Lord of Misrule

I don't think there was a single character that acted like a normal human being in this whole film. The plot twist was they were all aliens right? I mean it was obvious from the fifteen minute mark that the entire town was "in on it" when it comes to the weird harvest god cult thing. Like painfully obvious and in your face. So the town was so blatantly unconcerned and seemed happy, even the husband (who I almost thought was in on it) seemed totally unconcerned with his daughter's disappearance. So we just have scene after scene of "That's weird. Woah, that's weird. Ahhh, that's weird. Wow-ee, that's weird, hey you catching on that they are all in the cult yet bozo? The children being indoctrinated from a young age with "nature club" or whatever, them all berating her, a very clear "us and them" type scene, obviously if it's all the children it's all the adults too, but we figured that out like 40 minutes ago at this point didn't we? I mean just really on the nose indications that the town is all together and the protagonists are the outsiders, The same scene rehashed essentially over and over up until the end finale leads to a boring movie. There is already a dozen or so movies that are this same plot that do it better. Would rather watch Midsommar or even the scarecrow episode of Supernatural...

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"Lord of Misrule", from writer Tom de Ville, was a horror movie that I had never heard about. I happened to stumble upon the movie by random chance here in 2024, and of course opted to watch it, given my life-long fascination and love of the horror genre. Naturally I had no expectations to the movie, as I had never heard about it. Nor did I actually know what I was in for here. And I suppose, on that account, then director William Brent Bell had every opportunity to entertain and bedazzle me with this 2023 movie. The storyline that Tom de Ville wrote was a bit boring. Sure, there were interesting enough aspects to the storyline, but the pacing of the narrative was slow and mundane, and there simply wasn't enough of anything interesting, much less actually scary, happening, and that made sitting through "Lord of Misrule" somewhat of a struggle and an ordeal. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But the acting performances in the movie were fair, despite the fact that the movie failed to entertain me. Visually then you're not in for anything grand here. The movie is not one that relies on special effects, jump scares, etc. To tell it tale. I have to say that I wasn't particularly entertained by director William Brent Bell's 2023 movie. And this is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I will recommend to fans of horror movies. My rating of "Lord of Misrule" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

Whenever I find myself in a rural village environment- Bures,Wormingford,Long Melford to any place woodland to old churches to graveyards I find myself in a reveree of nostalgia for old horror movies to English folk lore to MR James. Like the past is calling through the wind in the trees . It never leaves me. This movie put me in that mindset. The photography, music work well together,Ralph Ineson is excellent (as ever) and it wears its influences proudly - too numerous to name here! Its maybe a little clichéd and predictable when we discover the entire village is involved especially when most of the secondary cast overact bizarrely. I liked the saying " He stands in the fields and waits"and living in a village with lots of fields surrounding I daydream that something lurking is underneath especially on frosty mornings.

Portraying a strange town, pagan customs, and an old English wilderness deity known for his association with harvests, "Lord of Misrule" felt like an interesting movie to see, especially for a horror fan like myself. It presented a familiar but engaging story that focused more on not knowing instead of full-fledged revelations. Some ancient customs associated with an age-old English harvest festival - going back to the early 1600s - were ideally showcased in the movie. I also liked how they portrayed the town's female Catholic vicar Rebecca Holland (played by Tuppence Middleton). This cleverly harkened back to pagan roots where women led ceremonies of religious and spiritual importance. Rebecca was married and had a daughter named Grace (played by Evie Templeton) with husband Henry (played by Matt Stokoe). A lot of the mystery revolved around Grace, making her a focal point in the movie. All three gave natural and notable performances. The culture-contrast between ancient paganism and modern Catholicism lent the movie a special kind of gravitas. The Hollands had only recently moved to the town, so much of its practices were still foreign to them. Ralph Ineson as Jocelyn Abney was intriguing to watch. It was also nice to see his own real-life son Luc play a small part in this movie, namely that of Derry Nash. Ralph's every scene felt suspenseful and substantial. His masked pageantry, stage-play renditions, and bonfire (Feast of Fools) celebrations surrounding the titular Lord of Misrule added to the suspense. Ineson played his pagan character to simple yet remarkable effect. He apparently represented one who stood against Gallowgog, a contrary antlered entity said to ruin crops. In truth, he was a believer in the old ways and unearthed unnerving but essential truths about Gallowgog being a miraculous, not maleficent, entity. When Grace later went missing in the woods during the town's harvest festival, hell broke loose in a way, leading to fear, suspicion, and worse as the Hollands strove to make sense of what might have happened to their little girl. The only clues seemed to be connected to the four-day custom itself, and what each day demanded by way of gifts - Gift of Hair, Gift of Blood, Gift of Fire, Death of the Sun. In addition, seeing strange cloaked figures with masks amplified Rebecca's anxiety. Her personal investigations led her to Derry Nash (played by Luc Ineson) who gave her critical answers that led her to the dreaded Black Barn. "Lord of Misrule" felt equally unnerving, uncomfortable, and eye-opening, not to forget open to interpretation. It captured the capricious nature of deities, and how so-called human rules and definitions don't always apply when it comes to the worship of ancient entities like Gallowgog. Rural flourishes, pastoral flair, and pagan beliefs blended into a classic English folktale movie that took chilling liberties to deliver sinister twists, concluding with an interesting answer as to what actually happened to Grace and why she was allowed to return. The movie provided plenty of lore-based possibilities that she might have become this year's tithe to the ancient fertility god Gallowgog. But then, even this out-of-time deity approved an act of devotion. The movie thus took a supposedly horrific creature and genuinely made it seem like a god. "All is as was."

In 2023's Lord of Misrule we are introduced to a woman who moves to a small rural English village to take over the church. After the villagers celebrate the Winter Festival, her young daughter suddenly disappears and therefore her search for her missing daughter begins. The movie is a pagan horror story with a suspenseful atmosphere and some mysterious characters. But sadly the movie mostly falls into some generic plot lines and has no outstanding strengths. There's not much special to talk about that the movie could use to separate itself from the masses. It is directed by William Brent Bell who directed quite a few horror movies before ranging from pretty good to pretty bad and I think this one just walks the line of being average. It's not terrible but also not great either and the movies biggest strength is probably the casting of Ralph Ineson as one of the villagers. However I did like the ending and therefore I overall don't regret watching this. [5,2/10]

Starts off with some promise but quickly outstays it's welcome. Ralph Ineson does a good job of playing brooding local Jocelyn Abney but the plot regarding the disappearance of a vicars daughter at a harvest festival thingy has nowhere particularly exciting to go. Folk horror with its strange pagan symbols and odd country folk with their odd country ways, it's not actually that scary is it?, not in this movie anyway. And it starts to grate after a time. It reminded me somewhat of a better and rather underrated movie called The Witches from 1966. Word around the village is the daughter has been abducted by a harvest spirit called Gallawgog. The mother of the child is played by Tuppence Middleton and she looks suitably anguished throughout and does a good job I thought. To be honest this was a hard slog and i started to not particularly care what the outcome was. Young Evie Templeton puts in a good turn as the missing daughter, and maybe if your in to Folk Horror more than me you will enjoy it more. I found it rather washed out and worse , unintentionally funny at times.