At The Movies: Family trauma haunts horror films Starve Acre and Never Let Go

Starve Acre (M18)

99 minutes, opens on Sept 19
★★★☆☆

The story: In 1970s England, a young boy (Arthur Shaw) exhibits odd behaviour after relocating to the Yorkshire moors with his family. Not surprising, perhaps, when his parents are played by dragon prince Matt Smith of House Of The Dragon (2022 to present) and elf queen Morfydd Clark from The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power (2022 to present).

British folk horror cinema came to prominence with Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973) during the 1970s by adopting elements from Anglo-Saxon folklore to express widespread anxieties over environmental collapse.

These are ever more the concerns today. Starve Acre, an adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s same-title novel by English director Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy, 2017), is the latest addition to the sub-genre revival that began in 2011 with Ben Wheatley’s Kill List.

Paganism, the occult and an isolated rural setting are the themes. A tragedy early in the movie leaves the parents bereft, and as the mother, Juliette (Clark), languishes, the archaeologist father Richard (Smith) digs for an ancient oak tree – believed to possess witchcraft – in a field across their eponymous ancestral farmhouse.

Further and further down the metaphorical rabbit hole, he goes. Indeed, Juliette’s sister (Erin Richards) aside, a sinister hare is the only other main character.

There is no full-blooded fright nor any discerning between the psychological – Smith and Clark go deep into their characters’ grief – and the supernatural. The viewer may be frustrated, but such are the traits of the gothic genre.

This tale of loss, though slim, is strange and malevolent. It journeys through the seasons, from the dead of winter to springtime rebirth and sacrifice, and concludes on a shockingly perverse image of family reintegration that makes up for all the atmospheric brooding.

Hot take: Smith and Clark’s performances centre a mysterious portrait of grief with a freakish payoff.

Never Let Go (NC16)

101 minutes, opens on Sept 19
★★☆☆☆

The story: When a dark supernatural force takes over the world, the only protection for a mother (Halle Berry) and her young twin sons (Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins) are their remote cabin in the woods and familial bond.

What if there was no evil lurking beyond their doorstep like Momma warns? Maybe Momma is loony or, worse, herself the very evil, sequestering them in the house under false pretences for bizarre punitive rituals?

The American psychological horror Never Let Go by French-Algerian genre specialist Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, 2006; Crawl, 2019) is the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale – the siblings’ on-the-nose bedtime reading of choice, no less – retold with vague mythological pretensions as one brother begins to distrust the mother.

He ventures out to find the truth, thus fraying the ties that keep them safe and triggering a fight for survival.

The forest is like a giant monster lying in wait, and the pair of juvenile co-stars in a cast of three – plus pet dog – hold their own against Oscar winner Berry (Monster’s Ball, 2001) at her most overwrought.

But for primal terror, this story of maternity and madness coming after Dark Water (2002), Mama (2013) and so many others will need more than spooky visuals and the occasional demon wearing gnarly make-up. It is adequately interesting without amounting to much.

It has a silly high concept in the ropes the mother uses to tether the family together. The title, “never let go”, is their mantra. The laughably literal symbol of their connection could read also as an umbilical cord in a movie simply about an extreme helicopter parent.

Hot take: A stylish ghost story gets knotted up in clumsy subtexts.