Lord Of Misrule Review: Folk Horror Movie Completely Misunderstands What Makes It Work

The feeling I least want to be my prevailing reaction to a movie before sitting down to review it is frustration, because I find it challenging to write fairly about wasted potential. Lord of Misrule is not a bad film, but it is an underachieving one. The good ideas it has are buried under too much cliché to breathe. It spends so much energy pretending the things we know are happening might not be, and squanders some intriguing imagery and traces of characterization that had the makings of compelling drama. Even the ending, which takes an interesting, unearned turn, does not salvage what came before so much as illuminate a better path the filmmakers did not take. Having potential at all means there must be things to recommend it, and there are – but it becomes difficult to think of them as positives when they are so intertwined with the movie’s failings.