40 Acres
Description
Danielle Deadwyler (Till) stars as a woman determined to protect her family and her farm in this pulse-pounding, post-apocalyptic thriller. After a mass die-off kills most animals, humans succumb to worldwide famine. For the few people left, viable acreage is a precious commodity. Hailey Freeman (Deadwyler) has that with the farm that’s been in her family for generations. An electric fence, video surveillance, and an arsenal act as safety measures but then Hailey’s teenage son Emanual (Kataem O’Connor) brings in an outsider. At a time when brutal, cannibalistic bandits are on the prowl, that rash act invites trouble. Deadwyler is pitch perfect as a lethal helicopter mom, well supported by a cast that includes Michael Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) as Hailey’s tranquil partner Galen. Music video director R.T. Thorne makes a dazzling, unrelentingly tense feature debut with an indelible drama that blends scenes of everyday domesticity with bloody scenes of carnage. —Pam Grady
Biographies
A native of Calgary, R.T. Thorne is a screenwriter, director, and producer, who burst onto the scene in the early 2000s as a maker of music videos. From that award-winning career, he transitioned to film and television. Among his works are the short films Neutered (2011) and The Time Traveler (2015), and the series Utopia Falls (2020), which he created and for which he won a Writers Guild of Canada Award, and The Porter (2023), for which he shared a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best New Scripted Series. 40 Acres is his feature debut.