 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Unwelcome • Year: 2022 • Country: United Kingdom, Ireland • Director: Jon Wright • Main cast: Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth, Colm Meaney, Kristian Nairn, Chris Walley, Niamh Cusack • Runtime: 104 minutes • Production company: Tempo Productions Limited, Ingenious Media, Rococo Films • TRAILER
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The Irish filmmaker Jon Wright gained a certain underground reputation in the horror genre thanks to his hybrid of comedy and adventure under the times of an alien invasion with his funny little jewel Grabbers (2012). But in his latest movie to date, he has joined forces with the screenwriter Mark Stay, with who he already worked in Robot Overlords (2014), to bring a story that leaves all the traces of comedy aside to center on a story closer to the folk-horror than any other of his previous titles.
Unwelcome (2022) is a solid film, the work of a group of filmmakers with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, centering on a young couple expecting their first child who is sick and tired of the violence and aggressivity of the city of London and they take the chance of moving to the Irish countryside after they inherited a house. At first, it all seems very idyllic, changing the hostile concrete jungle of the capital city for the vast green fields, and receiving the candid welcome of the bizarre rural inhabitants of the little town, or, at least, most of them. But the city-rat couple must adapt since the countryside has its own rules and traditions, some myths and rules that one must accomplish. Because what is this thing of having to daily feed some imaginary garden creatures with fresh blood?
The movie plays its cards very well, from the anguishing first steps in the big city where the couple gets deadly threatened to the peculiar welcoming ambient they get once they arrive in their new town and, overall, the town’s tavern. But not everybody will welcome them, the house needs some repairing the handyman crew, led by the tyrant father majestically played by Colm Meaney certainly makes the audience know it is going to cause trouble.
Following the title of the movie, we expected since the beginning that those young and naive urbanites would find a hostile welcome, but we never know from who or what until we are so deep into the story that there is no way out. Because Unwelcome (2022) catches you with its well-written screenplay and its dynamic directing and editing. Although it is not a frantic action film, the story flowing never gives the audience a second of rest, and every scene matters and is needed to understand the growing tension and the development of the narrative.
Together with the flawless script and direction, all of the actors carry on with their characters in a perfect way. And when we arrive at the climactic stages of the movie the practical special effects take over with delicious sequences that will for sure satisfy the blood-thirsty audience. In a technical way, everything in Unwelcome (2022) works smoothly wrapping up a simple but perfect experience of its own.
After a festival run in late 2022 and early 2023, which included its screening at the Sitges Film Festival, Shudder is including Unwelcome (2022) into its streaming catalog. Without a doubt, a great addition and one of the titles that if you are subscribed to the service you must watch. It is a modest and without high pretensions horror film made with love for the genre and the lovers of the genre, and with a reminiscence to the 1980s and 1990s films but with a strong personality of its own. Truly recommended.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt12447796
