Starve Acre

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

"Richard" (Matt Smith), his wife "Jules" (Morfydd Clark) and their young son "Owen" (Arthur Shaw) have moved back to his late father's remote hill farm. Not long after they arrive the young, asthmatic, lad starts to hear a voice that seems to be compelling him to become erratic, even violent. Before his parents get to the bottom of this, though, there's a tragedy that upends their marriage and sees him spend an increasing amount of time doing what he like to do best - archeology. He is out in all weathers and one day discovers the skeleton of an animal. Meticulously boxing it up, he takes into his study to examine it further. Boy is he in for a surprise and what now ensues takes us all back into his unhappy childhood with a brutish and unloving father and lots of standing about in his underpants. It's starting to look like the folklore surrounding an ancient oak tree that might have been an entrance to the underworld and maybe even the legendary "Dandelion Jack" might be influencing their behaviour as their lives take a turn for the distinctly bizarre. It does fall into place a little at the end, but for the most part this all centres around a jigsaw puzzle of a story with too many bits missing. Even if you do know a little about the underpinning mythology, the narrative still has too many gaps. It might make for a solid enough short film but extending this to ninety minutes puts too much pressure on the underwhelming Smith (and his hair) and the presence of her sister "Harrie" (Erin Richards) for much of their process of grief just doesn't help to create an atmosphere of menace, pity nor, really, of mystery either. There are a couple of wonderfully "Arcati" style performances from local medium "Mrs. Forde" (Melanie Kilburn) but the rest of the drama relies too heavily on it's bleak weather and heavily over-scoring. It's watchable enough, but it reminded me a little of "Enys Men" (2022) - a quirky story that provided us with some bones of the bones of an intriguing story but where near enough meat to sustain much interest.

Bunnies are supposed to be cute! THIS ISN'T CUTE, IT'S UNNERVING!

Methinks it's about time I watch Lamb (2021).

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Harrie kinda annoys me, but if we consider that Dandelion Jack already has everyone under it's influence, as implied by Juliette's trance-like state at the start of the movie, I suppose I can accept the ending. From the moment she steps back into the house, heck even Richard tells her to leave, "Harrie, this is weird, get out of the damned house. Harrie, don't go in there! Harrie, don't play with that thing! DAMMIT HARRIE!"