The British folk horror film experienced a mini-revival with Alex Garland’s Men and Ben Wheatley’s In Earth these past years, something that now continues with Starve Acre. Based on the novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, this marks the second film by director Daniel Kokotajlo, who made such a distinct debut with 2017’s Apostasy, a drama set in the Jehovah’s Witness community. Taking place in rural England in the 1970s, Starve Acre has a similar grip on its milieu, although perhaps the same can’t be said for its narrative.  

Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark (who is making a habit of leading British chillers after her turn in 2019’s Saint Maud) co-star as married couple Richard and Juliette. There’s tragedy lurking in the background, involving their young son, and an unnerving atmosphere builds, with the family living in an isolated house on the Yorkshire Moors belonging to Richard’s late father. Richard works as an archaeologist and has been digging up the land close to the house where an oak tree once resided and myths around a folk devil still linger. 

Things becomes increasingly strange when the bones of a dead hare are discovered, and the creature slowly rebirths, but Kokotajlo deliberately holds back on ramping up the tension, letting the film simmer instead. For some, this will be a frustrating experience, with Starve Acre an opaque work that leaves much open to interpretation. 

Largely, it’s an atmosphere piece, relying on the intrusive score and the oppressively brown-tinged world of the 1970s that’s been impressively conjured by the film’s art department. Smith and Clark are both credible in the leads as parents increasingly driven to distraction. And while the film ends with a startlingly memorable final shot, one you will not shake however much you want to, in truth the scariest thing about Starve Acre is Smith’s foppish haircut. 

Starve Acre is in cinemas from Friday 6 September.