Written by Zoe Crombie

Though terrifying, most of the more famous folk horror films keep the horror at what feels like a relatively safe distance from your own life. The terrors of the Pagan island of The Wicker Man, the insular Swedish community of Midsommar, and the 1600s New England woods of The VVitch are unlikely to crop up in everyday life in modern day Britain. So no matter how unsettled you feel when you leave the cinema, you can reassure yourself that as long as you don’t go on any strange rural excursions (or travel through time), you should be fine…

Director Daniel Kokotajlo shifts this signature folk horror unease right into the home with Starve Acre, a movie that keeps the dark magic lingering on your doorstep. Starring Matt Smith – an actor who’s proven himself to be surprisingly diverse in recent years – and Morfydd Clark as a couple whose family is seemingly haunted by an ancient oak tree on their land, this is a horror where much lurks under the surface. Though it takes place in the 1970s – the prime folk horror years – it’s easy to feel that their isolated home in rural Yorkshire could be your very own, especially if you regularly frequent that not-so-far neck of the woods.

Starve Acre follows the recent renaissance of folk horror with a moors-drenched take on the genre, tonally leaning closer to the realistic trepidation that we’ve all felt from time to time - even in our own homes.

Starve Acre runs from 6th - 12th September

Tickets and Showtimes