potential that the film may focus a majority of its sub-textual psychological terror on the inner workings of shapeshifters, as Rory Kinnear is shown to take on various forms in the trailer. Shape shifters are an often unexplored plot in horror films, but something Garland has actually covered before in Annihilation with The Entity. If the religious references in Men are used more as a plot device to create an eerier atmosphere, then there is at least more room for these theories to flourish after the film comes out and makes an analyzation process that isn't so broad.
From the main casting of A24's Men consisting of one man and one woman, to the imagery in the trailer which can be correlated to aspects of Genesis' Eden tale, and lastly the previous directorial work of Alex Garland himself who relishes in religious subtext, it can be theorized that Men will be not only a biblical allegory, but a parable to the Garden of Eden. The serpent texture of the central tunnel is obvious enough to cast suspicions towards the underlying meaning of the upcoming film. However, whether or not the symbolism will be as blatant as the admonishing quote from Rory Kinnear in the trailer regarding Jessie Buckley’s consumption of the fruit from the garden as “Forbidden fruit,” remains to be seen.