Growing Your Hare

Daniel Kokotajlo talks about his '70s-set folk horror film Starve Acre

- IAN BERRIMAN

LIKE SEVERAL CLASSIC examples of folk horror, Starve Acre centres on something being unearthed. In this case: the mysteriously well-preserved roots of an oak tree cut down centuries ago, and the bones of a hare - which then impossibly begins to regenerate. Also buried just beneath the surface, metaphorically speaking, is a tragic loss: the death of Ewan, five-year-old son of archaeologist Richard (Matt Smith) and Juliette (Morfydd Clark).

Set in rural Yorkshire in the '70s, it's based on a book by Andrew Michael Hurley technically, as director Daniel Kokotajlo explains to Red Alert, two books. "They first released the book pretending it was an unearthed '70s novella, under a pseudonym. That version had a bit more violence and gore, and the ending was different. So the film ended up becoming a mix of the two."

Kokotajlo met Hurley "for a cup of tea" after a book launch, then with the author's blessing, went away to develop the script on his own. "It was more just chatting about old British films that we love," the director recalls. "He's a big fan of a Nigel Kneale one-off called 'Murrain' [1975], so we spoke a lot about that." A bigger influence on Kokotajlo and his cinematographer, however, was a 1975 portrait of farming life. "We were watching a lot of old folk horrors, then came across a film that wasn't a folk horror: Akenfield, a Peter Hall film. It's beautifully shot on anamorphic lenses, and has this rich, gothic, folkloric quality. That was our main reference."