Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on gigantic television.
I’ve said a couple of times in the past that one of the subgenres we’re going to start seeing more and more of is environmental-based horror. Environmental disaster science fiction is going to be just as much a thing in coming years. 40 Acres is absolutely a film in that subgenre. While this is an action movie in a lot of respects, the entirety of the film turns on climate catastrophe and famine.
We are in the new future, and the world has experienced a massive catastrophe. A fungal blight has destroyed crops the world over, plunging the entire planet into a massive famine. While food is a prized commodity, it is arable farmland that is the true prize. Any place where actual crops can be grown is more valuable than anything else.
We’re going to be centered on a family farm somewhere in Canada. Food production is still an issue, and protecting the land by gun and electrified fence is as much a regular concern as growing crops. The family is led by former soldier Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) and her husband Galen (Michael Greyeyes). The family runs with something close to military precision out of necessity, something that oldest child Manny (Kataem O’Connor) struggles with (as well as a lack of women his own age that aren’t directly related to him).
The Freemans are connected to other farms by a radio network. Word starts coming in that family farms are being attacked and overrun by a large group of cannibals. Families are disappearing and family friend Augusta Taylor (Elizabeth Saunders) goes dark as well. And then a young woman named Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) turns up at the farm, and is let in by Manny. She claims to be the niece of Augusta, and eventually reveals that she has been sent to the Freeman farm by the cannibals in a desperate attempt to save her own family.
It’s inevitable that the third act of the film is going to involve the Freeman family dealing with the cannibals. I don’t want to spoil this, but I will make a couple of comments about it. First, the band of cannibals is far larger than you are going to expect. This isn’t a zombie film, but there are certainly a number of connections to the genre. The second thing is that there is a moment here where Galen is being essentially crucified on the ground, and it is the most badass moment from an action film I have seen in a good year.
The focus on farmland is an interesting one—just as The Road Warrior focused on the means of production, 40 Acres does the same. While the food is important (and for the cannibal group, the food is the actual focus), the ability to produce additional food in a world that is still blighted, still dealing with insects, and dealing with a complete loss of infrastructure is what is paramount. I say this a someone who lives literally on some of the most valuable and fertile farmland in the U.S. if not the world. During the spring, corn and soybeans will be planted within 15 minutes of my home in literally all directions. The land itself is a sort of golden goose, something that the film takes into account as a theme.
My biggest complaint about 40 Acres is that there are moments where the film is very dark. For a sequence of the film, I needed to turn off all of the lights in the basement to make sure I could see anything, and there was no way that I could have watched a part of this during the day with the sun shining through the window. I would imagine that this would be a very different experience in the theater.
I’d like to say for the record that Danielle Deadwyler can do no wrong. I’ve liked everything she’s been in, and she (along with Michael Greyeyes) is the heart and soul of the film. Everything turns on how she acts and reacts, and she’s completely believable in everything she does here.
I liked this a lot. I love post-apocalyptic movies, and while I enjoy a cannibal movie now and then, this feels a great deal like a zombie movie, and I love those. It’s not going to be everyone’s taste, but for those who like stories of survival in the face of the end of the world, and films where a hint of horror creeps into the science fiction, there’s a lot here to like.
Why to watch 40 Acres: Science fiction cannibal post apocalypse? You need more?
Why not to watch: It’s dark in a few spots.
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