R.T. Thorne’s feature-film directorial debut, 40 Acres anchors its tale of familial strife and global terror as the world teeters on the brink. Screening during The Overlook Film Festival 2025, audiences may presume 40 Acres to be a straight-forward horror-thriller in a few vs. many conflict, but there’s a rawness and layered meaning to everything within the film, catching the audience in the very razor wire that surrounds the central family until the credits roll, not even realizing how deeply the metaphor has cut them.

L-R: Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman, Michael Greyeyes as Galen, Kataem O’Connor as Emanuel, Haile Amare as Cookie, and Jaeda LeBlanc as Danis in 40 ACRES. Photo courtesy of Hungry Eyes Media.

Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson; The Harder They Fall) is as brilliant as ever, conveying the perpetual cost of maternal responsibility as she makes matriarch Hailey Freeman seem hard-nosed, indomitable, and resilient in her desire to maintain the land of her family while preserving her future. Kataem O’Connor (Time Cut) manages to keep up with Deadwyler while both Michael Greyeyes (Firestarter (2022); Blood Quantum) and Leenah Robinson’s (1923) Raine take up the MVP roles. Each of them is center to some of the best interpersonal moments that help the Freemans feel like a complete and natural family, as well as organic in the action.

Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman in 40 ACRES. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival.

Audiences can experience 40 Acres as a simple family-centric horror thriller or go deeper down a rabbit hole of ideas in which nearly everything we see and hear possesses intention with a great deal of power and meaning, serving as a warning for what appears to be happening once more: supply chains are failing due to animal-based viruses, greed and pride are leading the way in political arenas in which the call for isolation at home and war elsewhere is a path made of distrust and vanity, and those who just want to exist are left with anxiety which breeds fear.

A full review of 40 Acres will be available closer to the wide release.

Screening during The Overlook Film Festival 2025.
In theaters July 2nd, 2025.

For more information, head to the official Magnolia Pictures 40 Acres website.

Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.

Categories: Films To Watch, In Theaters, Recommendation, Reviews

Tags: 40 Acres, Canada, Cree, Danielle Deadwyler, drama, Elizabeth Saunders, English, film festival, foreign film, Glenn Taylor, Haile Amare, Hungry Eyes Media, Jacob Gabriel, Jaeda LeBlanc, Kataem O'Connor, Leenah Robinson, Lora Campbell, Magnolia Pictures, Michael Greyeyes, Milcania Diaz-Rojas, Mongrel Media, Patrick Garrow, R.T. Thorne, science fiction, The Overlook Film Festival, The Overlook Film Festival 2025, thriller, Tyrone Benskin, Visit Films