Men trailer: Alex Garland’s cryptic new A24 horror movie revealed

Two years have passed since his miniseries of sci-fi thrillers Devs premiered on FX/Hulu, and over four years since the release of 2018’s AnnihilationAlex Garland, the star of horror dramas has been back Men starring Jessie Buckley (I’m Thinking of Ending ThingsRory KinnearBlack MirrorPaapa Essiedu, (I may destroy you). A24 unveiled Wednesday’s first trailer to the 2022 movie.

His penchant for writing cerebral sci-fi stories is what made him famous. Men appears to be Garland’s strangest project yet, eschewing translucent androids and shiny quantum computers in favor of lush forests and claustrophobic darkness. Very little is known about the film’s premise, apart from it centering on a young woman’s vacation in the English countryside following her husband’s death. The film’s first teaser manages to reveal even less, while summoning a palpable sense of foreboding.

The trailer opens with a shot of Jessie Buckley’s character walking through a forest towards the entrance of a dark tunnel. Her voice is heard echoing through the passage. Then, Buckley’s character walks between church pews before coming to a Rory Kinnear man standing near an apple tree. He then abruptly vanishes amid a bloodcurdling scream. As apples begin to fall from the tree, the scene again cuts to Buckley’s character turning down a road, now wearing a raincoat where she wasn’t before and staring at a strange shadowy figure stalking through a graveyard. The scene once again cuts to Buckley’s character inside of a house, shouting at a menacing blood-drenched face peering through a mail slot before once again cutting back to her inside the tunnel, now fleeing from an unknown figure who notices her before immediately chasing after her.

There’s a ton of biblically-charged imagery to find here. Between the verdant forests and aforementioned apples, the film’s title card is seen over a backdrop of a snake writhing across the screen. Could Alex Garland be taking a page out of Darren Aronofsky’s mother! to tell his own story of maternal/eschatological horror in Men?

We’ll find out when Men(!) Releases in Theaters May 20.