Unquiet
Things

Not to be confused with the Lord of Misrule fragrance from LUSH, but if you are curious, here are my thoughts on that one!

I had grand plans for a folk horror summer that never quite materialized. Suddenly, it was October, and it turns out I’m having a folk horror fall instead, which kinda feels more appropriate anyway. Stories about harvest festivals and pagan rituals and things lurking in the countryside feel right for autumn. (See Wake Wood, Watcher in the Woods, The Vourdalak, Exhuma, etc.)

Rebecca Holland is a newly appointed vicar trying to settle into a small English village with her husband, Henry, and daughter, Grace. The village celebrates an annual harvest festival centered around Gallowgog, an ancient harvest deity who either blesses crops or ruins them depending on how properly he’s been honored. When Grace goes missing during the festival, Rebecca discovers that the entire village knows something she doesn’t, and nobody seems particularly interested in helping her find her daughter. Jocelyn Abney (Ralph Ineson, who is magnificent and ominous as always) reveals that his own child disappeared years ago under similar circumstances, and he’s strangely at peace with it. The police are useless. Her neighbors are evasive. Everyone’s chanting and wearing animal masks and standing menacingly in fields, and Rebecca is running out of time.

A lot of reviewers hated this movie. They found it boring, predictable, full of plot holes. And…they’re not wrong about the plot holes. There are moments where characters behave in ways that make no sense, where motivations feel murky or contradictory, where you can see exactly where things are going from a mile away. But I don’t care. Folk horror doesn’t need to reinvent itself to work. Sometimes you just want atmospheric English countryside, creepy villagers who know too much, ritualistic chanting, and Ralph Ineson’s voice, gravelly and guttural. The film looks gorgeous, all misty fields and ancient stone and firelight, and wonderful cottages full of cozy rugs and pottery, and lots of fun rustic homemade pagan wards and offerings and totems and talismans and whatnot strung up all over the place. Also, Rebecca’s nails. During most of the film, they’re short and squared off, painted a sort of muted purply-greige. By the end? Long, sharp talons in oxblood purple-black. Because she serves the old ways now, you see!

Folk horror is one of my favorite subgenres, and Lord of Misrule understands what makes it work even when the script occasionally stumbles. All those isolated little communities with older allegiances than the ones we recognize, land that remembers things we’ve forgotten, what happens when ancient bargains come due. I really feel like this is where my sweet spot is, and if I could finish out the month with four more of these (even mediocre ones!) I totally would. But I like to mix things up! So I probably won’t!

Looking for more 31 Days of Horror? Day Twenty Eight 2024 | Day Twenty Eight 2023 | Day Twenty Eight 2022 | Or check my 31 Days of Horror category for more!

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