Starve Acre is chillingly unsettling, a slow-burn folk horror full of eerie atmosphere. Adapted from Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel, writer/director Daniel Kototajlo crafts something that gets under your skin: “a pagan spell”, in his own words at a recent screening I attended in Cardiff.
Morfydd Clark puts down her elf ears to get back into the horror genre after the excellent St Maud: she plays Juliette, who has moved to her husband Richard’s (Matt Smith) childhood home in 1970s Yorkshire. They have gone there in a bid to improve the health of son Owen, who hears whistling on the wind and voices calling to him; in a visceral opening, we see why Owen’s parents are concerned about him.
For Richard, however, the land is haunted by more than childhood memories. Smith, plays this floppy-haired archaeologist with silent intensity as he discovers the roots of an old oak tree on his home’s grounds – in doing so, perhaps uncovering a gateway to the pagan spirit world. With very definite nods to Don’t Look Now (eagle-eyed viewers will spot a brief Donald Sutherland appearance) and The Wicker Man – not just with its 1970s setting and fashions – Kokotajlo carves his own path through the folk horror genre, imbuing a lyrical threat throughout.
There are long takes of threatening empty moors and an immersive, often nerve-shredding score by Matthew Herbert, blending ancient folksong with a thrumming sonic inevitability to events. When Smith discovers the bones of a hare at the root of an uncovered yet ancient oak, he preserves them – only to discover skin, blood and bone regrowing on the skeleton. This results in a scene-stealing otherworldly animatronic performance which chills as it continues. Juliette is supported by her sister (played by Erin Richards, like Clark Penarth-born), who is drawn into a grief-fuelled chaos with the couple, and by an inescapable link to nature and the womb of the earth, which has plans for them all.
Kokotajlo’s last film was the brilliant, very personal Apostasy, about a Jehovah’s Witness community: this film is very much a leap forward in terms of scale, although its questioning of religion, in this case, paganism and the stresses of finding something bigger to believe in in extreme circumstances, still holds true. A mood piece full of artistry and discomfort, this sits comfortably alongside its influences with Clark excellent at its disturbed centre.
Dir: Daniel Kokotajlo (15, 96 mins)
Starve Acre is in cinemas from Fri 6 Sept
words KEIRON SELF
