LORD OF MISRULE movie poster | ©2023 Magnolia Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Tuppence Middleton, Ralph Ineson, Matt Stokoe, Anton Valensi, Rosalind March, Robert Goodman, Alexa Goodall, David Langham, Jane Wood, Evie Templeton
Writer: Tom De Ville
Director: William Brent Bell
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: December 8, 2023

Folk horror doesn’t get much folkier than LORD OF MISRULE. Almost every frame is packed with masks, costumes, charms, decorations, and artwork of British paganism. Even the scenes that are relatively mundane are shot and adorned to look as though they can easily accommodate anything folklore-related that may turn up in the frame.

For a good stretch, the film, written by Tom De Ville and directed by William Brent Bell, seems as though it may be a slight variation on THE WICKER MAN, but the plot takes some different turns.

We’re in the present, but the English village of Barrow looks like it’s probably been much the same for the past few hundred years. Rebecca Holland (Tuppence Middleton) is the new Anglican vicar.

Rebecca and her family – husband Henry (Matt Stokoe) and little daughter Grace (Evie Templeton) – have been in Barrow for about ten months now. We meet Rebecca as she is baptizing a baby in the village church. We meet Grace up in her room, where she pulls out a clump of her own hair and winds it around a doll.

Rebecca and Henry are unaware of this behavior on Grace’s part. Grace has been chosen to be the Harvest Angel in the village festival. Rebecca tries, with limited success, to explain to Grace that the festival is celebrating a blessing, but not a church blessing, i.e., how the Church can accept pagan activity (within reason).

The festival is set to be observed for four days, each of which is marked in the film’s section titles, starting with “Day 1: The Gift of Hair.” There is food, drink, lots of people in Ren Faire-type peasant costumes and masks, and a pageant. Here, the Lord of Misrule protects the village crops by banishing the horned spirit Gallowgog.

The fellow in the pageant’s Misrule costume, Jocelyn Abney (the authoritative Ralph Ineson), later explains that Misrule, in earlier mythology, was Gallowgog’s seneschal rather than his adversary. It’s now not known which version is correct.

Rebecca sees Grace go into the forest with whoever is in the Gallowgog costume. Rebecca gives chase, but loses first her daughter and then her footing in the dark woods. When she regains consciousness, Grace is missing.

This is followed by a stretch in which LORD OF MISRULE wobbles a bit. We’re still immersed in the mood and the world that the filmmakers have so beautifully crafted. However, both Rebecca and Henry, in different ways, behave counterintuitively.

One example is Rebecca trying to prevent the local police from taking any of Grace’s belongings to provide scent for the tracking dogs. We understand that she doesn’t want them all taken, but her reaction is so histrionic, to say nothing of unhelpful, that it’s jarring.

Rebecca also makes assumptions about the villagers’ belief systems that are big leaps for a modern minister, even before things in Barrow take a turn. Middleton is commendably passionate, but we start to wonder how Rebecca has reached her conclusions.

On the flip side, Henry is so controlled for a while that we wonder if we’re meant to suspect him of involvement in Grace’s disappearance. No, but he displays what is (in this type of film, at least) a notable lack of initiative.

Still, LORD OF MISRULE finds its footing in the last act, coming together for a climax that fits with what has come before. Between this and the overall ambience, LORD OF MISRULE is a must-see for folk horror fans.

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