Starve Acre (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – An idyllic rural family life of a couple is thrown into turmoil when their son starts acting out of character.

My Take – Indeed, the sub-genre of folk horror is seeing a revival in recent times with more and more filmmakers exploring the very eerie and dark vibe that comes with throwing ancient tales and the power of nature into the mix.

Such is also the case with this second feature film from writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy) who adapts the well-received chiller 2019 novel by Andrew Michael Hurley into a moody story of haunting folklore and grief with fantastic practical and digital effects.

But while it contains all the hallmarks of a classic British folk horror with its nervy editing, slow pacing, rousing rural visuals, and potent pagan themes to absorb you into its nostalgic ’70s setting, it also ultimately leaves you a bit unsatisfying by the end, mainly because it’s too beholden to the style of known classics.

Add to that its vague storytelling approach, which owes a significant debt to the Nicholas Roeg classic Don’t Look Now (1973), the film ends up being narratively and thematically sparse to make much of an impact.

Yes, it makes for a stunning throwback feature grounded by two compelling leads, but director Kokotajlo doesn’t provide writer Hurley’s story with enough arresting images or the necessary dread to make it rise above a standard trauma feature.

Sure, it has an effective tone, but it also doesn’t offer many intense scares and reasons to care.

Set sometime in the 70s Yorkshire countryside, the story follows academic archeologist Richard (Matt Smith) and his wife Juliette (Morfydd Clark) who are struggling to look after their young son Owen (Arthur Shaw) after they recently moved to his childhood home. With Juliette unaware that Richard’s memories of the home aren’t happy ones, instead believing that the move will be good for their child.

But Owen has been prone to volatile incidents at school, and one very disturbing act leads his parents to worry about him, especially as he claims to hear strange sounds that include whistling from ‘Jack Grey’, a wood sprite according to local lore. But when tragedy strikes, the agonized couple drift apart within their home.

While Juliette finds emotional and moral support from her visiting sister, Harrie (Erin Richards), Richard’s way of escape being to devote himself to digging the land, where his father once pursued his own research project, both historical and occult, which he recorded in a strange journal.

Leading to the unearthing of an ancient oak which despite being chopped down long ago still has preserved roots, and a strange relic that comes to play an increasingly baleful role in his and Juliette’s lives.

Here, director Kokotajlo manages to capture the vibes of a classic folk horror film while still feeling modern. The Northern England location and the rural farmhouse setting not only help with the retro vibe, but they also make the film feel cold and gloomy.

It’s a great setting for a ghost story. He maintains a dread-soaked atmosphere throughout that matches the ’70s-style camera work and composer Matthew Herbert’s dissonant score, even when most of the horror is solely psychological. Luckily, that changes as the film picks up speed in the back half.

The discovery of old hare bones leads to some spectacular effects work, giving a more tactile focus to the horror. Though opinions may divide about exactly how frightening or interesting this ersatz child creature, created with digital effects and model work, actually is, given that so much emphasis is placed on it.

Alas, despite some interesting developments in the story, the film ultimately feels distant and simple. Though most folk-horror films are focused on an outsider fumbling through a culture he/she doesn’t understand, the film here stumbles even when it posits Richard and Juliette as people who’re becoming absorbed into a legacy in a way that’s both malevolent and nurturing.

While there are creepy moments, the time between them passes glacially, and not in a tense way, either. Instead of building suspense and anticipation for the next creepy moment, the long stretches of nothing just leaves us wondering why the film is so long. Just when the elements get interesting, they vanish into thin air, leaving the film with nowhere to go.

For example, there is a bit of a Pet Semetary aspect to the plot, but even though it steers clear of the ultimate progression, it gets more and more obscure and generic.

Performance wise, both Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith, who are currently leading the two biggest fantasy shows on TV, are nothing short of perfect as they deliver fascinating and extremely different character portrayals. Clark particularly left to handle the more extreme elements of the story. However, they undeniably deserved better direction and better pacing.

In supporting turns, Erin Richards, Robert Emms and Sean Gilder manage to leave a mark. On the whole, ‘Starve Acre‘ is a dubious folk horror that is high on atmosphere, but low on scares.