The Reel Review
A family’s tranquil life on an isolated farm on the moors of 1970s Northeastern England takes a sinister turn when their sweet young son starts behaving out of character. Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark star in this folk horror based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s 2023 novel.
Where Starve Acre excels is in using creepy visuals and an unsettling score to create a foreboding mood as it unveils the ancient pagan folklore’s effects on the embattled family. You can almost smell the musty mildew as Smith’s Richard starts digging up the peat bog behind their farmhouse. The all-in performances by its leads also lend the story credibility, at least in the first half of this ultimately stupid dumpster fire of a film.
Where this scare-free Starve Acre falls disastrously short is in showcasing one hokey-looking reanimated rabbit, nestled into a tediously boring, nap-inducing story that devolves into an unintentionally laughable finale. Everyone other than the cinematographer and music composer should be mortified to have been associated with this horrible, pointless film.
REEL FACTS
• Matt Smith’s onscreen credits include the HBO Max fantasy series House of the Dragon, Netflix’s The Crown, Mapplethorpe and the TV series Doctor Who.
• Morfydd Clark’s onscreen credits include The Lord of the Rings TV series, the 2020 miniseries Dracula, and the 2019 psychological horror Saint Maud.
• Starve Acre was filmed in Yorkshire, England.
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