Starve Acre (2024)

 

"Just Like Some of the Best 1970s TV Horrors"

Writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo's adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley's novel gets a Blu-ray, DVD and digital format release from the BFI.

Rural Yorkshire in the 1970s. Archaeologist Richard (Matt Smith) and his wife Juliette (Morfydd Clark) have come to live at Starve Acre, Richard's ancestral family home. With them is their son Owen (Arthur Shaw) who has started claiming that something is whispering to him and goading him to do things. When Owen blinds a horse his parents take him to a psychiatrist but before any diagnosis can be reached Owen dies of an asthma attack. 

As part of his grieving process, Richard becomes obsessed with the legend of a great life-giving tree, the buried stump and roots of which are supposed to be on his land. During his digging he discovers the buried skeleton of a hare. Soon its bones are developing new flesh, but that's the least of the horrors in store for Richard and his family.

It takes a little while for STARVE ACRE to find its focus, and an hour in to its 98 minute running time you may well still be wondering where the events are all leading to, if indeed they are leading anywhere at all. Be assured, though, that the finale is appropriately gruesome and horrific, with an ending that feels straight out of the best 1970s BBC and ITV horrors.

Extras include an excellent 20 minute interview with author Hurley, who cites influences that include James Herbert and Clive Barker as well as giving nods to Arthur Machen and Robert Aickman. Composer Matthew Herbert gives an overview of his career in a 24 minute interview, and there are also on-set interviews wite Matt Smith (3 minutes), Morfydd Clark (8 minutes) and the team who made the hare (16 minutes plus they've brought the hare with them). You also get five minutes of behind the scenes footage and a gallery, a one minute deleted scene and actor Sean Gilder reading an extract from the novel. The accompanying booklet includes essays by the director, Catherine Spooner, and Adam Scovell.

STARVE ACRE is out from the BFI in a dual format Blu-ray & DVD edition, and digitally on BFI Player, Amazon Prime and iTunes on Monday 21st October 2024