Review: '40 Acres' wraps an emotional family drama inside a tight post-apocalyptic thriller, and gets maximum mileage out of star Danielle Deadwyler

A tight post-apocalyptic thriller that’s also a deeply felt family drama, director R.T. Thorne’s “40 Acres” is an uncomfortably timely story of survival in a world that’s falling apart.

The Freeman family lives on a farm in rural Canada, one that’s well protected with an electrified fence, surveillance cameras, and a whole lot of family members who can shoot accurately and kill with practically no compunction. The mom, Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler), is a former soldier, and has imparted that warrior mentality into her own children and the step-kids she shares with her husband, Galen (Michael Greyeyes).

The title cards at the movie’s start sets up the scenario. It’s been 14 years since a fungal pandemic wiped out 98% of animal life, a dozen years since a second Civil War broke out, and 11 years since a famine struck. What little workable farmland still exists, like the Freemans’ farm, is highly valuable — and there are people who will kill for it. Hence the security set-up and Hailey’s insistence that the kids study hard and practice their marksmanship.

Hailey’s oldest, Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor), is a teen who’s starting to feel the stress of always being under his mother’s domination. He goes out on a scavenger run, and comes across a compound with a fair number of people. When he stops at a creek for a swim, he also sees someone from that compound, Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas), who’s around his age, and he’s smitten. Emanuel knows his mother would never allow a stranger onto their farm, so he’s torn about what to do next.

In the basement safe room of the Freeman farm, Hailey keeps in contact with neighboring farms via ham radio — particularly with Augusta (Elizabeth Saunders), a crusty survivor who trades her moonshine for samples of Freemans’ marijuana crop. Augusta warns Hailey that other families have gone silent, and that a marauding band of cannibals is roaming nearby.

Thorne’s story — he co-wrote the screenplay with Glenn Taylor, and developed the story with Lora Campbell — is steeped in history, both national and personal. The Freemans, we’re told, have held the farm for nearly two centuries, back when they escaped the South during the first Civil War. It’s Hailey’s legacy, and she and her family have fought so hard for it that no pack of vandals is going to take it from them now. She’s also determined to leave that legacy for Emanuel, so much so that she doesn’t recognize the generational trauma she’s also passing down.

All of this drama plays out in one of the sharpest end-of-the-world thrillers I’ve seen since Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later.” And the drama and the action work in tandem, with Thorne’s blocking of the action sketching out the geography of the Freeman farm, giving us a visual touchstone to match the emotional importance Hailey assigns to the place. 

Deadwyler gives a performance that’s brimming with tension, as she’s fiercely insistent that her family remain vigilant in the face of unknown threats. O’Connor, playing the questioning Emanuel, matches Deadwyler’s intensity note for note. And Greyeyes finds some needed humor in Galen, a First Nations member who delights in playing against Indigenous stereotypes.

Thorne is a veteran of episodic TV and music videos, and “40 Acres” is his first feature film. He’s got the skills to make more, and an uncanny gift for wrapping big ideas in genre disguise.

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’40 Acres’

★★★1/2

Opens Wednesday, July 2, in theaters. Rated R for strong bloody violent content and language. Running time: 113 minutes.