Unwelcome

According to director Jon Wright, Unwelcome amounts to the meeting place of Gremlins and Straw Dogs – a fair assessment, but one that bypasses the melting pot of cinematic influence that this comedically tinged Celtic folk-horror is. The film opens with the young, expecting central couple, Jamie (Douglas Booth) and Maya (Hannah John-Kamen), in the midst of council estate urban domesticity, until a brutal home invasion shatters their confidence in the city as a safe place to raise their child. Months later, they have inherited an idyllic cottage from Jamie’s great aunt in a small, rural Irish village, presenting the perfect opportunity for a tranquil, nuclear unit. 

Upon arrival at the cottage (the grounds of which are presented with the same heightened, fairytale aura upon which the disquiet of Alex Garland’s Men is built), they are greeted by Maeve (Niamh Cusack), a friend of Jamie’s great aunt, who implores them to resume the tradition of a “blood offering” to the redcaps who live in the forest at the end of the garden. After initial alarm, Maeve assures the couple that a slice of raw liver, left at the gate that borders the forest, will suffice. 

Meanwhile, Jamie and Maya set about looking for builders to work on the house, which has fallen into disrepair, a hole in the master bedroom ceiling a particular cause for concern. The lack of availability of the most reputable handymen in the area leads them to the services of the Whelans, a family of misfits whose reputation for seediness, theft and general bad practice precedes them. 

Wright takes on quite a lot over the course of the film’s 90-odd minutes. At the intersection between Gremlins and Straw Dogs, a folk-horror tradition of a clash between urbanity and rurality, much like Garland’s Men, rears its head as the central theme, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place reverberates through the feature via the heroics of John-Kamen’s heavily pregnant Maya, while its hellish finale evokes the cultish symbolism of Ari Aster’s Midsommar. 

Aside from the intertextuality, Wright imbues the production with an undertone of dark comedy, as the reactions to the antics of the Whelans usually fall somewhere between disgust and cringe-tinged laughter, while Jamie’s emasculation drives the narrative towards its conclusion. Wright, however, is able to keep a surprising amount of control over the moving parts of the film, which feels like its always one misstep from a disastrous derailment, wrapping the result in a swiftly enjoyable, but ultimately disposable B-movie package.

Matthew McMillan

Unwelcome is released nationwide on 27^th January 2023.

Watch the trailer for Unwelcome here: