Starve Acre

Richard (Matt Smith) and his wife Jules (Morfydd Clark) live in relative isolation in a cottage with their son Owen. Opposite them is a piece of land called Starve Acre which features a legend of an ancient oak tree. Owen who says he keeps hearing whistling and starts behaving aggressively suddenly dies leaving the couple devastated, but it only increases Richard's interest in the tree.

Whilst this is filled with the usual folk horror tropes in that it is very very slow, with lots of bewildering long looks and plenty of intrusive jagged and mellifluous music, this remains a fascinating, unsettling film. The 2 leads are really very impressive and with sinister support from Sean Gilder as the local who knows what's going on it does rather creep up on you potentially putting you off visiting the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.