Morfydd Clark Archives

August 18, 2024

by Carla Hay

Matt Smith in “Starve Acre” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media)

Directed by Daniel Kokotajlo

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the horror film “Starve Acre” (based on the 2019 novel of the same name) features an all-white group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A married couple, who live with their 5-year-old son on the husband’s inherted estate property, experience terror that has to do with a wood sprite character named Jack Grey, who was written about by the husband’s now-deceased father.

Culture Audience: “Starve Acre” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movies headliners and the book on which the movie is based, but this is a horror movie that has more style than substance.

Morfydd Clark in “Starve Acre” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media)

The overrated horror flick “Starve Acre” is a hollow, pretentious and boring adaptation of its namesake novel. By the end of the movie, nothing of substance is revealed about the main characters or the evil that wreaks havoc on those characters. If you want to watch a movie where the majority of scenes are of a married couple looking confused and/or mopey, then “Starve Acre” is the movie for you.

Written and directed by Daniel Kokotajlo, “Starve Acre” is based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s 2019 novel of the same name. “Starve Acre” takes place in an unnamed city in England but was actually filmed in Yorkshire, England. The movie had its world premiere at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival.

“Starve Acre” moves at such a sluggish pace, a period of time that is supposed to take place over a few days feels like much longer. The movie has many unanswered questions that were answered in the book. There’s no other reason for the movie’s voids of information except lazy and sloppy filmmaking.

In the “Starve Acre” movie, married couple Richard Willoughby (played by Matt Smith) and Juliette Willoughby (played by Morfydd Clark) live with their 5-year-old son Owen Willoughby (played by Arthur Shaw) in a remote rural area, on a vast estate property that Richard inherited from his father, who was a successful novelist. (In the “Starve Acre” book, the son’s name is Ewan.) Richard’s mother is also deceased, but she’s barely mentioned in the movie. Richard works as an anthropologist. Juliette is a homemaker.

Richard’s father Neil Willoughby wrote a book called “Starve Acre” that has a character called Jack Grey, a wood sprite that inflicts evil and lives in a certain tree. Richard says that Neil’s intention in creating the Jack Grey character was to scare children. About two-thirds into the movie, Richard has an emotional breakdown and reveals to Juliette that his father was very abusive to Richard when Richard was a child. Richard says his father would often make Richard strip to Richard’s underwear and stand outside in the freezing cold for hours.

On the property, there’s a patch of land where a massive tree used to be. In a scene that takes place early on in the movie, Richard and Owen are walking in this area, and Richard tells Owen that the tree was probably cut down “to make way for farming.” Of course, as soon as Richard says this, you just know that the reason why this tree was cut down was because of a nefarious secret that is revealed toward the end of the film. The secret is exactly what you think it is.

In the meantime, “Starve Acre” plods along with dull scene after monotonous scene of Richard and Juliette becoming aware that strange things are happening to Owen, inside and outside their household. One day, when the family is at a community festival fair, Owen inexplicably uses a long stick to poke out the right eye of an innocent pony. The violence in “Starve Acre” is never explicitly shown on camera. The aftermath of the violence is shown on screen instead.

The rest of “Starve Acre” shows how this family starts to go downhill as something sinister seems to infiltrate their lives. An elderly neighbor named Gordon (played by Sean Gilder) is very superstitious and has been telling Owen some stories, so Richard eventually bans Gordon from coming over to the Willoughby property, but Gordon comes back anyway. On one of Gordon’s return visits, after he’s been supposedly banned, he brings an elderly friend with him named Mrs. Forde (played by Melanie Kilburn), who says she’s a healer through yoga and meditation.

Not long afterward, Richard finds the skeletal, rotting corpse of a wild rabbit on the property. He brings this corpse to work to shows a co-worker named Steven (played by Robert Emms), who is baffled over why Richard would bring this rabbit cadaver to their workplace. Richard begins to act strangely and becomes obsessed with digging in the area where the fallen tree used to be.

Something life-changing happens to the family. And that’s when Juliette’s sister Harrie (played by Erin Richards), with her pet Shih Tzu named Corey in tow, comes to visit the family. Harrie witnesses a lot of the increased strangeness happening in this family. Harrie’s reaction is just to stand around and ask Richard and Juliette what’s going on, but Richard and Juliette won’t tell her. The movie reveals nothing about Harrie and her life except for a brief mention that she lives with a guy named Tommy, who is never seen in the movie.

Except for one part of the movie involving a major plot development for one of the characters, there are no real surprises in “Starve Acre.” Don’t expect to get much insight into any of these characters or even an interesting origin tale of the evil in the story. Smith and Clark give adequate performances, considering that the characters of Richard and Juliette are very opaque and there’s almost no meaningful information about them. Forget about Juliette having a backstory, because she doesn’t have one in this movie.

The best production qualities of “Starve Acre” are its cinematography and production design. There are some scenes that are mildly creepy and somewhat unsettling, but nothing that comes close to being terrifying. The very last scene in “Starve Acre” is almost laughable because of how silly it looks. It’s supposed to be shocking but it’s actually quite underwhelming. Ultimately, “Starve Acre” is a horror movie that over-relies on atmosphere but doesn’t bring enough to the film that is truly scary or can make viewers really care about the main characters.

Brainstorm Media released “Starve Acre” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD.

February 10, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Saint Maud”

Directed by Rose Glass

Culture Representation: Taking place in unnamed city in England, the horror film “Saint Maud” features a predominantly white cast (with a few black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and upper-middle-class.

Culture Clash: A hospice nurse in her 20s is convinced that she can communicate with God, but her religious beliefs sometimes conflict with other people.

Culture Audience: “Saint Maud” will appeal primarily to viewers who like “slow burn” horror films that leave a lot that’s open to interpretation.

Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle in “Saint Maud” (Photo courtesy of A24)

There’s never any question that something is very wrong with the mental state of the title character in the psychological horror movie “Saint Maud.” The problem is that Maud doesn’t see anything wrong with herself, as long as she’s getting all the guidance she needs from the deity that she thinks is in communication with her. “Saint Maud” (the feature-film debut of writer/director Rose Glass) is a haunting story about the fine line between religious fanaticism and losing touch with reality. Throughout this well-acted film, Maud often blurs those lines, sometimes to devastating effects.

“Saint Maud,” which takes place in an unnamed city in England, never reveals how or why Maud (played by Morfydd Clark) became obsessed with Christianity and the idea that she can communicate with God. The main things that viewers find out about Maud is that she’s a woman in her 20s who works as a hospice nurse, a profession she’s had for about a year. She previously worked in a hospital, where a terrible incident happened that was related to Maud having a mental breakdown. This breakdown isn’t shown in the movie, but it’s discussed by Maud and a former co-worker named Joy (played by Lily Knight), who knows some things about Maud that Maud doesn’t want other people to find out.

Maud lives a solitary life in her sparsely furnished studio apartment, where she spends most of her free time praying, reading the Bible, and engaging in other religious practices. She has a shrine that includes a crucifix of Jesus Christ and illustrations of saints and other holy people. Much of “Saint Maud” is narrated with her voiceovers, where she usually sounds meek and soft-spoken. But all is not tranquil in Maud’s world.

This chaos is clear from the movie’s opening scene, when viewers first see Maud: She looks crazy and almost like she’s in a trance. And she’s crouched on a bathroom floor with blood on her face and hands. The movie eventually shows what led her to get to this horrifying point. Until then, viewers of “Saint Maud” get taken on a ride of her slow descent into pure madness.

Near the beginning of the movie, Maud is shown as the caretaker a wheelchair-bound patient named Amanda Köhl, a former dancer/choreographer, whom Maud describes in a voiceover as “a minor celebrity.” Amanda, who is in her 50s, lives alone and has no children. There are vague references to Amanda’s past as a bon vivant with an active social life. But now, Amanda is struggling to cope with the reality that she’s dying, she can’t dance anymore, and she’s even losing her hair because of the cancer. That doesn’t stop Amanda from being somewhat of a chainsmoker.

Maud explains in a voiceover that she doesn’t care for creative types because they tend to be very self-involved. In that respect, Amanda fits that description. But it’s obvious that Amanda’s moodiness and difficult attitude has a lot to do with the pain and trauma of having stage 4 lymphoma of the spinal cord. Amanda lives in a village by the sea, in the type of Gothic mansion that’s often see in horror movies. Even though Amanda could be isolated, she welcomes having visitors.

And that’s a problem for Maud, who thinks it’s best for Amanda to live the type of quiet and hermit-like life that Maud has when she’s in her own home. Even though Maud hasn’t been taking care of Amanda for very long, Maud shows a very possessive and manipulative side in how she handles her relationship with Amanda. Maud acts inappropriately jealous when Amanda has visitors who show a sexual interest in Amanda.

One of these visitors is named Richard (played by Marcus Hutton), who dotes on Amanda and around the same age as she is. Richard used to be one of Amanda’s suitors. It’s clear that Richard still has feelings for Amanda, but there’s no romance between them. In fact, Amanda is somewhat rude to him and at one point tells Richard: “Don’t be an idiot.” When he leaves, Amanda tells Maud that Richard is a “pompous asshole,” and Amanda makes a snide comment about Richard’s hair plugs.

The other visitor is more problematic for Maud because Amanda is very fond of this person. Her name is Carol (played by Lily Frazer), who’s about 25 years younger than Amanda. When Carol comes over to visit, and she and Amanda are heard laughing in Amanda’s bedroom, Maud spies on them and sees that Amanda and Carol are lovers. It isn’t long before Maud comes up with a scheme to try to get Carol out of Amanda’s life.

Maud isn’t as uptight as she first appears to be, because there’s a scene in a bar where a very different Maud emerges. She’s literally got her hair down, she’s drinking beer, and looking for some sexual company. One night at the bar, she meets a man (played by Jonathan Milshaw), they exchange looks, and the next thing you know, she’s giving him a hand job in the bathroom. They don’t even bother to find out each other’s names.

And then on the same night, she goes home with another man (played by Turlough Convery) and has sex with him. What’s the name of the man who’s this one-night stand? Christian. Oh, the irony. During their sexual encounter, Maud starts to hallucinate, she has a little bit of freak-out, and Christian tries to calm her down, just so he can keep having sex with her.

Back in Amanda’s home, Maud projects an image of being very religious and modest, almost like a nun. Amanda even jokes that Maude could be Amanda’s “savior.” Amanda senses that Maud is a born-again Christian or a recent convert. Maud confirms that she’s recently become a devout Christian when Amanda asks her about Maud’s spirituality. And when Maud confides in Amanda that she can feel God’s presence, Amanda says she can feel it too. But is Amanda telling the truth or just playing along as a way to amuse herself?

“Saint Maud” is one of those movies where there’s an unreliable narrator, and what might be seen on screen could be a hallucination. As the story goes on, there are scenes of Maud in literal agony and ecstasy as she gets deeper into her religious obsession. Sometimes she pants heavily and writhes on the floor as if she’s in an orgasmic state. Sometimes she engages in some self-harm that might be too hard to watch for people who get easily squeamish.

Clark gives a memorable performance as the tortured Maud, who tries to appear “normal” on the outside, but is falling apart on the inside. Ehle gives a more straightforward performance as Amanda, who has a cruel streak but who also admits her flaws and tries to make amends when she can. It’s obvious from the beginning of the movie that things are not going to end well, but viewers will be curious to see how bad things get.

“Saint Maud” has its gory moments, but most of the movie’s horror has more to do with losing one’s grip on sanity rather than any violent acts that might be in the movie. Glass shows a lot of promise as a director who can tell an intriguing story. Where the movie falls short is in leaving questions unanswered about Maud’s background to give some context of what led her to this point in her life.

There was that incident in her hospital job, but it’s never explained if she discovered religion on her own or was taught. There’s no mention of Maud having any family, friends or love interests. There’s no sense of what kind of upbringing she had or how long she’s had issues with mental health. A little backstory for Maud would’ve gone a long way with this movie.

However, what will keep people interested is the fascinating range of emotions that Maud shows in her present life. She’s one of those “quiet people” whose rage comes out in flashes, from her face distortions when she’s alone, to how she lashes out when things don’t go her way. The visual effects in the movie are used sparingly, but when they’re in the movie, they make an impact.

Some viewers might be surprised by how long it takes before any real violence happens in “Saint Maud.” That would be missing the point of this horror film. This isn’t a dumb slasher flick with a killer on the loose. Sometimes the most terrifying things can happen in the trappings of a sick mind.

A24 released “Saint Maud” in select U.S. cinemas on January 29, 2021. Epix will premiere the movie on February 12, 2021. “Saint Maud” was released in Europe and Canada in 2020.

Tag: Morfydd Clark

Review: ‘Starve Acre,’ starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark

Review: ‘Saint Maud,’ starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle