Rolling Stone rates Falmouth-produced horror in top 5 films

Starting out strong with five-star reviews from the likes of the Guardian, Mark Jenkin's Enys Men has closed the year with a top four ranking in the '10 Best Horror Movies of 2023' by Rolling Stone. 

Written, directed and composed by BAFTA-winning filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of Film Practice, Mark Jenkin, and produced by lecturer Denzil Monk, Enys Men was shot entirely on 16mm and set on a desolate island off the Cornish coast.

Imagine The Shining on a remote island off the southern coast of England — that may be the best comparison we can offer for Mark Jenkin’s brilliant, bone-chilling folk-horror opus. - Rolling Stone

Giving the Cornish folk-horror fourth place in its list of the ten best horror movies of 2023, Rolling Stone wrote: "Imagine The Shining on a remote island off the southern coast of England — that may be the best comparison we can offer for Mark Jenkin’s brilliant, bone-chilling folk-horror opus. Although even that description doesn’t quite do it justice, as the Cornish filmmaker channels the fractured, druggy look of the great midnight-movie nightmares of yesteryear.

"It may be a tale of a woman known only as 'the Volunteer' (Mary Woodvine) slowly losing her mind, and how being isolated out in the pastoral fringes can gnaw at the sanity of even the most stable people. Or it may be a pagan ghost story, dipping into the legacy of Old, Weird Britannia and how the landscape can absorb trauma, tragedy, grief, violence, and the loss of innocence. Either way, you’ll wonder if your drink has been dosed."

From lo-fi indie films to big-budget movies, Enys Men sits comfortably beside other nightmarish entries in the full list, which you can view on the Rolling Stone website.

The production of Enys Men was supported by our School of Film & Television's Sound/Image C​inema Lab.