The horror genre has been awash in dystopian stories of isolated bands of humans, usually threatened by masses of flesh-hungry zombies. I actually miss the zombies of my childhood: slow-moving creatures reanimated by evil sorcerers for a variety of purposes. One of the last of these (Jaime Cardriche) appeared in that great H.P. Lovecraft/film noir sendup, “Cast a Deadly Spell” (1991), where zombies were imported from Haiti “six to a box – like bonbons.”
This movie is not like that.
We are dealing with an isolated Canadian farm almost 20 years after a fungal pandemic has killed off all animal life, including most humans. The farm, settled by freed slaves from the time of the American Civil War, has kept itself isolated and, through hard work and close attention to basic principles of behavior, successful in a time of increasing threats from marauding humans turned cannibals. Worse than zombies, these people, mostly men, are cunning, well organized, and ruthless.
The matriarch of the family at Freeman Farm (the titular 40 Acres) is Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler – “The Piano Lesson), a no-nonsense former soldier whose family reaches back to the founding of the farm and whose maturing son Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor – “Fitting In”) chaffs at her strict rules and constant expressions of disappointment and frustration with him.
Second in command is Galen (Michael Greyeyes – “The King Tide”), a native Canadian who brings a natural-world wisdom to the group.
Emanuel is fond of swimming in a beautiful spot on a river outside the fortified bounds of Freeman Farm. One day he spies a young woman also enjoying that secluded spot. This is something new for him, as there is little to no direct communication between the scattered farms in this rural, defensible part of the remaining human world. He decides to keep the siting secret.
Then, one night while checking their defenses, Emanuel comes upon the girl, Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas -Sapins”), and captures her. What comes next test family bonds, survival skills, and one’s faith in humanity.
For his feature film debut, director/co-writer R.T. Thorne has given us a twist on the overwrought theme of isolated people fighting for existence. Whether cannibals are a sufficient shift from zombie or aliens is for you to decide. However, along with co-writers Glenn Taylor and Lora Campbell (“Yoga 101”), he has given us some characters with a little more flesh on their bones (reference intended) than we usually get in this sort of flick. While the cannibals are mostly disgusting monsters who don’t care any more for each other than one fly for another which just got swatted, their leader does have a certain tongue in cheek (reference intended) sense of humor within his few lines of dialogue. Aside from the cannibals, the relationships between the normal folks on the farm are genuine and expertly portrayed.
This is an enjoyable movie despite the tired format, and you may appreciate the occasional twists the writers throw us along the way.
Note: As you would expect, there are scenes of extreme violence and dismemberment in this film.
Runtime: One hour, 53 minutes
Availability: UK Cinemas on Aug. 1; digital download Aug. 4
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