‘Enys Men’ Trailer: Mark Jenkin’s Cannes-Acclaimed Witchy Folk Horror Is Coming Soon

Having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the 60th annual New York Film Festival this year, if we’re going to call out a breakout horror for this year, it probably has to be British filmmaker Mark Jenkin’sEnys Men.” And arguably, between Jekin, Ben Wheatley, and Peter Strickland, it’s safe to say that the creepy subgenre of freaky folk horror—think “The Wicker Man”—is really going through a renaissance period thanks to English filmmakers.

The film also seems to defy convention and genre. Our reviewer from Cannes suggested all the creepy cinematic elements make for an amazing cinematic experience. “Shot on 16mm film, richly textural, and ever cast in shadow; in the distorted sound mix, voices are heard as if captured through a shoddy synthesizer, like painful memories catching up to the present.”

READ MORE: ‘Enys Men’ Review: Mark Jenkin Crafts A Wicked, Witchy Folk Freak Horror That Defies Genre [Cannes]

Starring Mary Woodvine, “Enys Men” is set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast. In the film, a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her, as well as the viewer, to question what is real and what is a nightmare. It sounds trippy.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A wildlife volunteer on an uninhabited island off the British coast descends into a terrifying madness that challenges her grip on reality and pushes her into a living nightmare. Evoking the feeling of discovering a reel of never-before-seen celluloid unspooling in a haunted movie palace, this provocative and masterful vision of horror asserts Mark Jenkin as one of the U.K.’s most exciting and singular filmmakers.

Neon has not given the film a release date yet, and leaves us with an unnerving “coming soon,” but our guess would be spring 2023, which is usually the season for these kinds of arthouse pics, “The Northman,” “Everything Everyone All At Once,” both debuting in that frame last year. Regardless, check out the creepy trailer below.