’40 Acres’ Review: A Family Drama With A Dash of Cannibalism [Overlook Film Festival 2025]
With a title like 40 Acres, I was worried this would be another racial trauma porn-filled horror movie. Many of us know the promise of forty acres and a mule (if not, please educate yourself here). So, when I saw 40 Acres was about a Black family with the last Freeman, it already painted a picture I didn’t want to see even before the synopsis mentioned the Civil War. But, I am happy to report that it is not the new Antebellum or Alice. Despite the way it is being marketed, 40 Acres is actually a slow-paced family drama with occasional violence.
Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) is a former soldier living with her family on highly sought-after farmland. In this post-apocalyptic nightmare, the most valuable resource is land, and people are willing to die for it. Hailey has trained her family to work as a team to protect their land and each other at all costs. However, when a roving gang of cannibals begins sweeping through their neighboring farms, the family discovers they are not as prepared as they thought they were.
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Deadwyler is the VIP of the film as usual. Even a casual moviegoer knows she is an actor who deserves more hardware on her mantel. If anything, many of us want to see her step outside the box the industry is trying to shove her into. So, while 40 Acres is not a perfect movie, it is refreshing to watch her play a badass. I would love to see more Black women in their 40s get to be the vicious centerpiece in more thrillers.
If this movie had raised the stakes for the Freemans or even tapped the gas pedal a little, this movie could have been a moment. If nothing else, this title proves that Deadwyler should be seen for more action roles in the genre. She is fighting for her life to keep Hailey from being one-dimensional. I’m sure not many other actors could have made her as intriguing as Deadwyler does.
R.T. Thorne and Glenn Taylor’s script has a cool concept at the center. It also has some loveable characters within this very small world. However, at no point did it ever feel like anyone was really in danger. This is supported by the mother and son heart-to-heart amid the violence, where he tells her it’s time he finds his own way. While 40 Acres has the makings of a sci-fi epic and gives a glimpse of how sinister the cannibals could be, it is more interested in the family dynamics. Specifically, Emanuel’s (Kataem O’Connor) journey as the oldest Freeman child. He makes the worst decisions as he tries to assert his independence, which drives the movie to the predictable beats we expect. We also take the scenic route many times to tell us the obvious things we’ve already observed about his character.
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40 Acres is so wrapped up in the melodrama that it never really unleashes the cannibal activity it promised. We get hints of what has happened on other farms and get to see them take a few bites out of one character. But for the most part, you almost forget they are not just generic people fighting to take some land. The person I assume is the leader of the cannibals only has two scenes and dies so quickly I wondered if there was a bigger threat coming. This is wild because if you are promising people cannibals, you have a built-in way to raise some stakes. Or, at the very least, give us something gruesome and gross to talk about at the water cooler. Instead, this movie uses cannibalism as a background threat to force the mother and son to talk about their feelings and bring the family closer.
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I appreciate 40 Acres putting a blended family in the forefront of the action. The importance of a Black and Indigenous household fighting for their land is not lost on me. Hailey’s husband Galen (Michael Greyeyes) makes sure his kids can speak the language of their ancestors and even has a fun moment where he reminds them where they come from.
When the family is split up because of the obvious trap Emanuel falls for, Galen also gets a chance to prove that he is as metal as his wife as he protects their home and remaining children. He actually gets the coolest battle of the movie, where he takes down a bunch of cannibals by himself in the dark. I love this for him, and I wish there had been more memorable battles like this in the film.
40 Acres is not the worst movie I have ever seen. It is just not as memorable as it could be. However, it is cool to see Black and Indigenous actors at the center of a post-apocalyptic world. We’ve been sidekicks too long, and I like that this movie moved us to the front of the line. I am also grateful this didn’t go the route that the title and synopsis made us think it would. If you want to see Danielle Deadwyler remind you why she stays booked and busy this might be worth a watch.
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40 Acres
Summary
’40 Acres’ is not the worst movie I have ever seen. It is just not as memorable as it could be. However, it is cool to see Black and Indigenous actors at the center of a post-apocalyptic world.
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