Lord of Misrule

"Beware the Harvest."

2023 1h 44m EN

😐

5.7

MID

★5.7TMDB · 175

HorrorMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When the daughter of the town's new priest goes missing during the harvest festival, a desperate search begins, uncovering the town's dark history and resurfacing tales of a mysterious, malevolent spirit that demands sacrifice.

“Beware the Harvest.”

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Cast

Tuppence Middleton
Rebecca Holland
Jane Wood
Ida Tremlow
Evie Templeton
Grace Holland
Matt Stokoe
Henry Holland
George Keeler
Dave Garfoot
Sally Plumb
Marjorie Garfoot
Ralph Ineson
Jocelyn Abney
Anton Valensi
George Furleigh

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: William Brent Bell
Writers: Tom de Ville
Languages: English
Countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by William Brent Bell, shot by Simon Rowling. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Brett Detar. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Andrew Leven shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tuppence Middleton and Jane Wood and Evie Templeton carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Beware the Harvest.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt11893676 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

William Brent Bell directs. Simon Rowling behind the camera. Brett Detar scores. Andrew Leven cuts. Produced in Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2International production across 3 countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America.
3Directed by William Brent Bell, shot by Simon Rowling. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Brett Detar. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Andrew Leven shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Tuppence Middleton and Jane Wood and Evie Templeton carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Beware the Harvest.".
8IMDB entry: tt11893676 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 13 themes, including "countryside", "sacrifice", "human sacrifice", "paganism".
10Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Simon Rowling
Original score: Brett Detar
Editing: Andrew Leven
Production design: Alison Butler
Costume design: Libby Irwin
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $1,103,427
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Lord of Misrule (2023)

Also by

William Brent Bell

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

FolknHell2026-08-25
★ 5/10
Lord of Misrule has a problem unusual for folk horror: it is far too eager to prove that it is folk horror. Before we have properly met the village, the film is already dealing out horned skulls, corn-dolly shapes, ritual objects, church bells, fields and pagan-looking paraphernalia. Then comes the harvest festival, with Morris dancers, bonfires, children dressed as woodland creatures and the distinctly alarming Gallowgog. It doesn't so much plant clues as arrange them neatly on the village green and ring a bell. Which is frustrating, because buried inside all that signalling is a much better idea. The village festival feels strangely practised. When the Lord of Misrule strikes his staff, the villagers fall silent immediately. The costumes aren't charming bits of annual amateur theatrics either. They look maintained, inherited and taken seriously. What initially seems slightly too slick for a rural knees-up becomes considerably more interesting once we realise these people aren't playing at tradition. Tradition is what they do. That could have made Rebecca, the newly arrived vicar, a terrific outsider through whom to discover the village. Even the locals calling her and her husband “Mrs Vicar” and “Mr Vicar” carries the faint suggestion that everybody already knows where the newcomers sit in the hierarchy. Instead, Lord of Misrule repeatedly explains what it might have allowed us to uncover. Once Rebecca's daughter disappears, we should be sharing her mounting panic while gradually discovering how completely the village has closed around her. But her desperation never quite reaches the level the situation demands, while her husband is so thinly written that his involvement sometimes seems almost optional. Police complicity, older rituals and intriguing supernatural details arrive, but too often as information rather than revelation. Ralph Ineson gives the village's mythology some genuine weight, and there are images here that stick: bloody eggs, the half-seen figures waiting in the fields, the strange passage into another version of the landscape. The trouble is that the film keeps introducing fascinating things just after it has finished explaining something else. There is a good folk-horror story inside Lord of Misrule, about Christianity sitting uneasily atop something older, and a community for whom revivalist folklore may have become something dangerously real. We just wish the film trusted us enough to find it. Watchable, handsome and absolutely dripping with folk horror. Possibly to the point of leaving puddles. --- Reviewed by FolknHell, the folk horror film podcast · folknhell com Hear the full FolknHell podcast discussion of Lord of Misrule: folknhell com/lord-of-misrule-review along with our other reviews, transcripts and episodes.

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