Starve Acre (2023)

Rating: C

Dir: Daniel Kokotajlo
Star: Matt Smith, Morfydd Clark, Erin Richards, Arthur Shaw

In the early stages of this, I was beginning to wonder if the “folk horror” label is code for “boring.” Oh, there are some entries in that genre which are far from that, such as the original Wicker Man. However, the bulk of what I’ve seen falls into the category charitably called “slow-burn.” This certainly does, as I realized after the roughly eight hundredth shot of the Yorkshire moors – I guess intended to be ominous and threatening. Such a cautious approach is tolerable, if the payload is worth the wait. Here, that’s questionable. There are some sequences which work, as the scenario unfolds. Yet I felt the credits rolled, just as things were beginning to get interesting. 

Things take place to married couple Richard (Smith) and Julie (Clark), who move from urban Leeds to the Yorkshire moors, on land owned by his late father. Initially, things seem fine, but their son Owen starts acting out in violent ways. This is followed by Owen’s death, leaving his parents understandably distraught. Richard starts sorting out his father’s papers, and discovers uncomfortable details related to his own childhood. These are connected to local pagan religious beliefs, in particular a tree which previously stood on the property. Julie’s sister Harrie (Richards) shows up to provide moral support, but Richard discovers the skeleton of a hare, which begin to regrow flesh back on its bones. While never explicitly said, it appears to be the resurrected soul of Owen. Or something along those lines. 

I was reminded of Lamb, which similarly had a couple adapting to increasing weirdness in the wake of the tragic loss of a child. While both films had a bit of a problem sticking the landing, Lamb leaned into and embraced the inherently bizarre outcome to a greater extent. Instead, this broadens things out beyond the confines of the couple, circling back to childhood abuse in the name of religious sacrifice, and also bringing in other members of the local community. I’m not sure either adds much, and you are still left to piece things together more than is wholly satisfying. I will say, Smith and Clark are convincing as grieving parents, though I kept wanting to reach into the screen and give Matt a good haircut. 

I’m not certain if the hare is real, animatronic, puppet or CGI – potentially a combination of all these. It certainly works to decent effect, gradually going from skeletally weird, through to adorbs wabbit, and then coming out the other side as devil bunny. Not sure I would exactly behave in the way Julie does toward it: my reaction would probably be less inclined towards breast-feeding, and more to “pie, with a side of new potatoes.” There does remain an increasing sense of wrongness, which eventually topples over from the implied into the explicit. Just don’t expect anything close to genuine resolution, with an ending which answers some questions, while raising twice as many.