Starve Acre (film): Slow-paced, decent, but won't be for everyone
This horror / dread / drama film is something unusual, which is a notion that I normally will applaud and in the case of Starve Acre I do kind of applaud it after it is all said and done because when the story is complete, it leaves you thinking and I like it when I film can manage to do that to me. That being said, this "slow drip" film is a little bit too slow and therefore struggles to hold the audience's attention along the 90 minute or so runtime.
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The plot here is something that doesn't seem like a plot at all at first and things change as the story carries on in a way that you likely will not see coming. Richard is a university professor and his wife Jules/ Juliette decided to move out to the countryside with their young son in order to get away from city life and get some "fresh air." Things seem fine and dandy in what is described as an idyllic rural life until their son starts exhibiting rather extreme irrational and gruesome behavior. At first glance this seems quite a bit like a ton of other young-person-possessed-by-a-supernatural-force films that exist back in time with the first one I recall seeing being The Omen. However, as events transpire that I am not going to reveal for the sake of avoiding spoilers, we, the audience, start to realize that we were duped by the plot and in my mind that is one of the strong points of this film.
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As the parents struggle with the problems revolving around their son, things take a rather strange twist that again, I am not going to reveal here, and this is where things in the movie get truly interesting. I am happy that it took this twist and it happens so quickly that if you weren't paying rigid attention, you might not even know that it happened and would be extremely confused. I was happy about this change in direction but also feel as though it took them entirely too long to get to this point. Up until the twist the film moves at a dreadfully-boring pace and once things change, if you have left the room for say, 8 minutes, you would come back to the room wondering if another film had come on in place of what you started.
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One thing that elicited "ooh's" and "ah's" from me when i noticed it and put me in a bit of a state of disbelief is when I noticed, and at first didn't believe, who the two main actors are: Richard is played by Matt Smith and Juliette is played by Morfydd Clark. Now these names might not jump out at you but the other roles that they have played outside of this film almost certainly will. Morfydd is likely best known for her role as Galadriel in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power which is an almost universally panned and even mocked show and specifically her performance is seen as pretty terrible. Matt Smith on the other hand is best known for his role recently as Daemon Targaryen in House of the Dragon and this series, his character, and his performance is almost entirely regarded as one of the best in the fantasy genre that has ever occurred on any screen.
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To see them star in a film together was pretty amazing to me and it was kind of nice to see that both of them are actually quite capable actors. In the case of Morfydd I think I will have to resort to the Avenger's adage of "perhaps I treated you too harshly" in that she is quite a good actress and the role of Galadriel being wooden and stupid is in fact, probably not her fault.
In this they both take on a morose attitude with their roles and the film works very well (albeit extremely slowly) towards building a sense of dread that reaches a pinnacle at the end of the movie. This is all sounding very vague I am sure but just know that this is intentional. It is evident that the supernatural are going to have a big part in this film after the first 15 minutes or so, but to direction that supernatural intervention goes in, is something that you really do not see coming at all. So in that regard I give this film high marks but unfortunately, the timing of bringing everything together into what one can consider an entertaining film is a tricky game, and unfortunately Starve Acre takes way too long getting to that point. It takes so long in fact that I considered turning it off at many points. I only carried on because of the chemstry between the two main actors and their respective "other" role in TV fantasy series.
Should I watch it?
That trailer gives a false impression of how quickly this folk horror film progresses, it really does move slowly to the point of boredom, unfortunately. I think that if you are the type of person that has patience enough to end up enjoying a "different" kind of film that is done in an effective and artistic way that perhaps you can muster the tenacity to sit all the way through this: The reward isn't necessarily worth the wait for all, but it was for me and I am happy that I sat through it because of this. However, I think the attention span and tolerance of most people will result in an early departure for this because they get tired of waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately all the "good stuff" happens in the last 15 minutes of film and for most, the proceeding hour and 15 minutes is going to eliminate them from ever experiencing this grand finale.
