Review: Unwelcome

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Unwelcome
Directed by Jon Wright
Tempo Production Ltd.; Shudder; Automatik; Corner Stone Films; Ingenious Media; Rococo Films; Well Go USA Entertainment
104 minutes, 2023
https://wellgousa.com/films/unwelcome
#unwelcome @WellGoUSA

As a Yank, when I hear the term “redcap,” I think of a valet who will park my car or bring my luggage into a hotel. However, in the UK, as explained by Wikipedia, “The redcap (or powrie) is a type of malevolent, murderous goblin found … to inhabit ruined castles along the Anglo-Scottish border … and is known for soaking his cap in the blood of his victims.” And now, on with the review.

Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth

London couple Jamie (Douglas Booth, who was Nikki Sixx in 2019’s The Dirt, and Romeo in 2013’s Romeo & Juliet) and Maya (Hannah John-Kamen, who was Ornela in “Game of Thrones” and Ava/Ghost in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp) have just found out they are expecting. Problem is they get on the wrong side of an obnoxious and aggressive trio of hoodlums in the neighborhood and need to rethink their living arrangements. From pan to fire on its way.

To escape, they move to a family home in a village in rural Ireland (I do not remember a mention of how Jamie or Maya make a living) to raise the soon-to-be-born bambino. They are warned by a friend of the family, Maeve (Niamh Cusack, of the infamous British acting family) of the “little people” and the daily blood offering to be made to them without fail (e.g., liver is mentioned).

Kristian Nairn

Of course, being young, distracted and very preggo, and the fact that they are city people who do not understand the local ways, the offering is not the highest priority on their minds, as much as getting a hole in the roof fixed. Plus, they are both suffering a bit of PTSD after a violent action back in London. This is not what ever is the Irish word for kosher to the nasty beasties.

The whole place is kinda run down, so the couple employ the local handyman’s family, who are bound to give you the willies. They remind me of the locals from either version of Straw Dogs (1971 / 2011), considering their reactions to the lack of full-blooded Irish of the couple. Heading up the Whelan family is the angrily abusive patriarch Colm (Colm Meany, of 1991’s The Commitments and was Chief Miles O’Brien in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”), who insists on being called “Daddy” by everyone, his slow, rarely-speaking, and enormous Lenny-like son Eion (Kristian Nairn, who was Hodor in “Game of Thrones”) who has a thing for Maya, his other, muscular bully son Killian (Chris Walley, who is in the recent Last Voyage of the Demeter), and his daughter Aisling (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, of “Derry Girls”). A dodgy clan, at best.

The title is a nice double, or perhaps triple entendre, as to who is unwelcome: is it the redcaps who are unwelcome by the couple who have bought the land, or is it the couple who are intruding on the redcaps’ historical property. Then there is a lack of respect by the handypeople who refer to the couple as “Oliver Cromwell,” as the British oppressing the Irish. As Whelan states to Maya and Jamie, after his kids have been obnoxious, “We all need to learn our place.”

On one hand, I feel sorry for Jamie and Maya, because it seems everywhere they go, they get harassed: if it is not the neighborhood toughs, it is the locals, and then the redcaps. Mind you, they are not that innocent, either, as Jamie giving the finger to the first group, and Maya being lax with the daily sacrifices that cause locals to lose their lives. As far as the fixer-uppers, well, they’re just obnoxious malicious twits in their own right.

One thing that drives me crazy about genre films, not just this one, is that when a woman experiences something, the man dismisses it, in this case to “baby brain.” The deeper into the film, the less I liked Jamie. Maya has her own issues, but Jamie proves himself to be toxically masculinist. This is just too common a theme. He is a bit obtuse and has explosive anger, such as his actions with the thugs and the family (mind you, the latter are equally at fault, including the daughter).

There is a strong reference to said Straw Dogs, though rather than boobytraps, Maya enlists the aid of others, which you can see coming, as well as a price to pay for that. The wee beastie redcaps look really good and menacing; from what I understand, they are played by “normal” sized people and then either digitally shrunken or play on sets that are built to make them look smaller. It is a nice touch that while there is a supernatural element to these knife-wielding and literally blood-thirsty creatures, they are not immortal and can be dispatched.

There is also an effective level of blood and gore during the last act, without it being over the top. As for the acting talent? These are seasoned actors with multiple relatively large credits, so there is no slacking in that department.

The cinematography is lush and beautiful, with indoor set pieces that look appropriate for a long-misused, out of the way country cottage, and the way the camera lovingly plays with the woods, sometimes with mist, is almost a character in of itself. And yes, there is some mandatory drone work as a car is driven on narrow highway roads through the forests.

Other than this being a tad too long and could use some tightening up here and there, the ending was not what I was imagining, thankfully, and while they did choose another trope, it was not something I was necessarily expecting, and I like that.

IMDB listing HERE