Starve Acre — Starve Acre( Blu Ray)
From 2023 Starve Acre is a blend of folk horror and downbeat drama. Set in the 1970s, the British production has the pace ‘n’ flow of the films from the decade it’s set in- slowly stirring together low-key dread & glum drama. Later adding into the mix we have elements of the supernatural creepy, with a few blood & jarring moments of violence. From the BFI here is a new release of the film- either coming as a DVD or Blu-Ray- taking in a commentary track, and a good selection of other extras.
Starve Acre is filmed & set in the Yorkshire Dales- with as you’d hope folk horror a great use of season-shifting landscape shorts, though much of it takes place in the cold rain rain-washed autumn, and snow-sprinkled/forest-edged winter. The film was directed/ co-written by Daniel Kokotajlo, and was based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Andrew Michael Hurley.
Starve Acre is Kokotajlo’s second feature-length film- his first was the grim Jehovah Witness Witness-focused drama Apostasy(2017). Between 2010 & 2014 he had four shorts to his name- these went from comedy-drama The Mess Hall of an Online Warrior, to Myra- which claims to be the lyrical memoirs of Britain's most reviled woman.
After some landscape footage, and putting to bed of a young boy footage, the film opens at a sun-hazed village fete, where husband & wife Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette(Morfydd Clark) are sitting under an oak tree's shade. Off in the distance, their around ten-year-old son Owen (Arthur Shaw) is playing- there are shouts/ screams, a donkey is on the floor in pain, and Owen is sitting nearby with his head down.
The family live in a remote farm cottage- surrounded by fields, grey dry stone walls, and woodlands beyond. Richard is an archaeologist, who becomes interested in a local legend regarding an oak tree linked to pagan religion- its stump is meant to be buried on their land, so he starts looking & digging. But when things turn the worse for their son Owen, things rapidly unfold- with Richard finding not the stump, but the bones of a Hare.
The film runs just over the one hour and thirty-eight-minute mark, and as I related in my introduction it’s very slow-paced. For the first hour or so it’s largely a glum drama- with flits and flirts of unease/ dread- be it moody darts of bone, into flesh, or a brooding landscape. When things do start to unfold- we find a blend of disquieting supernatural horror, and psychological horror- which is punctured a few times by moments of jarring/ brutal violence.
The film has a fairly active, and I’d say personally overdone use of music- which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. Early on we have eerier warbling/ slowly ringing drone elements- this really did enhance the feel of unease, but as we go on we get decidedly darting/ almost bright harp-based music. This is later added to ritual-tone/ rudimentary percussion & guitar scaping- at moments this works, but at others, it seems overdone/ overbearing- taking away from what’s on-screen.
The acting from our leads is good/ believable- I know Smith is probably most known for Dr Who, but to be honest I’d only ever seen clips of his playing that role- but he’s certainly very different here with a pronounced northern accent, dejected/ head down body frame, and a feeling of deep troubles. Clark I recall from both the troubling religious drama/ horror film Saint Maud, and the taut alligator action/ thriller Crawl- and she sells well as a washed-out/ slowly getting more unbalanced wife. The supporting cast is fine I guess, though I did find Erin Richards who plays her sister a little flat, though she’s not given a huge amount to do until later on in the film.
I’d say Starve Acre is a middling-to-ok mix of folk horror/glum drama- yes the genre tropes are very front & centred, and at points cliched- but there were enough worthy enough twists & turns to the formal along the way, with the two leads selling it all well, and when the soundtrack works it does add/enhance the whole thing.
On the new extras side, we get a commentary track featuring director Daniel Kokotajlo, production designer Francesca Massariol and sound designer Ben Baird. This is a decidedly chatty/ skipping from subject to subject track- some of it was interesting enough, though there’s not a huge amount of depth. They start by touching on the different ways they were going to open the film- they had a folk song sang, and a folk song spoken- but in the end landed on the on-screen text they settled on. We find out there was going to be more footage of a fair at the start of the film, but as they couldn’t get what they wanted- so they decided to against it. We find out research was done into child psychology of the 70’s and issues they had with the chickens at the house. They touch on the film score, and talk about getting the decoration of the house just right. Later on, they discuss the research they did on ancient threes, issues with the hare puppet, filming the floor special effects, and more. It really feels like they needed someone to conduct the track- asking them questions, as it largely just felt unfocused & too darting.
Otherwise, on the extra front, we have the following new stuff: The Land Holds the Melody (23.26 mins): Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert reveals his multilayered approach to writing film music. There’s Something Out There (20.39 mins): author Andrew Michael Hurley discusses his novel Starve Acre and the landscapes of folk horror. The sandwich scene (1.26): a deleted scene with optional commentary from the director. The Hare, a Folk Song (1.05): actor Sean Gilder, who plays Gordon in the film, reads an extract from the Starve Acre novel. And a few archive extras- Interviews with stars Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark (2023, 10 mins). Interview with The Hare Team (2023, 16 mins): an insight into the work of creature effects supervisor Sharna Rothwell and lead puppeteer Aidan Cook. Behind-the-scenes footage (2023, 5 mins). Behind-the-scenes gallery: a collection of photos and storyboard elements that shine a light on the production process, and a stills gallery.
If you enjoy the more slow-burn/drama set side of the folk horror genre I’d say Starve Acre will appeal, and as usual, we get a nice presentation from the BFI- with a good selection of extras.