Nerdly » ‘Unwelcome’ Review

27th Jan2023

‘Unwelcome’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth, Colm Meaney, Chris Walley, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Kristian Nairn, Niamh Cusack | Written by Jon Wright, Mark Stay | Directed by Jon Wright

Director Jon Wright has a good track record when it comes to comedy horror, having previously made high school slasher Tormented (2009) and boozy creature feature Grabbers (2012). His latest film, Unwelcome, adds more monsters to his menagerie, in an effective genre offering that plays like Straw Dogs meets Gremlins, by way of Leprechaun.

Unwelcome opens in a dodgy area of London, where newly pregnant couple Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) and Jamie (Douglas Booth) are brutally beaten after local thugs invade their flat. Nine months later, with Maya’s baby imminent, the pair relocate to rural Ireland, after Jamie inherits his aunt’s house.

Almost immediately, Maya is warned that there are certain rituals that have to be obeyed, specifically that she has to leave a piece of bloody fresh meat out for the “little people” (known locally as the far darrig or Red Caps) in the garden every night, or terrible things will happen. However, Maya and Jamie have their hands full with a more human problem in the shape of local contractors the Whelan family, headed by the sinister Daddy Whelan (Colm Meaney), who invade their new home on the pretext of fixing it up and don’t seem inclined to leave.

In the first half, it occasionally feels like the film isn’t sure which element it wants to concentrate on – the Whelans are enough of a threat on their own, and it seems like the story doesn’t really need the little people to deliver a chilling sense of menace. Then all hell breaks loose in the third act, with very pleasing results, as Wright deftly mixes both horror and comedy.

The Red Caps – who say things like, “Silly Billy!” – are an excellent creation that could easily spawn their own franchise. They are essentially Gremlin-like goblins, and the overall effect is heightened by the film’s insistence on practical effects (as with the Gremlins themselves), rather than CGI.

There’s a strong sense of blackly comic fun running throughout Unwelcome, and Wright mostly gets the comedy-horror balance right. Similarly, the script does a commendable job of pulling together its disparate elements, mixing Celtic folklore with home invasion thrillers, motherhood-based horror and movies where angry locals gang up on colonising out-of-towners.

Hannah John-Kamen is excellent as Maya, tapping into raw anger as her territory is threatened, while Douglas Booth has a good line in emasculated impotence as Jamie – good with a witty wisecrack, but not so much use in a fight. Similarly, Colm Meaney – simultaneously avuncular and sinister – makes a superbly menacing villain and there are strong turns from a terrific comic supporting cast that includes Chris Walley (The Young Offenders), Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (Derry Girls) and Kristian Nairn (Hodor from Game of Thrones) as Whelan’s three grown-up children.

Wright stages a number of effective sequences and the film maintains a decent pace throughout. However, Unwelcome is not without its problems. For one thing, one or two key scenes are bungled in the third act, to the point where a key decision that should have had significant dramatic weight is just thrown away. On top of that, a few of the Irish stereotypes come perilously close to bordering on offensive, without a mitigating sense of tongue-in-cheek. In addition, the film is further undermined by some strange lighting choices, which make all the outdoor scenes seem like overlit studio sets. It’s possible that was meant to give the film a fairytale-like quality, but either way, whatever they were going for isn’t remotely clear and just ends up being distracting.

Those minor quibbles aside, Unwelcome is an entertaining comedy horror that delivers an enjoyable mix of tension, chills, comic violence and laughs. Will the Red Caps be back for a sequel? Only time and box office returns will tell, but the prospect is certainly appealing.