A simple title screen introduces us to the world of 40 Acres. It explains that the global food supply has been decimated, society has crumbled, and farmland is now prized above all else. This is the first and last time R.T. Thorne’s feature-length directorial debut will pull back for such a big-picture view, narrowing its focus from that moment on to the survival story of a single family in rural Canada. It’s a choice that makes for a tight, tense thriller, and helps 40 Acres carve out a corner of its own in a genre landscape that doesn’t lack for dystopian visions.
The film begins with a gang of bandits closing in on a farmhouse. One of the gang’s members cheerfully announces himself and begins a “we were just passing through” spiel while the others sneak around the back, all of them with a glint in their eye, convinced they’ve found themselves an easy target. Sadly for them, the Freeman family doesn’t play those sorts of games. Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) springs out first with her machete, chopping men down like a farmer at harvest. The whistle of a flying tomahawk announces the arrival of her husband, Galen (Michael Greyeyes), and the kids aren’t far behind, wielding everything from switchblades to silenced sniper rifles. The bandits are dead before they even realize they’re in danger.
Violence is used sparingly in 40 Acres, but when it arrives, it’s always delivered with swift and brutal style. In one brilliantly devised sequence, Galen takes down a group of enemies inside a pitch-black room, his victims’ panicked gunshots providing the only illumination.
But the film is less interested in finding cool ways for people to die than in how the Freemans have managed to stay alive. Hailey is ex-military, and she runs her household like a boot camp. She gives orders and expects her children to follow them without complaint or question; otherwise, they can pay her back in push-ups. But this home is also full of laughter and love, and 40 Acres skillfully juxtaposes the cold atmosphere of the outer world with the warmer one inside. The film is helped here by Todor Kobakov’s ambient score, which drifts easily between bright, gentle tones and thundering sounds that are Hans Zimmer-like levels of foreboding.
As the story progresses, tension grows between Hailey and her oldest son, Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor), who’s beginning to press against the rigid boundaries that his mother has erected to keep them all safe. It’s a conflict that’s common to post-apocalyptic storytelling, especially as they argue over whether trusting strangers is noble or naïve, but 40 Acres continually finds clever ways to either subvert those familiar story beats or to make them land with extra impact. At one point, the film employs a classic Sergio Leone trick by suddenly switching the camera’s perspective to reveal something that must have been visible to the characters the whole time—in this case a stack of barrels that take on a horrifying new meaning by the time we get to see them.
The relationship between Hailley and Emanuel provides 40 Acres with its emotional core and its two most impactful performances. O’Connor has a talent for softening his eyes at key moments, visibly regressing back into boyhood when his mother scolds him. In his defense, her glare would likely have that effect on most people. Deadwyler is ferocious as the indomitable matriarch, evincing strength as well as a certain, poignant weariness. She’s a woman who’s always tired but will never be exhausted—not while she has a family to defend, anyway.
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