40 Acres: A Gripping Apocalyptic Thriller of Resilience and Survival

By Thom Ernst

Rating: A-

Hailey Freeman’s ancestors are no strangers to defending their land. Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) is a descendant of African American farmers who broke ground after the first Civil War. Her stand begins after a national food shortage incites a second Civil War.

The latter ushers in a societal upheaval with the cinematic structure of an Alex Garland script.

40 Acres, by first-time feature director R.T. Thorne, envisions an apocalyptic scenario that has people holed up in farmhouses, defending themselves against violent scavengers. Even in its worst-case scenario, it’s a situation that doesn’t seem entirely unrealistic, making it difficult not to ask oneself, “What would I do if that happened?” 

Danielle Deadwyler as Hailey Freeman in 40 Acres

By adhering to Freeman’s 200-year ancestral background and her current relationship with her Indigenous partner, Galen (Michael Greyeyes), there are in this film layered echoes of persecution, landownership, institutionalized racism and deep-rooted distrust. This choice of heritage carries a lineage that feels rooted in the perseverance of those once forced to forge new beginnings on unfamiliar soil and now forced to hold onto it.

The film deepens this thematic thread by pairing Freeman with Galen, whose Indigenous ancestry comes with its own legacy of survival and resistance in the face of colonization. These blended backgrounds are not incidental; they braid a subtext into the film’s apocalyptic scenario, suggesting that the struggle to defend one’s land is, for some, not a new battle but a recurring motif woven into lived history. It carries with it generational wisdom and the trauma of displacement, resilience, and defence of home.

Much of the film’s focus is on Freeman and her son, Emanuel (Kataem O'Connor). Deadwyler plays Freeman with fierce, often frustrating, single-sightedness. We might be able to relate to her determination to keep her family alive, but it is less likely we will find ways to actually like her.

She is relentless, unforgiving and without humour. The closest we see to tenderness is when she gently scolds the youngest child for wasting bullets after shooting a man when she should have used a blade. (It’s also one of the film’s moments of dark humour.)

Emanuel stands at the threshold of independence, eager to carve out his own space beyond the protective circle his family has long maintained. He’s not reckless—he knows enough of the world to be cautious—but he isn’t wired with the same reflexive mistrust that governs his mother.

The family lives by a shoot-first-ask-questions-later code, and it has served them well. Freeman is unquestionably the one in charge, her authority clear and never challenged.

Even Galen, who matches her resolve when it comes to safeguarding the land and family, never postures as a subordinate, yet he offers no resistance to her lead. There’s a mutual respect between them—a quiet resolve that doesn’t require explanation. For Emanuel, that alliance is both a comfort and a constraint. That is until—in one of the film’s few requisite scenes of budding romance—he spots Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas), a beautiful young stranger, bathing alone in the lake. She rises, unaware of his gaze, and with a toss of her head sends an arc of water flying—a scene as familiar to cinema as the closing credits.

For all its reflective history and pointed socio-political commentary, 40 Acres is first and foremost a vivid and wildly entertaining action film. The opening sequence—sensationally staged within the twisting maze of a cornfield—pushes viewers to the edge of their seats before they’ve had a chance to settle into them. Though it stops short of horror, 40 Acres carries the haunted spirit of a dark thriller.

As a feature-film directorial debut, 40 Acres marks a stunning entrance for Thorne into the cinematic landscape—Canadian or otherwise.

40 Acres is directed by R.T. Thorne and stars Danielle Deadwyler, Micheal Greyeyes, Kataem O’Connor and Milcanea Diaz-Rojas. 40 Acres opens July 4, 2025 at selected theatres.