‘40 Acres’ Review: Danielle Deadwyler Is a Steely Matriarch Protecting Her Own in Riveting Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

In a future where land is the most valuable commodity, the Freemans adhere to a strict isolationist policy. The tight-knit family at the center of R.T. Thorne’s gripping debut 40 Acres does not explore areas outside of their farm, a sprawling tract of land in rural Canada demarcated by barbed wires, nor do they fraternize with other survivors in their dangerous post-apocalyptic world. Led by their resolute matriarch Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler, in typically fine form) and her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes, also excellent), the Freeman children spend their days tending crops, undergoing rigorous combat training and learning about the traditions of their Black and Indigenous ancestors.

But their quiet existence becomes threatened after Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor), the eldest Freeman kid, makes contact with a young woman who desperately needs his family’s help. 

Borrowing from a range of familiar sources, most notably the work of Octavia Butler, Thorne crafts a tense and absorbing story about the Freeman family’s attempt to survive in a world ravaged by disease, famine and a brutal civil war. In 40 Acres, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and is being released by Magnolia Pictures this week, Thorne builds on the racial and environmental politics that propel Butler’s most prescient tales. Like the American sci-fi writer, the Canadian filmmaker examines these themes through the compelling lens of a fraught family drama. Similarly to the protagonist of Parable of the Sower, which is name-checked in 40 Acres, Emmanuel finds himself at odds with his parents’ view of the world and yearns for a community outside of the Freeman colony.

40 Acres opens with a bit of explicit world-building. A title card details reasons for the dismal condition of the world; the list reads like an appendix to the Biblical plagues. Almost 15 years ago, a fungal pandemic killed more than 90 percent of the animal biosphere. The global food chain collapsed and a few years later a civil war broke out. Next came famine, which made farmland a valuable commodity. The land on which Hailey, Galen and their four children — Emanuel (O’Connor), Raine (Leenah Robinson), Danis (Jaeda LeBlanc) and Cookie (Haile Amre) — live is an inheritance from her ancestors, who struggled to get free. It’s evidence of that promise, never quite fulfilled by the U.S. government after the Civil War, to provide reparations for the formerly enslaved. Because of this Hailey, is protective of the farmland and not interested in sharing its resources with anyone. 

Thorne structures his narrative (which he co-wrote with Glenn Taylor and Lora Campbell) with chapters. The early ones bolster our sense of the Freemans’ routine, showing the goings-on on the farm. The director’s background in music videos is most apparent in these moments, when, for example, he pairs Emanuel’s early patrols of the farm with k-os’ trippy record “Neutroniks,” whose lyrics reflect the young adult’s existential angst. Unlike his mother and stepfather, Emmanuel wants to commune with other survivors. When he happens upon Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) swimming at his favorite pond in the woods, he watches her with the desperation of those seeking connection.

The main action of 40 Acres involves a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances at the neighboring farms. When not coaching her kids on how to maim an attacker, Hailey mans the radio. One day she learns that the Flemings, another family at a nearby farm, are dead. The gruesome details of their murder alerts the broader community to a vicious, cannibalistic militia. This news sends the Freemans into high alert and Hailey instructs her children to approach strangers with a shoot-first-ask-later mentality.

Emmanuel can’t adhere to this, and when he finds Dawn bloodied and panicked by their farm gate, he hides her in a barn.  His decision sets off a series of calamitous events that threaten the survival of the Freemans and their land. 

For the most part, Thorne’s direction is assured, ably swerving between the nail-biting tension of the principal story and the comedic elements of its subplots. The filmmaker doesn’t take the demands of the genre too seriously; he peppers 40 Acres with humorous moments that humanize its central characters. This family might be in survival mode, but that doesn’t mean they don’t laugh at the dinner table or poke fun during training. It’s also exciting to see how the director blends Black and Indigenous lore, underscoring the similarities of these historically marginalized groups in American history. 

Deadwyler is naturally compelling as a steely woman trying to translate her painful experiences of war to her sheltered children. It’s a pleasure to see the actress, whose major roles have required a stoic resolve, lean into softer and even funnier aspects of her character.

Where 40 Acres is less satisfyingly realized is in its world-building. While Thorne, production designer Peter Cosco and cinematographer Jeremy Benning make the Freemans’ post-apocalyptic world feel capacious through a combination of detailed interiors and establishing shots of dense forest (filming took place on a farm in northern Ontario), there’s a lack of clarity around the context and conditions of their existence. Thorne shies away from detailing the new world order that governs this land or offering more explanation for the violent, presumably white, nationalist militia trying to steal farmland. There’s plenty implied by brief conversations and Hailey’s attitude, but questions about who these people are — and their role beyond that of antagonistic foils to our central crew — linger, detracting from the power of this otherwise fine film.