Daniel Kokotajilo’s retro folk horror movie Starve Acre brings a brooding, atmospheric dread and a feeling of something bigger than it is.
Set in rural Yorkshire, England in the 1970s, Starve Acre sees couple Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette (Morfydd Clark) dealing with their young son’s increasingly strange behavior. It causes some tension that bubbles away in the background. Juliette feels frustrated by the behavior and Richard’s reluctance to do anything. Richard, haunted by terrible treatment by his own father, is trying his best to understand his son and believes things aren’t as bad as people are making out.
These are the bones on which an increasingly disturbing folk horror story grows. There seems to be a straightforward narrative path this setup is following, but it brutally departs from it to open up a more expansive view of what’s going on in the Yorkshire countryside.
Events conspire to widen the gap between the couple, and for Richard, that means quite literally delving into his past under the pretense of doing archeological work. Juliette has to rely on her sister to cope with the changes in her life, and basically, everyone is having a time as miserable as the grey skies outside.
Starve Acre Review: Bleak and Beautiful
Daniel Kokotajilo breeds an oppressive atmosphere that evokes the folk horror of yesteryear. It’s down in the dirt bleakness and darkness. You can almost smell the oversaturated earth. It can be hard to wrangle the intention at times, but that is done with the idea of creating a sense of unease.
The trickiest obstacle a folk horror movie has to overcome is familiarity. Like any sub-genre of horror, there are ideas and expectations of what it will be, and borrowing from outside sources has to be done in small increments, flavoring what’s fresh with something relatively comfortable.
Starve Acre has a sound footing thanks to being adapted from Andrew Michael Hurley’s 2019 novel. It builds its disturbing folklore and meshes that with painfully human issues. Naturally, a bit is lost in translation from page to screen, but Kokotajilo does a good job of visually converting the beautifully written descriptions found in the novel.
Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith convey their characters’ complex emotional trauma with relatively few words. Smith’s portrayal of quiet, bullish sadness makes for an effective performance. However, Clark arguably gets more range to work with and ultimately has the more interesting character arc.
Hare Raising
There’s an animal “star” that also dominates its scenes. A large hare figures in the story at a certain point, and thanks to some impressive animatronic work, it ends up being a very unsettling addition. It’s never overtly horrifying, but the way shots linger on its eyes or how its movements seem slightly otherworldly drives home how creepy the stretched-out rabbits are in reality.
My only major grumble with Starve Acre is when it hits its revelation trail. While I think the ideas behind what plays out are pretty cool, there does seem to be a bit of a jumble getting there. Information seems to be slotted in at the wrong point to work for later revelations. I suspect it will not bug me as much on a rewatch. But it did break the methodical flow for me in the moment.
Otherwise, I reveled in Starve Acre’s moody folk horror atmosphere. Alongside another recent Northern England countryside horror, The Moor, it taps into something distinctly British. It is a beautifully dreary, miserable thing that soaks into the bones with its oppressive atmosphere.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
Starve Acre will be released in select theaters and on Digital on July 26, 2024. a UK and Irish theatrical release follows on September 6, 2024.
Starve Acre screener provided for review.
