Jon Wright is no stranger to the horror comedy. His 2012 film Grabbers solidified this, in which a small Irish community is plagued with an unknown tentacled species that starts to feed on the blood of the townspeople. But the residents mostly drink heavily so for the alcoholics, that blood becomes toxic to the strange creatures. This time around, Wright sets his sights on folk horror in the Irish countryside, specifically Redcap goblins.
Wright’s newest, Unwelcome, shows what the filmmaker knows works so well in horror comedies, but too early does it get bogged down in conflicting identities for the movie to become as unhinged as it wants to. Most of the film’s tonal identity issues come from its setup, as the couple we follow from their life in London is shaken by a violent break-in immediately following a recent positive pregnancy test. But an aunt of Jamie’s passes away and her home in rural Ireland is bequeathed to him. Seeking a change of scenery, they both immediately take to the Irish countryside for some peace & quiet. When they’re given a tour of the house and its surroundings, they’re told that there is a catch: a sacrifice has to be made once a day at a doorway to a forest that they must never wander into. Failure to do so may invoke the fury of the little people who live in the wood.
Maya and Jamie have been trying for a child for a long time with less-than satisfactory results, but to have their celebrations met in the same day with an invasion and a violent attack against the both of them at the very start of the film, Unwelcome feels like it couldn’t, or possibly shouldn’t, veer into gory Gremlins territory. But it does, gleefully so. When the creatures pop up they make every moment count, and contribute a whimsical sense of mischief & bodily harm to the experience. Anyone who knows redcaps would expect nothing less from them in that regard. But their presence in the film feels sparing; despite Maya and Jamie living literally next door to their realm, we don’t get a sense that they can actually make things easy or difficult for those who follow, or don’t follow, their rules. It’s not that we don’t see enough of them, we get some glorious close-ups (both of the Oscar and the being-beaten-to-a-bloody-pulp varieties) and shots of quite a few of them together. It’s that we don’t feel them as a presence, particularly when they can wreak so much havoc.
The lead performances leave a little to be desired but between the two of them, Hannah John-Kamen’s role as Maya is the standout performance. Her damaged psyche carries much more weight throughout her journey and it’s easy to tell that underneath the surface we can see things piling up, and as they do Maya grows paranoid and on-edge. Jamie becomes hardened and untrustworthy following the break-in and is prone to outbursts, but his role in the film doesn’t add a whole lot in the issues brought forth from his conduct. Jamie gets a free pass when he steps out of line, largely in the wake of the discovery that he and Maya are neighbors to the little goblin creatures, and since their crimes are greater, Jamie’s goes overlooked by Maya.
Unwelcome is a shaky union of two tonally different films that feel smushed together, in argument with each other. There is a tipping point, and it favors the more humorous aspect of the creature feature soon enough that it may win some over. But its opening is still pretty rocky considering where it wants to go, and the juxtaposition of serious and comedic don’t feel altogether natural at first. That is until the Whelan family shows up to the house, to make some repairs to Maya and Jamie’s new home.
Colm Meaney plays the father and head of a home renovation business (as Colm “Call Me Daddy” Whelan) and his three children, ranging from the delinquent to the flat-out abused, form his workforce. The family is in constant argument with each other, and of course the house and its more fragile elements are always hit with collateral damage because of it. From here the exchanges feel more natural, and the humor becomes more congruous as the majority of the family take pride in their own dark playful ways, even if there are some darker aspects of the Whelan family that rears its head. Needless to say, the final stretch of Unwelcome’s events come to a bloody head following a set piece that sees the Whelans pitted against Maya and Jamie.
When the two families are in direct conflict with each other the wit of the script shines, more so when the Redcaps arrive. The goblins have their own Gizmo-like ways of speaking and are largely practical puppets, which will please any horror fan, especially those who take pleasure in the “lil’ bastards” sub-genre of horror. Fans of the above-mentioned Gremlins, as well as hits like 1986’s Troll form a sturdy baseline that point to what you should expect in the mayhem of the Redcaps. It takes a little too much of its sweet time getting to where it wants to be, and whether or not you prefer its slow lead-up to knee-high pandemonium, by the time it ends you might find yourself asking why it wasn’t this tongue-in-cheek the entire time.
Unwelcome will be available in theaters on March 8th and on Digital platforms beginning March 14, 2023 courtesy of Well Go USA.
Unwelcome is a shaky union of two tonally different films that feel smushed together, in argument with each other.
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GVN Rating 7
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Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster. You can read their words on film at letterboxd and medium, and hear their voice on movies, monsters, and other weird things on Humanoids From the Deep Dive every other Monday. In their “off” time they volunteer as a film projectionist, reads fiction & nonfiction, comics, and plays video games until it’s way too late.