“Jesus Christian!” Is the first spoken sentence in the film and it fits perfectly with what Mark Jenkin later unleashed on the screen. Because “Rose of Nevada” actually sweeps over his audience as aggressively as brain. Jenkin plays so innovative, stylish and idiosyncratic with the shape and aesthetics of his film, as you can experience it with very few horror director of the present. The filmmaker, born in Cornwall, seamlessly ties in with his experimental folk horror “Ensys Men” (2022), which unfortunately has never been published broadly in Germany.
Jenkin is author filmmaker through and through. His handwriting, especially when dealing with the analog footage, is now unmistakable. In addition to directed by Rose of Nevada, he was also responsible for the camera, music, cut and sound design (with) at “Rose of Nevada”. Jenkin presents himself once again as a man for maritime. Again he conceived a fabric that tells of missing seafarers, threatening natural phenomena and rooms on and on the sea.
The shipmen Liam (Callum Turner) and Nick (George Mackay) suddenly find themselves in a time loop.
It all starts with the arrival of a fishing barge. The boat, the title “Rose of Nevada”, suddenly appears again in the harbor after it had previously disappeared along with his crew. Now it should go on a long journey again. Two young men, Liam (Callum Turner) and Nick (George Mackay) hire. Under the regime of a predatory captain, sail off to go fishing. But when you come home, you will find yourself in the past. The population of the fishing village considers the two to be the missing seafarers from that time …
And the fishing boat greets every day …
Mark Jenkin's time loop horror is cryptically cryptically on the pure plot level. It is full of empty spaces and openness. The film can be encountered that his whole social context remains as vague as it is abstractly outlined. At the same time, “Rose of Nevada” relies on the timeless fascinating strength of the ghostly and the idea of a visit through the past, which allows all tried and tested rules and habits strange.
“Rose of Nevada” understands his action and premise less than a confined structure or as a mystery that must be clearly deciphered. Rather, it forms a framework for all kinds of associations and questions with which this scary scenario gets in touch with the present. Surprisingly, Jenkin's film becomes scary, especially when the scary of time loop suddenly loses menacing. Suddenly it is about the question of adaptation. Maybe it's not that bad to set in this past? The village pub, which was previously an ease, is suddenly filled with life again. Family constellations grow together, even if people rarely have a lot to say here. One prefers to be silent about everything that is boiling inside.
Escape into the past
“Rose of Nevada” explores an economic crisis. A village expires, the shortage of money is obvious. It is already raining in through holes in the roof. The old ones can only be carelessly cared for if they are not exactly busy grieving. And for young men like the two protagonists, few perspectives seem to exist, escape this world or lead a happy life in it. So only the escape appears in some mythically transfigured, nostalgic yesterday as a hope.
If Jenkin's characters think about whether and how they can escape their situation between all the overlaid times, shapes and biographies, there is also a conflict of conscience, which would possibly be destroyed with a rebellion. What are the consequences for the community? What does solidarity mean here? But what does it mean to simply fit the course of things and benefit from it (also financially)?
Analogy horror
Mark Jenkin's film is located in his analog aesthetics and the content of the content in the past. But that has nothing to do with retro and the like. A retro culture that also grabs in the film industry is literally distorted here. It becomes disturbing. Both when it comes to suddenly playing the roles imposed from the outside, as well as with the formal tricks that Jenkin creates again and again to rob the audience.
First of all, one can get the impression that this film is more conventional, more accessible than Jenkin's predecessor “Ensys Men”. After all, a clear plot can be identified more clearly in “Rose of Nevada”. But the impression of the narrative cinema is mercilessly driven against the wall in the second half at the latest when Jenkin puts his figures into a whirlpool of incredible voices, memories, premonitions and in the middle of the forces of nature. This is about the purest cinematic sensuality.
In the middle of the storm
The sequences on the high seas are furious. Jenkin is looking for the extreme close-ups here. It shows the fishing business as a bone job, disassembles it into its visual individual parts and is more and more aggressive. The pounding, grueling soundscape from storm noises increases this towards an overwhelming cinema. A bobbing foot, utensils that pop against the wall on the fluctuating barge, and the deafening rattling of the cable winch and machines combine to form cacophony. In addition, these scraps of images: fish that clap or cut on the deck from nets. A pipe spits ice in Bottich. Spill and foam waves. Then the inconspicuous sensation becomes a sensation: a dirty shoe or water that defeats on a raincoat.
And there are also the scary moments when the image and sound suddenly fall apart. Noises in the distance sound very loudly and close and vice versa. Suddenly there is oppressive silence, then the purest noise rules. Acoustic and visual interference effects are constantly breaking into the plot. With Mark Jenkin, the entire medium of film in its sections and compositions of reality becomes scary. It knows exactly how it can manipulate the perception of the audience and ultimately raise time and space from the fishing. Nothing is certain or predictable here. Buslily creeps into perception sometimes very subtly. And be it just small drops that suddenly fall in the picture from the bottom up.
Conclusion: Mark Jenkins tells of adaptation and rebellion against the traditions, myths and pictures of a lost society in his maritime time loop history “Rose of Nevada”. Above all, this experimental horror film creates a sensual spectacle with its close -ups, unusual perspectives and overwhelming sound effects.
We saw “Rose of Nevade” at the Venice Filmfest 2025, where he celebrated his world premiere in the Orizzonti section.