'40 Acres' Review
Release Date: 07/02/25 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Drama. SciFi. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures.
The Verdict: A Must-See
The end of the world has been done before, but not quite like this.
In 40 Acres, writer-director R.T. Thorne tears through the post-apocalyptic genre with something we don’t see nearly enough: a story about Black and Indigenous survival told on its own terms, rooted in family, pride, and history.
Yes, there are cannibals. Yes, the world has collapsed into hunger and depravity. But underneath all that blood and ash is something much more powerful, political, and timely.
Set in a near-future where a fungal pandemic has wiped out most animal life and shattered the global food chain, 40 Acres opens with violence. Raiders stalk a remote farm in rural Canada – until they’re swiftly and mercilessly dispatched. The killers? The Freemans. This is their land. And they’re not giving it up without a fight.
If that sounds like the premise of a classic Western, it is in parts, but Thorne’s unique voice helps to elevate most of those trappings.
Danielle Deadwyler stars as Hailey Freeman, a hardened military vet turned matriarch whose great-great-grandfather escaped slavery in Georgia and founded the family farm nearly two centuries ago. Now, generations later, that farm is among the last pieces of fertile ground in a starving world. And Hailey will defend it – and her children – with everything she’s got.
That includes Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor), her restless teenage son caught between boyhood and the burden of survival. When he meets a mysterious girl (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) bathing in a nearby stream, the stirrings of young love quickly become something much more dangerous.
Thorne, best known until now for music videos, brings an incredible eye to his first feature. Think The Walking Dead with the haunting stillness of Alex Garland.
Cinematographer Jeremy Benning captures a bleak landscape in gorgeous light and frame, and Todor Kobakov’s pulsing, metallic score echoes the tension of Reznor/Ross. The film looks like prestige TV, but hits like a late-night genre gut-punch.
The ensemble cast is tight, with standout work from Michael Greyeyes as Galen, Hailey’s partner, and Leenah Robinson as his daughter Raine – both bringing an Indigenous perspective that deepens the film’s themes of land, loss, and resistance against invaders. But this is Deadwyler and O’Connor’s film. Their performances are raw, lived-in, and weighty as hell.
Deadwyler wears her trauma like body armor. You can see the weight of war in every breath she takes. O’Connor, meanwhile, walks the tightrope between defiance and yearning – he’s a son who wants an authentic life, but knows he was raised for survival.
If the film has a weak spot, it’s only that the terrain – both literal and narrative – feels a little familiar. Fungal plagues. Cannibal raiders. Isolated outposts. We’ve seen these signposts before. But they’ve never been done quite like this – and with so much to say.
40 Acres is a gritty, gore-soaked, post-apocalyptic vision of Black survival with political undercurrents to spare. It’s not for the squeamish, but it’s an unforgettable debut that puts Thorne on the map as a director with real vision and something urgent to say.
If this is just the start of his filmography, look out. The only question is: what the heck do you do for an encore?
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