[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Starve Acre.]

The Big Picture

In the folk horror story ‘Starve Acre,’ a couple unwittingly invites dark forces into their home after their son acts out, awakening ancient evil in the countryside.
Morfydd Clark discusses the challenge of the project, co-star Matt Smith, the magical hare, and a particularly emotional moment.
The eerie, deliberate pacing of the story was influenced by the quiet countryside.

From writer/director Daniel Kokotajlo and based on the novella by Andrew Michael Hurley, the British folk horror story Starve Acre follows Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette (Morfydd Clark), a couple living their best rural farm life until their son starts acting out of character and tragedy strikes. As grief seeps into the family, so do dark and sinister forces, uncovering an ancient evil in the countryside that latches itself onto the pain and turmoil that these parents can’t pull themselves out of.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Clark shared how much she loved the challenge of this project and talked about what drew her to this story, establishing a relationship with a giant magical hare, the breastfeeding scene, how being in their countryside location influenced the atmosphere, feeling blessed to collaborate with Smith, her desire to work with kind people, and the importance of setting boundaries to protect herself.

Starve Acre (2024) When their son starts acting strangely, a couple unwittingly allow dark and sinister forces into their home, awakening a long-dormant ancient evil rooted deep in the countryside.Release Date July 26, 2024 Director Daniel Kokotajlo Runtime 98 Minutes Writers Daniel Kokotajlo , Andrew Michael Hurley Expand

Morfydd Clark Is Exploring Generational Curses With Matt Smith in ‘Starve Acre’

Collider: This sort of moody, atmospheric, stark, folksy gothic storytelling seems to always find its way into the countryside. When you first read this, what were the things that immediately stuck out to you? Was there a scene that you were most looking forward to getting to shoot?

MORFYDD CLARK: I think it was two people just completely not understanding each other and being able to support each other with all the best will in the world. Obviously, these people experience the worst tragedy. Something terrible happens to them. And then, they’re just grasping in the dark for each other, but never find each other. That’s something that I find super compelling. There’s also this commitment to wanting to be a husband and wanting to be a wife, but nobody tells you how to do it, or how to be a mother and father. I’m also just fascinated by the idea of generational curses, and how much we can break them and turn them into something positive, and how we are where we came from. We’ve got all these ghosts.

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It’s such an interesting story because you have this very real feeling of this marriage and of grief, but then you find out you’re also going to be working with a very large rabbit. What went through your head, in that regard? What were you working with? How was it to even get that to feel as real as it feels? It feels like you’re cradling a child.

CLARK: Yeah, well, I love that stuff. The hare was all created. It was this incredible puppet. One of the reasons is that you can’t actually tame hares because they’re so nervous that they’ll just die of nerves if they’re around people. That’s why it’s magic that this hare has come to them. It would be so compelling. You would be so taken in. They’re almost in the fairy tale realm, how separate they are from people. We had an incredible team. It really was like cradling a child. It was amazing. The puppet actually met my dog, at one point, and my dog treated it like an animal. It was really uncanny and creepy and weird. It was very moving, but in a very disconcerting way. I empathize with the characters because I would be like, “Wow, this hare has chosen us. This is magic.” The magic just needs to be kept outside the front door, I’d say.

Did you have conversations specifically about the breastfeeding scene and getting the tone of that moment right? That could have gone wrong in so many ways, and yet there’s something so emotional about that moment.

CLARK: Yeah, I’m glad you say that. I just found it incredibly sad that she will just do anything to try to get this pain at bay that she now holds. There’s something also just so childlike and naive about it. They’re like, “Actually, we’re going to make believe.” At times, I, myself, would just really like to disappear into my mind and not deal with my world, and they do that to the extreme.

The Quiet Countryside Helped Guide the Atmosphere of ‘Starve Acre’
Image via BFI

There’s something so eerie and deliberate about this story. Did you have conversations about really just taking your time and slowing everything down? It feels like everything in this story needs a minute to breathe. Did you ever have to catch yourself moving too quickly?

CLARK: The countryside that we were filming in was just so helpful for that. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to this part of the UK, but it is just wide expanses where the land isn’t particularly easy to farm. It doesn’t feel simple and fruitful, and life seems like you take your time and save your energy. There’s something where, being in that atmosphere, it’s that Wuthering Heights feeling where you need to protect yourself slightly from the environment that you’re in. We had a few scenes outside the house, but we were there for a long time. We also saw the seasons change. We were really guided by the environment and the weather, which felt very right for the film because the main character of the film is nature and how nature will do what it will do.

It also seems like a story where you really have to rely on each other, as actors and team partners. What was it like to do this alongside Matt Smith?

CLARK: I’ve been so blessed with so many of my scene partners, and Matt was just one of the best of the best. He’s just fabulous. He’s so playful. He’s so generous. He’s also much more experienced than me, so I was nervous to be sharing the screen with him, but he just invited me into this world in such a lovely way. When you’re doing horror, there’s got to be a sense of the ridiculous and fun, otherwise you go loopy yourself, so working with him was lovely. He’s just so lovely to everyone around him, so being with Matt was a real respite from the tough stuff that we were dealing with within the script.

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I also read that your writer/director kept reworking the script. What was that process like? Was that collaborative? Did he keep you involved and aware of what he was doing, or was that hard to adjust to?

CLARK: This is something I actually just really enjoy about doing stuff with writer/directors because you have that option for a lot of fluidity when you’re doing it. Saint Maud, The Falling, Love & Friendship, have all been that way. I don’t know how that’s happened, but it seems to work. I’ve done it quite a lot, and I find that really exciting. You can do all the preparation in the world, but until you’re in that room or in that field, and you’re feeling the particular type of wind that day, or how the sky has decided to behave, or just what you’ve brought in yourself that day, you don’t know how it’s actually going to play out. And so, to be able to have a director/writer who’s also not precious and is ready to jump on whatever is offered, I find that really fun.

Morfydd Clark Embraces That People Seem To Find Her “Really Freaky”
Image via BFI

Do you always know right away when you want to do a project and play a specific character?

CLARK: I don’t know. It’s been quite funny, my career, that people find me really freaky. You can feel kindness from a script, and I want to work with kind people. Kind people can also see darkness in a really fascinating way. (Starve Acre writer/director) Dan [Kokotajlo] is a very gentle, sweet man, which means you feel very safe with him, exploring these dark extremes. I need to know that I’m working with a director who will respect me, but also respect everyone around him. That’s where I feel the best and most honest art is made.

When we spoke about Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy, we had also talked about Saint Maud and you said that role stayed with you. How did this character feel, in comparison? Did she also linger with you?

CLARK: Well, I actually learned a lot from Saint Maud. I didn’t realize she was going to stay with me, and it wasn’t actually amazing having Saint Maud stay with me. I did learn to have more boundaries with myself. We were really lucky that we had someone on set, because of the themes that we were exploring, who we could talk to, so it always felt like you could leave the world there. That was really great. We were also working with a child, as well, so there was a real responsibility. This had to be fun and jolly. The film wasn’t as important as making sure that he was all right, which also creates a good working environment. I try to have a bit of boundaries now, but I don’t know. I’ll let you know in a year if I actually tried to chase a hare in the countryside. We’ll see.

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Starve Acre is in theaters and on-demand. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Vudu