Mark Jenkin burst onto the British film scene in 2019 with Bait, a black-and-white drama about tensions in a Cornish fishing village that was almost entirely made by Jenkin himself. It was quite the announcement of him as a British director to watch – a truly unique voice of the medium. His long-awaited follow-up, Enys Men, is due out in cinemas early next year, and the first trailer just dropped. Watch it below.
Like Bait, Enys Men (pronounced ‘Ennis Maine’, meaning ‘Stone Island’) is shot on grainy 16mm film stock with post-synched sound – but in colour this time, with bright reds of the protagonist’s coast and the sweeping blues of the Cornish sky popping against the dark corners of the creepy island on which the film is set. Bait’s Mary Woodvine returns in the lead role, playing, as the synopsis states, “a wildlife volunteer whose daily observations of a rare flower take a dark turn into the strange and metaphysical, forcing both her and viewers to question what is real and what is nightmare”. Not a comedy, then? Jenkin is tapping into the folk horror genre with his sophomore feature, and it promises to be a seriously sinister ride.
Enys Men will be released in UK cinemas on 13 January 2023. You can read more about the film, Mark Jenkin and his visionary directing process in the Review Of The Year issue of Empire – on newsstands now, or order a copy online here.
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