Return we now to the subgenre of Gothic terror known as “folk horror,” a tale that is the spiritual kin of “The Wicker Man,” “Midsomer” and “The Blair Witch Project.”

“Lord of Misrule” is set in a quaint English country village — aren’t they all? It’s about the new vicar at the local church, her ten year-old daughter and the alarming rituals attached to the locals’ annual “harvest festival.”

The latest film from William Brent Bell (“Orphan: First Kill”) cleverly goes down that “which myth and which rituals take precedence” alley in a story that pits preacher against Golden Age of Witchcraft paganism in a war for for the souls of a place that threw in its lot with the Dark Side just after Shakespeare died.

Tuppence Middleton stars as Rachel Holland, mere months on the job in Burrow, trying to fit in but leery of this Harvest Festival that’s coming up. No, she won’t be showing up for that in her full church regalia.

But she and husband Henry (Matt Stokoe) will be there. Their daughter Grace (Evie Templeton) has been named “Harvest Angel,” and loves wearing the wings that come with that. But Grace, still young enough to refer to Mum’s clerical garments as a “costume,” is seeing strange cowled figures in animal head costumes. And she’s taken to torturing her bunny.

Uh oh.

The festival raises Rachel’s eyebrows with its scary, Medieval characters and “All is as was” ethos. And then little Grace disappears, lured into the woods by somebody in a costume.

The lax way the coppers (David Langham & Co.) treat this, the chilling warnings of the scary local man (Ralph Ineson, creepy as hell) who seems to know all about what this is, and who blurts out “There’ll be NO help from YOUR Lord” in church send Rachel into a panic and her husband into “Leave it to the police” mode.

The other locals? They seem varying degrees of concerned. But let’s not tie this unpleasantness to the festival.

“Just keepin a bit of local history alive, Mrs. Vicar!”

“Lord of Misrule” is derivative, which gives it that folk horror authenticity. All such films tap into the collective rituals of various cultures before more organized religions drowned out or just drowned (and burned) the “old ways” out.

The film is more creepy than scary, more interested in detailing the incantations and talisman’s of this “protect the harvest/village” faith. But the peril is palpable just often enough that we buy-in.

And Ineson (“The Witch,” “The Creator,” “The Green Knight”) is just the right guy to ponder as villain or frightening friend, just oozing menace, in or out of “costume,” faithfully following or merely explaining a world still ruled by a “Lord of Misrule.”

Rating: unrated, violence, profanity

Cast: Tuppence Middleton, Ralph Ineson, Matt Stokoe, Evie Templeton, Alexi Goodall and David Langham.

Credits: Directed by William Brent Bell, scripted by Tom de Ville. A Magnolia release.

Running time: 1:44