Starve Acre
Brainstorm Media | Release Date: July 26, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Irish TimesTara BradySep 5, 2024
A worthy contender in a British revival characterised by eerie cult classics as Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England, Lee Haven Jones’s The Feast and Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMatt SchimkowitzJul 25, 2024
Aiming for authenticity, Kokotajlo finds supernatural power and dramatic weight in the genre’s rustic simplicity. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithSep 3, 2024
Tapping into the same rich vein of British folk horror the likes of 2015’s The Witch and 2022’s Enys Men mined so productively, Starve Acre roots its dread in a gloomy past that is mundane, real and tangible. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeJun 6, 2024
Daniel Kokotajlo‘s impressive second feature unfolds in a vein of British folk horror that has been popular of late — with films from Ben Wheatley’s “A Field in England” to Mark Jenkins’s “Enys Men” all tapping into that retro “Wicker Man” eeriness — but rarely with such rattling sensory specificity or formal refinement. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPerry NortonJun 6, 2024
I enjoyed its surreal tinge and the thickening atmosphere. However, I came away a little disappointed with the wavering tone, wondering if it this might have horror blockbuster legs if it were a little more even. As it stands, this is a fantastically enigmatic horror film done beautifully well. Read full review
78
Paste MagazineMatthew JacksonJul 25, 2024
Starve Acre is not one of those horror films that everyone going in blind will enjoy. It’s not a crowd pleaser or a popcorn thriller. It’s a steady, methodically engineered, beautifully realized meditation on the slow, persistent sting of grief, and a gentle unearthing of the things we bury deep in our souls. Read full review
70
Little White LiesMichael LeaderSep 5, 2024
Starve Acre is an undeniably impressive addition to this mini-movement, but it’s perhaps one that works better as a slow-burning aesthetic exercise than as either a nerve-rattling horror or an excavation of national myth, history, or identity. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJul 25, 2024
At times, it’s scary how derivative it is. Still, as crepuscular weirdness seeps across the story and leads to a delirious ending, it’s largely effective. Read full review
70
IGNHanna FlintJul 24, 2024
Starve Acre is a rousing addition to the British folk horror tradition with intensely emotional lead performances that takes viewers on a nostalgic journey into pagan ritual. Read full review
70
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyJun 6, 2024
If Starve Acre seems to walk on well-trodden ground, Kokotajlo is nevertheless adept at inhabiting and revitalising the material. Familiar themes and moods haunt the film with their own uncanny insistence. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreySep 8, 2024
It lacks the intimate and the specific. But, hell, Starve Acre does end with one of the oddest, most off-putting images you’ll see at the cinema this year. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 8, 2024
Some pleasingly icky special effects add to the general sense of mouldering menace. Where the picture stumbles, however, is in its almost total lack of effective scares. Read full review
60
EmpireIana MurraySep 4, 2024
Starve Acre is sometimes overly derivative as a folk-horror — but Daniel Kokotajlo’s second film crafts a sinister Yorkshire, replete with impressively gnarly special effects and a strong performance from Morfydd Clark. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid HughesAug 12, 2024
It’s far from a total failure, however, and although Kokotajlo doesn’t feel entirely at home in the horror genre, he is clearly a talent to be reckoned with. Read full review
60
ColliderTherese LacsonJul 26, 2024
It is moody and creepy, though perhaps not brave enough to wander into true melodrama or bizarre fantasy. In the end, its performances and the way it incorporates Gothic elements, along with a strong visual aesthetic, make the film a worthwhile watch. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 6, 2024
Smith and Clark, at the head of a very capable supporting cast, keep the movie on an even dramatic keel, with intelligent, thought-through performances putting life back into some familiar tropes. Read full review
50
The Film StageOliver WeirNov 1, 2023
Not even the most masterly work can entertain for very long when it is put to preposterous use. Read full review
42
Original-CinChris KnightAug 1, 2024
Atmosphere will only take you so far, and it soon becomes apparent that Starve Acre is 10 liters of helium in a 20-liter balloon. The result is limp and never fully takes flight. Read full review
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