More than a year and a half has gone by since we heard that Matt Smith (Last Night in Soho) and Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) had signed on to star in the supernatural horror film Starve Acre, coming our way from BAFTA-nominated Apostasy creator Daniel Kokotajlo. Now we finally have a positive update to share about the project: Starve Acre will be having its World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, where it will be screening In Competition. Along with that confirmation comes the unveiling of a pair of first look images from the film that show Smith and Clark’s characters. You can check those out at the bottom of this article.
The BFI London Film Festival is scheduled to take place in October and will be running from the 4th to the 15th.
Based on a novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, Starve Acre is said to be a “brooding horror film” that follows Richard and Juliette, whose seemingly idyllic rural English family life is thrown into turmoil when their son Ewan starts acting out of character. At Starve Acre, their remote family home, archaeologist Richard buries himself in exploring a folkloric myth that the ancient oak tree on their land is imbued with phenomenal powers, while Juliette turns to the local community to find some kind of peace.
The project was developed with BBC Film and funded by BBC Film, Access Entertainment, and the BFI. The film is being produced by Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell of House Productions. Ross said we should expect Starve Acre to be “a genre defining modern classic”.
Copies of Hurley’s novel can be picked up at THIS LINK. Here’s the description: The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby’s son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place. Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree. Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.
Does Starve Acre sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below – but first, check out these images of Smith and Clark’s characters: