While she might be best known currently for playing one of Lord of the Rings’ most iconic characters, Morfydd Clark is no stranger to horror. Before landing the role of Galadriel in The Rings of Power, the actor cut her teeth in Rose Glass’ chilling Saint Maud as a devout carer who goes to extreme lengths to save her patient soul. That wasn’t her first horror rodeo, either. She also played Mina in the BBC’s Dracula adaptation, and Beth in the creature thriller Crawl.
Now, Clark is returning to her scary roots with Starve Acre, a new folk horror from the director of Apostasy, Daniel Kokotajlo. In it, she plays Juliette, who lives in a remote cottage with her husband Richard (Matt Smith) and their young son Owen. When a horrific tragedy occurs, the couple deals with their grief in different ways, as Richard becomes obsessed with an ancient oak tree on their land and Juliette turns to the occult for comfort. However, neither is aware of the dark, sinister force haunting their home until it’s too late…
"I love being in horror," Clark tells 12DOVE back at the film’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in 2023, where it opened to rave reviews. Speaking about returning to the genre, which she filmed during the break between The Rings of Power seasons 1 and 2, she was enthusiastic.
"I love freaky weirdos," she laughs. "I just love weird things so I feel very comfortable in it. And also I think that when you're filming horror, talking about horror, everyone's weirdness comes out, which is marvelous."
Starve Acre certainly allows for that. Featuring everything from folk tales to haunted trees, as well as a particularly haunting puppet hare, it goes to some unexpected places as Richard and Juliette get more sucked into the odd history of their home. But while it leans into chilling subject matter, at its heart is a meaty character study of loss.
Heavy heart
Clark’s character Juliette is a mother dealing with the all-consuming nature of grief in Starve Acre, which lends a heavy, somber tone to proceedings. Early on in the film, the couple’s son dies in devastating circumstances, plummeting the pair deep into the unknown to deal with their loss.
Clark and her co-star Matt Smith handle the story, which is based on Andrew Michael Hurley’s devastating novel, impressively, putting in magnetic and heartbreaking performances. However, it wasn’t the easiest topic to navigate while making the film, she explains.
"Matt and I spoke a lot about how here we had to show respect to this tragedy," Clark continues. "[To] make sure that we really – not dug deep – but made sure that we showed respect to it because we are handling something very sensitive."
She was helped by a breadth of support on set. "We were really lucky when we were filming as well, actually. There was a mental health support person for cast and crew, which I think is really important because when you're handling this type of material, it can be very taxing. I think seeing it be handled by everybody with a lot of care was very important."
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The opportunity to explore a complicated relationship like Richard and Juliette’s was something that Clark feels horror could really allow for, too. "I think that horror is so interesting because it often looks into the cult of marriage, the cult of family, the cult of a community," she adds, also pointing to another key relationship in the film between Juliette and her sister Hattie (Erin Richards).
Hattie arrives in the midst of tragedy to try and help pull her sibling out of the stasis that grief has placed her in, but it’s fair to say her solutions have very mixed results.
"I'm fascinated by sisters," Clark grins when we bring up their dynamic. "A sisterly relationship can be the greatest or the worst. Juliette and her sister are kind of in between in some ways. But I think there's a tragedy in a horror to sisters not getting along, and finding out where that is. I mean family is horrific sometimes."
Unknown worlds
Ultimately, Starve Acre plays in that wonderful liminal space that so much horror delves into, where it’s never quite sure what’s real and what’s not. In this story, this manifests in a decomposing hare that Richard is convinced is coming back to life. The way this plays out in the folk horror is absolutely captivating, and Clark thinks the ambiguity is key to it.
"I think it's always fun to mess with ambiguity. When that's seeping into the character themselves, it's terrifying and interesting to play with – and it's nice to not have all the answers. I think that's sometimes where the most interesting stuff starts to get done."
And horror too, Clark adds, is where some of the most interesting roles for women are. "I think I've come into horror at a really lucky point," she reflects. "I think I'm standing on the shoulders of lots of people before me. Not just performers, but people who were reviewing, like loads of female reviewers of horror, who've been like, 'Wait a second, it was great but…'"
Certainly, 2024 has already been a standout year for female performances in horror, including Mia Goth in MaXXXine, Maika Monroe in Longlegs, and Naomi Ackie in Blink Twice – and now Clark’s Juliette. "There’s been lots of things that have had to change in the horror industry [and] genre about race, sex. I think that it's really interesting how horror genres pick up on that quite quickly."
It’s clear her love of the genre extends beyond this too, as she concludes: "I love magic, and there's an element of magic in horror." Well, perhaps Galadriel and Juliette are not worlds apart after all.
Starve Acre is in theaters now. For more read our Starve Acre review.
If you're looking for what else to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series and our guide to upcoming horror movies.
