Starve Acre

When their young son dies a couple's lives are thrown into turmoil and things at their rural home start to get very weird. Some reviewers insist that this is not a horror movie but they are mistaken, Starve Acre is a British folk horror movie. Unfortunately it is not a good one. I will start with the positives - Matt Smith is a very versatile actor and again delivers a good performance. In fact the whole cast are good. I liked the 1970's period setting, the clothes, the old vehicles etc. And I thought that the rural Yorkshire location at times gave off a strong feeling of isolation and bleakness at times. What I did not like was the fact that it felt so slow. There are a couple of small jump scares and the odd feeling of dread but I am not lying when I say that I found my eyes closing numerous times when i saw this last night at my local independent cinema. The struggle to stay awake got harder and harder as it went on, if you suffer from insomnia then watching this at home may well cure you. Then there is a very fake looking hare that becomes central to the plot. I will not give away the ending but there were people laughing out loudly (which I found to be quite disrespectful) in the audience. Britain has produced some fine folk horror movies but this entry is sadly near the bottom of the barrel n terms of quality, quite disappointing.

This is a movie that I only found out about through Dead Meat Presents and it had Matt Smith, so I decided to watch the movie and it was okay.

Positives for Starve Acre (2024): Matt Smith gives a good performance as the father and it's easily the best performance in the movie. The sound design in this movie is genuinely creepy and terrifying. The movie takes its time to get to the big climax and when it gets there, it pays off perfectly.

Negatives for Starve Acre (2024): I wasn't all that invested into this story, but I'm rarely invested into folk horror and I can't remember the last time I was invested into a folk horror story.

Overall, Starve Acre (2024) is a decent enough folk horror movie that will appeal more to fans of this subgenre in horror, but it's still a movie that I would still highly recommend this movie if you're a fan of House of the Dragon like me.

After watching this film I know what it's like to drown in molasses. I honestly wanted to like this, I love a good folk-horror movie. But it soon became clear that this wasn't good at all. Sure, the actors tried their hardest and I give them credit for that. But they were fighting against the current and it eventually overwhelmed them. I have nothing at all against slow films, I love Last Year At Marienbad but there's a real art involved in holding the viewer's attention at such a pace. You risk sending an audience to sleep if you do it badly. And that's the result here. 4 points for the effort..

This movie is well done in most regards, but it'll test your patience right up to your breaking point. I don't need or want a horror movie to be action-packed, but there needs to be a progression of things actually happening. This movie is around 60% slow, moody shots of people or things sitting still (think like in a Yorgos Lanthimos film). These kind of shots can work very well when used in moderation, and when that kind of gravity is earned by the plot, but neither is the case here. There are only a handful of times in this movie when something actually happens, and really only two that are relevant to the overall plot. I love atmospheric and creepy horror, but I had a very hard time focusing on this. By the time it finally ramped up a bit at the end (which is the only good part of the movie), I only had a rough idea of what was happening because my mind had drifted so many times during the tedious, slow dialogue that accounts for around 30% of the runtime. This needed to be at least half an hour shorter. The unearned slow parts just make it feel like a half-baked (although very cool) concept with filler to make it a normal runtime.

Yes it was slow but for me I enjoyed the premise, Jack in the Green, Wicker Man stylee.

Atmospheric setting with good acting, I hope the Hare was not unsettled by the nipple scene !

Suspenion of disbelief was easy with the quality of the actors, Matt Smith held his poise and the countryside provided a suffocating atmosphere that caught and held me to the conclusion.

Whenever I watch a film described as horror it's difficult to discern the nature of that type of horror as there are so many different genres but for me this reminds of Hammer films, typically British in its style and delivery.

If you are enjoy atmospheric chillers I would recommend this.