THE STORY – When their son starts acting strangely, a couple unwittingly allows dark and sinister forces into their home, awakening a long-dormant ancient evil rooted deep in the countryside.
THE CAST – Matt Smith, Morfydd Clark, Erin Richards, Robert Emms, Sean Gilder, Melanie Kilburn & Arthur Shaw
THE TEAM – Daniel Kokotajlo (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
“Starve Acre” is a horror film about grief. Any fan of the genre will tell you that scary movies centering around characters mourning a loss of some kind are so common that it has practically become expected. But, what sets “Starve Acre” apart is the way the characters’ emotions twist away from normalcy and manifest into something uniquely disturbing. It takes a while to get to its ultimate point, but the journey is strangely beautiful and repulsive at the same time. Led by a pair of effective performances, writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo’s film feels like an unsteady walk through a muddy, wet field toward an unseen looming destination. And, yes, that’s a good thing.
The film is slow to reveal elements of its story in a manner that makes it hard to describe. But, to start, it tells the tale of a couple – Juliette (Morfydd Clark, best known for “Saint Maud”) and Richard (Matt Smith) – living in the remote English countryside. Their young son Owen (Arthur Shaw) begins to exhibit odd behavior, including violence toward animals. They also notice other strange occurrences, indicating that a malevolent force from the past is encroaching on their idyllic life.
Kokotajlo’s camera captures this pastoral world with an off-kilter sense of beauty. The film is submerged in earth tones, which complements the pagan-like elements of the story well. In fact, the entire movie feels like a folk tale first told centuries ago, when, in fact, it’s based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel of the same name from 2019. Still, that ancient energy hangs over the entire film, bringing a sense of quivering unease to every minute.
While the mood is excellent, the plot can sometimes frustrate with its deliberate, patient style. It takes nearly an hour for things to lock into place in a way that gives the story a true sense of purpose. This may reflect grief’s unsteady, shambling nature, but it occasionally feels aimless. However, Matthew Herbert’s score is perfectly equipped to contribute to the film’s general tone. Unsettling and propulsive, it gets more and more unwieldy and threatening as the film goes on, putting the audience in an increasingly anxious mindset that reflects the central characters’ states of being.
These characters are brought to life by two excellent performances from Smith and Clark. Smith brings an appropriately resigned, grim quality to the screen. And Clark, as usual, excels at finding different levels to Juliette’s anguish that prevents her characters’ journey – and thus the film itself – from feeling repetitive. She’s especially intimidating toward the latter portion of the film, where Juliette begins to move away from the quiet, sad person she was previously established as; her effortless intensity is the defining reason to see “Starve Acre,” a film that will cling to viewers like a rain-soaked shirt.
