Main cast: Hannah John-Kamen (Maya), Douglas Booth (Jamie), Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (Aisling Whelan), Kristian Nairn (Eoin Whelan), Chris Walley (Killian Whelan), Niamh Cusack (Niamh), Finbar Lynch (Father Brendan), Lalor Roddy (Rory), Rick Warden (Redcap Chief), and Colm Meaney (Colm “Daddy” Whelan)
Director: Jon Wright
Maya and Jamie are thrilled that they are expecting a baby, but they are also shaken to the core when their London home is broken into and they are assaulted by hoodlums. Oh don’t worry, the hoodlums are white men, so no refugees and immigrants are slandered today—fingers off the cancel button, people.
Hence, it is far from Unwelcome when Jamie inherits a big house from his late great-aunt Maeve in a rustic corner of Ireland. Surely, that will be the perfect, peaceful place to raise a child! Well, as long as one doesn’t count the violent and likely deranged Whelan family and oh yes, the sinister redcaps in the woods that may or may not have sinister intentions on Maya’s baby…
Okay, this is a folk horror film. In that regard, the scenery is so beautiful at times that I can only wonder whether the place is real or just green screen in action.
However, I’m not sure if I fully appreciate what Jon Wright, the director and co-screenwriter, is going for here.
Sure, I get that the movie can be quirky and even hammy at times, but this is supposed to be a horror film, right? The hammy nature of things actually works against any horror build-up that may be happening at the same time, because I find myself confused as to how I am to react. I’m not scared, that’s for sure—the scariest moment, to me, happens early on when the thugs attack Maya and Jamie, and I fear that she may miscarry the baby as a result.
After that, it’s all about two city folks trying to make sense of the locals’ strange customs while not fully embracing or even respecting these customs. Again, that’s a common trope that is to expected in folk horror, but there’s nothing really scary or even foreboding here. The Whelans could have been a source of fear, I suppose, but they are too hammy to be taken seriously.
Even the climactic home invasion scenes are hammed up to be comical so… har, har, I guess?
Then, I see the redcaps and my reaction is more “Oh, so cute! Walking garden gnomes!” than “Ah! Those cretins are terrifying!”
Okay, the final scene has me convinced that perhaps this is a comedy after all. There is a straight-to-video a more respectable sequel to Troll 2 feel to this thing, but I seriously question why it needs to take me all the way to the final scene to fully comprehend the endgame of this movie.
On the bright side, the two leads have some serious chemistry going on, and it’s easy to believe that Jamie and Maya are a happily married couple. There is a balance of humor and deeper emotions in the portrayal of their relationship that is a joy to watch, but sadly, the rest of the movie is lacking a balance between humor and horror.
In the end, Unwelcome is too humorous to be a horror film, but not humorous enough to make up for the lack of horror. I’m confused, and I suspect it is, too.
