Unwelcome (2022)

A young pregnant couple, Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) and Jamie (Douglas Booth), leave their dreadful urban home to start fresh in rural Ireland. Now that they believe they have a chance to start new, a group of malicious and dangerous goblins appear to pose a new threat to their livelihood. With new faces coming and going, Maya and Jamie soon feel Unwelcome in their new home–and this is only the beginning.

In some ways Unwelcome reminds of some cheesy horror films from the 1930’s and 1940’s where there are multiple storylines playing out at the same time, and those storylines have nothing to do with one another. There is simply too much going on throughout the course of Unwelcome, at least for the first hour and a half. Finally, as it begins to feel like there is no hope for the film whatsoever–the storylines converge into something fun, interesting, and powerful. It takes a long time for the film to find a place in which it’s successful, but once it gets there, I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw. The closing moments are the most important, and had they played out in similar fashion to the rest of the film, I would have likely chalked Unwelcome up to a waste of time–but in those closing minutes, Writers Mark Stay and Jon Wright wrap everything up perfectly.

The goblins are such an important part of Unwelcome, because creating something truly scary is difficult. Beyond that, it can be challenging to create something that looks believable. The goblins have to look real, they have to appear to viewers like something accessible and believable–and they are brilliant. It’s hard to tell how exactly these crazy little creatures come to life, but the fact of the matter is that they look real. I imagine that some practical and special effects were used to bring them to life–and however this team managed to do what they did is simply incredible. These characters play an important role in Unwelcome, and the attention to detail present in the development of each and every one of them helps the film to ultimately succeed by its conclusion.

The characters develop at a strange rate. There doesn’t seem to be a linear path that these characters follow, but rather their development is crazy, willy nilly. Much like the storylines, it’s challenging to follow the characters, but I’m not sure that they ever really find their way–ultimately just existing throughout the course of Unwelcome. While they are technically integral to the story, I can’t seem to wrap my head around them–and I felt very disconnected from nearly everyone on screen for the majority of the film.

Unwelcome is a challenging film to get through, as, throughout the majority of it, there are conflicting storylines. There’s too much going on for a while, and it’s not really until the film is nearly over that things finally begin to work. Most impressive is the way in which this team brings the goblins to life–and it's this success that ultimately allowed me to appreciate the film. Unwelcome creates a series of hurdles for itself, some that the film is able to clear, and others that ultimately trip it up.

Directed by Jon Wright.

Written by Mark Stay & Jon Wright.

Starring Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth, Colm Meaney, Kristian Nairn, Chris Walley, Niamh Cusack, etc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10