‘40 Acres’ Review: A Familiar Post-Apocalypse Setting Gives Way to Socio-Political Critique and Cannibal Horror [B+] | SXSW

You’d be pretty hard-pressed to find a post-apocalyptic film that doesn’t feel cobbled together from a storied history of derivative parts. Stories of loners, families, or factions surviving a world gone uncivilized—searching for any vestiges of life while avoiding hostile survivors and being forced into acts of vicious violence—evoke dozens of familiar properties that define the genre’s makeup.

Director R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalypse thriller 40 Acres isn’t immune to genre familiarity. A story about a family surviving on a stretch of land in rural Canada after a pandemic outbreak and civil war thrust the world into disorder, as they try to defend their acreage from raiders, is prime red meat for the genre’s most tired clichés. It’s all here: the remote farm setting, the rigorous property defense protocols, the tense interactions with outsiders, the descent into brutality when faced with relentless attackers—hell, there’s even the requisite corkboard with exposition-heavy newspaper clippings (“Mass exodus from major cities continues!”).

Where 40 Acres distinguishes itself is in its perspective. This is a Black director telling the story of a blended Black-Indigenous family fighting to hold onto generationally-owned land against mostly white marauders seeking to strip it away. The film doesn’t shy away from depicting the savagery inherent in this socially-charged scenario—let’s think about the title 40 Acres and its reference to the “40 Acres and a Mule” promise of reparations from the U.S. government following the Civil War, who pledged to gift land to former enslaved Black people, an oath that went largely unfulfilled. In that context, 40 Acres fits within a niche lineage of queasy Canadian socio-political thrillers like Ryszard Bugajski’s Clearcut, set apart through its sharp, tense filmmaking and distinct point of view. 

The family in question is the Freemans, led by no-nonsense matriarch Hailey (a perfectly intense Danielle Deadwyler). Hailey is supported by her husband Galen (Michael Greyeyes) in her unwavering goal: keeping their family safe at any cost. This often means exerting strict authority over her children, causing the most friction with her headstrong, rebellious son Manny (Kataem O’Connor). The family spends their days tending to the land, fending off looters, homeschooling, and maintaining communication with other survivors via radio. Life is as stable as it can be given the circumstances, but a recent attack on a nearby family by cannibalistic assailants puts Hailey on edge — just as Manny brings home a stranger named Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas), whom he becomes infatuated with after crossing paths during a supply run. 

Beyond its social context, the complicated relationship between Hailey and Manny forms the core of 40 Acres. While the film revolves around a family doing whatever it takes to survive, that mission is complicated by Manny’s teenage emotions clashing with Hailey’s severe regimen. For as expectedly great as Deadwyler is, O’Connor gradually reveals himself as the key player, portraying a defiant kid whose wayward tendencies are rooted in a lifetime of isolation. In one heated argument, Manny exclaims, “I don’t even know how to talk to a girl,” the seemingly trivial but formative angst of a teenager raised under harsh control finally bubbling to the surface. 

The strong arc between Hailey and Manny is reinforced by a solid supporting cast, including standout Leenah Robinson as the Freemans’ oldest daughter, Raine. The film’s craft is equally robust, with sequences that don’t withhold the brutal realities of surviving in a world prowling with the depraved. The Freeman family is no stranger to enacting efficient violence against threats—within the first five minutes, there’s a grisly tomahawk strike to the head, followed by the thunderous, speaker-rattling artillery effects of guys getting shredded by heavy bullet fire (shoutout to sound designer Ed Douglas for the Michael Mann-level gunshots).

40 Acres really shows up to play in its final act, releasing all the long-simmering tension through a series of taut, satisfying combat sequences: close-range fights (including a great little scene lit only by intermittent gunfire), tactical shootouts, and grim moments of unsettling gore. This isn’t the most nauseating cannibal movie ever made, but cinematographer Jeremy Benning and production designer Peter Cosco confidently push the film into solid horror territory. Thorne doesn’t lean into gratuitous shock, though—barrels filled with hacked-off limbs, a chunk of flesh bitten from someone’s arm, and a grimy warehouse of consumed hostages are presented with a level of restraint, using horror as a complement to the personal stakes at the film’s center.

Certainly, 40 Acres has some lacking areas. The antagonists lack texture, serving mostly as a faceless invading force. The opening half-hour has a fair bit of table-setting that could be trimmed to get to the central conflict faster. The burgeoning relationship between Manny and Dawn fights for attention among the other central character dynamics. And of course, the film’s aesthetic and scenario owe a debt to a long lineage of post-apocalyptic cinema. 

But Thorne leans into the productive aspects of those genre traditions, filtering them through a distinct, meaningful lens. This is a movie about the personal sovereignty of land belonging to Black and Indigenous peoples, the evolving relationship between a mother and her son, and a family cultivating an unwavering sense of community in the hope of forging a brighter future. And also, yes—you get cannibal freaks getting absolutely bodied in crystal-clear camera setups. Sometimes, you really can have it all.

Grade: B+

This review is from the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival. Magnolia Pictures will release 40 Acres in U.S. theaters.

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Trace Sauveur

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