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Plenty of horror films have moments that stay with you, but there aren’t many with final images as disturbing as Starve Acre‘s.
The entire last act of Daniel Kokotajlo’s movie — based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel of the same name — is intense, so much so that you may be struggling to make sense of what in the rabbit-nurturing heck you just witnessed.
To try and help piece together the final happenings of this ’70s Yorkshire-set horror, we’ve broken down all the key questions below, from the legend of Dandelion Jack to what really happened to that poor little boy.
What’s Starve Acre about?
After their young son Owen (Arthur Shaw) dies from an asthma attack, Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette (Morfydd Clark) both experience strange happenings while struggling to deal with their overwhelming grief. On a sabbatical from the university where he teaches, Richard digs in a nearby field to try and uncover the remaining roots of a legendary tree written about in his abusive father’s diaries.
While digging Richard discovers the skeleton of a hare, which he boxes up and takes home — only to find that the creature seems to be slowly regenerating itself whenever he looks at its remains alone.
Juliette, meanwhile, is haunted by depression, guilt, and visions of her son, leading her to be open to a visit from local medium Mrs Forde (Melanie Kilburn).
Credit: BFI
What happens at the end of Starve Acre?
The remains of the hare completely regenerate, and the now-living creature comes back to the house after Richard and Juliette try to release it into the wild. Juliette becomes obsessed with it, believing it to be the manifestation of a Pagan spirit the locals called Dandelion Jack.
Richard, meanwhile, uncovers the remains of the perfectly preserved “Whistling Tree” that his father was obsessed with. His colleague Steven (Robert Emms) comes to help him dig, but Juliette has a vision that Steven has come to take the hare away from her. She takes a knife and murders Steven, before persuading Richard that Dandelion Jack has come to give them a second chance after their son’s death.
In the final moments of the film, Richard kills Juliette’s visiting sister Harrie (Erin Richards), providing Dandelion Jack with the third sacrifice needed to complete the legend and cross over from the spirit world.
What’s the local legend about Dandelion Jack?
Hang on a minute — who’s Dandelion Jack? And what exactly is this local legend? We get glimpses of the story in the writings of Richard’s father Neil, but the most concise explanation comes from Richard himself when he tells his colleague what the Whistling Tree is meant to be.
“The womb of nature,” says Richard. “The pagan’s entrance to the spirit world.”
One of these spirits is Dandelion Jack. The legend goes that three human sacrifices are needed to open the doorway and let him in: a child, a woman, and a man. In this case Owen is the first sacrifice, then Steven, and then finally Harrie.
What really happened to their son, Owen?
Before he dies, Owen speaks about Dandelion Jack, using the spirit’s other name, Jack Grey. He says Jack Grey has been “whistling” to him. The implication is that Dandelion Jack’s spirit is able to influence and communicate with members of Richard’s family in an attempt to free himself from the spirit world, first telling Owen to do bad things and then causing his mother not to intervene while he’s having an asthma attack.
“When Owen had the asthma attack, I didn’t freeze up,” Juliette tells Richard towards the end of the film. “I had a moment of clarity that we’d be better off without him. And that was thanks to Jack.”
It seems as though Dandelion Jack’s spirit was pulling the strings all along, with the goal being to make Owen his first sacrifice.
Credit: BFI
What’s the deal with the hare?
The hare seems to be a physical manifestation of Dandelion Jack. Richard discovers the remains while digging near the buried Whistling Tree (the doorway to Jack’s spirit world), and the hare regenerates after Owen — the first sacrifice — has been made.
Whether the hare is Jack’s final form is unclear. The film ends at the moment when all three sacrifices have been made, and Juliette has just begun to “nurture” (ick) the hare like a child.
Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t stick around to find out what happens next.
Starve Acre is currently showing at UK theatres.
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An explainer of the twisted ending of Daniel Kokotajlo’s ‘Starve Acre’, based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel of the same name.
