Written by Mark Stay And Jon Wright
Directed by Jon Wright
Jamie (to Maya): "It's always felt like the two of us against the world."
You know there are times when you see a film has overwhelmingly negative reviews, so you assume it's bad? Then you end up watching it and you wonder what movie said critics watched because your own take away differed.
Unwelcome was one of those movies for me. I'm not gonna declare this to be an unsung classic but this movie pleasantly surprised me more than I expected it to. I really cared about the two leads, which always helps when watching anything.
The leads in question being a young married couple named Jamie (Douglas Booth) and Maya (Hannah John-Kamen). The movie opened with the pair living in a tiny flat in a London estate and their joy about being expectant parents being somewhat marred by a home invasion.
Then some time passed and Jamie inherited a nice house in an unspecified part of Ireland that both him and Maya jump at the chance to move into. They got the house due to Jamie's aunt dying and neighbour/local pub landlady Niamh (Niamh Cusack) quickly informed the pair that the local Redcaps needed to be given an offering every night.
I have to admit to not being as familiar with Redcaps but the movie wasted little time in bringing both Jamie and Maya up to speed on the mischievous/bloodthirsty creatures. Mostly it's Maya who believed in them. It literally took Jamie almost to the end of the movie to realise that they existed.
Along with the Redcaps, the couple also had to deal with Daddy Whelan (Colm Meaney) and his aggressive kids Eoin (Kristian Nairn), Aisling (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) and Killian (Chris Walley). As characters, they do feel like stereotypes at times but they're decent antagonists for Jamie and Maya until they fall afoul of the Redcaps.
As for the remainder of the movie, Maya gave birth and the Redcaps nearly claimed her daughter while the revelation of what happened to the child of Jamie's aunt became apparent. The ending of this movie was rather bloody as Maya took on quite the character development.
- This is the second Irish based horror film that Jon Wright has done, following Grabbers from 2012.
- Despite being predominantly set in Ireland, this was all filmed in London.
- The Redcaps were played by actors Paul Warren, Rick Warden and various stunt people. Redcaps were also referred to as the Far Darrig.
- Chronology: Set in current day Ireland.
Unwelcome for me turned out to be a far more rewarding viewing experience than I guess for others. It's not deep, elevated horror but it has certain weighty themes that are executed well enough, sympathetic leads, cool looking antagonists and a very interesting ending. I really enjoyed this one.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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