Unwelcome is the latest horror movie to become available to stream across a number of platforms. When a couple escapes city life to move to rural Ireland, they are met with a horde of goblins that dwell deep in the surrounding forest.
An Unwelcome Premise?
After experiencing the trauma of a home invasion in their London flat, married couple, Jamie and Mia, take the plunge and escape the hustle and bustle of a dangerous city to move into a house in rural Ireland that was left to Jamie as an inheritance by his aunt.
On their first day in their new home, the couple are approached by a kindly local lady that knew Jamie’s late aunt. After the usual pleasantries have been exchanged, their new friend, Maeve, informs them about a blood sacrifice that the deceased relative carried out, every night before sundown to honor and appease the Far Darrig (or ‘Redcaps’ to their friends), a posse of murderous goblins from Irish folklore.
Not taking the friendly warning seriously, the couple neglect to leave an offering of the advised raw liver, forcing the malevolent mob to leave their forest home and prey upon the people of the village (not to be confused with The Village People).
Unwelcome is every bit as Corny as it Sounds
Unwelcome is seeping with Irish folklore and superstition. The movie does so well to encapsulate a rural village and builds the Far Darrig up to be a sinister, barbarous bunch of bloodthirsty creatures often before finally revealing these dangerous entities. When we finally saw the creatures, the feeling of disappointment was almost tangible.
The Far Darrig in Unwelcome are no more than tacky puppets that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a nineteen-eighties creature feature. They talk in mumbled, excited voices that render the creatures more cute than fearsome. We’re unsure whether or not this was accidental, but what could have been a decent horror movie was quickly turned on its head to instead deliver a comedy element that’s far removed from the malign darkness we were promised.
Unwelcome and its Wasted Potential
What could have been an entertainingly creepy story has instead been ruined by the appearance and nature of the goblin-like creatures. Unwelcome‘s build-up promises time and time again that there are monstrous horrors lurking around the next corner, but fails to deliver anything that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Fraggle Rock.
We can’t help but think that with a little more imagination and a budget that would cover our morning coffees Unwelcome could have been an enjoyable horror movie that even delivered upon its promises of scares. As it stands, however, we are left with an accidental comedy-horror with nothing but a few jump scares to allow it to fly under the ‘horror’ banner.
Unwelcome Summary
We’re unsure of the target audience intended for Unwelcome. It’s doltish enough to be a kid’s horror movie like Gremlins but contains enough swearing and gratuitous violence to steer any sensible parent away from making it an option for ‘Family Movie Night’.
The cast features some surprisingly large names. With Game of Thrones’ Hodor (Kristian Nairn), Con Air‘s Colm Meaney, and Ready Player One‘s Hannah John-Kamen leading the cast, you would be forgiven for having early delusions of a promising movie. However, with even such talent as this among the ranks, Unwelcome remains a hodgepodge comedy that delivers little more than disappointment, lost time, and regret.
Unwelcome is available now to stream on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Sky Store, Chili, Microsoft Store, Rakuten TV, Google Play Movies, and YouTube.
