A folk-horror drama based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s 2019 novel of the same name, ‘Starve Acre’ follows a rural family struck by loss as Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette (Morfydd Clark) suffer the loss of their young son Owen (Arthur Shaw).
Capturing the sorrow and immeasurable grief of the two parents, the film follows the couple as they separately spiral down a path of despair. Initially suffering individually, they reconcile their grief by mystifying and entertaining submission to the local folklore.
Discovering his father’s research and work into ‘Dandelion Jack’ Richard initially dismisses the writings as sheer nonsense, only remembering evens from his childhood as habitual abuse suffered at the hands of his father. After conducting excavation, as part of his archaeological research into documenting and exploring the local history, Richard exhumes the remains of a hare. Noticing the skeleton slowly regenerate and begin to re-materialize tissue around its bones, he catalogs and follows the miraculous recovery of the animal back to life.
In parallel Juliette and her visiting sister Harrie (Erin Richards) are greeted by neighbour Gordon (Sean Gilder) and Mrs. Forde (Melanie Kilburn), both of whom are familiar with the local tales of paganistic rituals and the mysterious being that allegedly dwells near the family home. In a séance held by Mrs. Forde to allow Juliette to let go of her son, they witness a presence in the house, aiding the theory that mysterious forces are active there.
With the two parents experiencing mystifying happenings, they come together in a joint delusion, exacerbated by their loss. Following Richard’s father’s scripture, they each sacrifice a person in order to appease ‘Dandelion Jack’, presumably to allow them to gain his favour and start anew.
A grim and poignant tale, the film explores the difficulty of facing grief. Through the quieted setting of the English countryside and by incorporating elements of folk tales and pagan spirits, the film examines how tragic loss can lead to delusion and further search of some form of reconciliation. Eventually leading Richard and Juliette to fully commit to their goals, each of them are shown to abandon any notion of morality, killing people closest to them and releasing any and all semblance of reason.
Lead actors Smith and Clark portray an immaculate image of two people slowly losing their grip on reality. Showing how two sensible people can be utterly destroyed by loss, the film allows for their grief to act as the main agent in a slow descent into madness. The slow pace of the film provides for unhurried development of the two character’s breakdown, allowing for the final punch to still come as a shock as the two submit entirely to their joint fantasy of achieving some for of resolution.
Calm and subdued at first, ‘Starve Acre’ unfolds as a tragedy that hits hard, with Smith and Clark conveying the destructive and demoralizing pain of loss. Allowing for the mystical elements to exemplify that tragedy, the narrative develops to deliver a harsh and frightening image of what unresolved pain can lead to and what further damage it can cause. With a dreary atmosphere and an unrelenting sense of dread every step of the way, ‘Starve Acre’ achieves its goals through shockingly violent and terrifying means.
Score: 3/4
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