Richard and Juliette, played by actors Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark, stand outside a farmhouse looking down at the ground, while the lower layers of earth show deep roots in Starve Acre. Image via BFI By Miranda Adama Published Sep 5, 2026, 11:41 PM EDT Miranda Adama is a writer, variety streamer, and all-around creative who loves violence on screen and what it says about pop culture. She's the host of Be Seeing You: A John Wick Podcast and has been featured on podcasts like Motherfoclóir, Girls Gone Canon, and Tights & Fights. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Listen Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap With its 1970s setting, Starve Acre is a modern folk horror that leans into its inevitable comparisons with films like The Wicker Man and Don’t Look Now . Even so, Starve Acre becomes more a litmus test of dread – for audiences and characters alike – than a formulaic folk horror. Where folk horror films like Midsommar invoke a kind of thrill in piecing together what tapestries and paintings will come to mean, Starve Acre forces viewers to see it coming and to sit in that unease. Director Daniel Kokotajlo supports his environment of disquietude with still shots of Yorkshire’s beautiful, but oppressive landscapes between the slow, deliberate camerawork that punctuates the story.
Streaming on Shudder, Starve Acre features Richard ( House of the Dragon ’s Matt Smith ) and Juliette ( Morfydd Clark, Rings of Power and Saint Maud ) as a couple. They move back to Richard’s childhood home in the countryside of Yorkshire to give their son, Owen, fresh country air to help with his severe asthma. But two years into their move, Owen still hasn’t adjusted to country life and his behavior takes a turn for the worse. This culminates with stabbing the eye out of a horse. In a visit with a child psychologist, Juliette reveals that lately, Jack has mentioned an imaginary friend named Jack Grey. This unsettles Richard, who is no stranger to Jack Grey. It’s a name from his childhood, featured in the opening poem that sets the course of the film, written by none other than Richard’s father, Neil. Soon, the family experiences death, and the film makes grief a central character and spins Richard’s archaeological position at a university as a vessel for exploring his own childhood abuse.
Richard (Matt Smith) digs around the buried roots of the great oak tree in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette (Morfydd Clark) is transfixed by a supernaturally enhanced flame in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Owen has neurological scanning in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette sees herself reflected in the eye of the hare in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette tends to the hare in its bassinet in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Close Richard (Matt Smith) digs around the buried roots of the great oak tree in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette (Morfydd Clark) is transfixed by a supernaturally enhanced flame in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Owen has neurological scanning in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette sees herself reflected in the eye of the hare in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Juliette tends to the hare in its bassinet in Starve Acre Image via BFI Distribution Wher…