Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to snap your fingers! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the British folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend, including the historical drama “Those About to Die” on Prime Video, the English folk horror film “Starve Acre” on VOD and the Netflix reality series “Resurrected Rides.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 18:22)
I sit in with hosts Jim Richards and Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the British folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 26:50)
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest host Natalie Johnson, to talk about the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the British folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:32)
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to talk about the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the british folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres and streaming including the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the british folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk the new movies coming to theatres and streaming including the redemptive prison drama “Sing Sing,” the locked-room thriller “Trap” and the british folk horror of “Starve Acre.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Starve Acre,” a new British horror film starring Matt Smith, and now on VOD, a family’s idyllic, rural Yorkshire life is disrupted when their son starts acting strangely. Is there something wrong with the boy, or is his behavior tied to a demonic spirit called Dandelion Jack Grey, and the power of an ancient oak tree on the property?
CAST: Matt Smith, Morfydd Clark, Erin Richards, Robert Emms, Sean Gilder. Directed by Daniel Kokotajlo.
REVIEW: The folk horror in “Starve Acre” comes slowly, building gradually before director Daniel Kokotajlo ushers in a disturbing climax. Until then the film’s atmosphere of bleakness and dread hangs over the proceedings like a shroud.
The leads, Smith and Clark burrow in, mining emotional hurt as they work through deep seeded grief and the hidden horrors and ancient powers of their land. Their performances set the film’s retrained tone. There are no jump scares or moments of gore.
Instead, as the movie gets more perplexing (and a little sillier), their quiet desperation becomes suffocating. Even as the going gets weird, they stay chillingly earthbound. Until they don’t, and even then, those performances, combined with the film’s muted color palette, creates a subtle but strange effect.
“Starve Acre” is a mood piece with flavorings of “Don’t Look Now” and “The Wicker Man” woven throughout. Its most shocking image is its last one, a moment that will likely divide audiences into two camps, the WTF crowd and those who get the connection between nature and folk horror.
Either way, the cumulative effect of the images, performances and Matthew Herbert’s anxiety inducing score is a powerful depiction of grief and the manifestation of the uncanny.
