In a media landscape saturated with post-apocalyptic movies centered on white families, their stories of survival are considered relatable, co-writer/director R.T. Thorne’s debut feature 40 acres stands out as an inspired new entry into the genre’s classics. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, the film goes straight to brutally explore what it takes to make hope take root in a world that seems doomed.
The story takes place in the near future, when the world has been ravaged by a global epidemic, mass famine, and a new civil war has broken out in the United States. 40 acres It tells the story of Hayley Freeman (played by Danielle Deadweiler), a soldier-turned-farmer who fights to keep her family safe. With society largely broken and food production systems devastated by the depletion of arable land, fertile farms like Haley’s that still have crops growing are a precious gift that people will gladly work for.
To Hayley, the farm is more than just a remote piece of land in the Canadian wilderness, it’s a generational heirloom that her ancestors first owned during Reconstruction. It’s also the home she shares with her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) and their blended family (Lena Robinson, Jada LeBlanc, Haile Ammar). Although the Freemans are off the grid and surrounded by an electrified fence and are relatively safe, Haley and Galen know that it could all be taken away from them in a moment. This is why they have their children trained for combat and prepared to defend their land by any means necessary.
Picture: Hungry Eyes Film and Television
Hayley’s sternness and insistence that they can’t trust anyone reflect a greater inability to communicate or be emotionally vulnerable – especially around her teenage son Emmanuel (Kattam O’Connor) In eyes. Every time he sneaks off into the woods to be alone, he can’t help but wish inside him that he could meet someone new and make his little world feel bigger. His wish seems to come true when he unexpectedly discovers the beauty of Dawn (Milkanya Diaz Rojas), a girl whose beauty inspires him to start drawing in his sketchbook. But when the Freemans learn that the small, secretive network of farmers they belong to is being methodically attacked by a group of predatory cannibals, Haley puts them on high alert to prepare for the inevitable.
40 acres Thorne, known for her music videos and work on Hulu, immediately sets the tone with a smooth and brutal opening action sequence. Utopia Falls – This is his first foray into feature filmmaking. The Freemans move like a well-oiled machine, taking precise headshots from the open spaces of cornfields and dispatching a group of intruders with point-blank stabbings to ensure the mission is accomplished. They are necessarily lethal because not to do so means risking being tortured, murdered, or even eaten. But Thorne and co-author Glenn Taylor also stress that while Haley was strict with her children, she also instilled in them a deep understanding that protecting their lives was key to preserving the Black and Indigenous heritage to which they were a part.
A stark contrast to other apocalyptic thrillers such as the first two quiet place(s) and the latest mad max Characteristics of people of color being few and far between, 40 acres It’s very explicit about how the Freemans’ racial identity shapes their experience of the apocalypse. Often, such films rely heavily on images of the white nuclear family, making them read like expressions of social anxieties about dehumanizing others™. but 40 acres The Freemans have clung to their family’s tradition of survival, living in a world that never really offered them any security.
While the film is very much an ensemble piece, Deadweiler is outstanding, delivering a magnetic and frankly terrifying performance that conveys just how scared Haley is of her children. She’d rather her children hate her than see them eaten by ghouls, but you can feel she’s still hurt when the sensitive romantic Emmanuel leaves. Because Deadweiler conveys Haley’s grim warnings about dangers everywhere so effectively, it’s a little irritating to see people make incredibly stupid decisions. 40 acres‘The plot kicks into action. But as with some of the film’s beats, Thorne and cinematographer Jeremy Benning excel in making 40 acresThe thing about action movies is making things exciting and tense at the same time.
Although its final act falters a bit in its attempt to amplify the already high emotional stakes, 40 acres The ending powerfully reiterates its central idea. Since this subgenre is already filled with mediocre stories, 40 acres It feels really special.
40 acres No distributor or theatrical release date has been confirmed yet.
