Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Unwelcome Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 4, 2023

Unwelcome might be perceived to be the second relatively recent release from Well Go USA which, like Well Go USA's release of Death Knot, would seem to be angling to be included in a second volume of All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, even if that compendium actually came from Severin Films. Unwelcome has many of the "classic" aspects of folk horror, including big city types who supposedly "escape" to a "safe" rural environment, only to meet with some extremely peculiar locals, of both the human and perhaps inhuman varieties. Adding to the tension of the story is the fact that focal female Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) is more than a little pregnant, which gives the goings on a kind of subliminal Rosemary's Baby aspect, at least in terms of this particular "damsel in distress" being with child and surrounded by people (and, well, creatures) who may have ulterior motives.

Many Well Go USA releases don't offer a wealth of supplemental material, but in this case a Making Of featurette, while short, offers some interesting background from the film's co-writers Mark Stay and Jon Wright (Wright also directed), with both of them describing themselves as "wusses" and/or "pacifists", and how they wanted to make a film about someone who tries to avoid conflict suddenly being thrust into a situation where conflict is unavoidable. This basic setup will no doubt engender memories of films like Straw Dogs in some, and in fact an early vignette shows the apartment of Maya and Jamie (Douglas Booth) being invaded by a bunch of thugs, something that helps convince the couple to get the hell out of Dodge (and/or London) and move to an isolated Irish village where Maya has inherited a home and land.

It's in this environment that Jamie and Maya meet the "locals", which include a troubling family named the Whelans, including "Daddy" (Colm Meaney, living up to his surname, so to speak). They also interact with an elderly lady named Maeve (Niamh Cusack), a friend of Maya's family who warns them of local lore about gremlins in the forest who require sacrifices, whether that be raw liver left on a doorstep or perhaps more menacingly a human newborn. Some may already be sensing the general outlines of the film, and while it indeed goes down some predictable forested pathways, there are a couple of twists and turns along the way that provide some real angst and suspense.

The film is arguably undercut by some practical effects with regard to the so-called Red Caps, the forest goblins, who are not CGI generated and who frankly may provide a comedic side to things that was not intended. There are a number of gaping holes in already tenuous logic which the screenplay never really addresses, and Maya's "conversion" (an apt religious allusion, given some of the film's subtext) at the end is probably not extremely well motivated. Still, Unwelcome is unusual in a number of ways even if it treads some familiar territory.

Unwelcome Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unwelcome is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits roll only list Panalux and Panavision as identifiable technologies, and I haven't been able to find any verifiable technical information otherwise, but this is a frequently very appealing and well detailed digital capture that I'm assuming had a 2K DI. The best moments are perhaps expectedly some of the outdoor scenes, though I have to say it certainly looked to me like some of the "yard" footage featuring Maya and Jamie was done on a studio set, while other moments were obviously really shot outside. One way or the other, the brightly lit daytime material really pops very vividly with some commendable fine detail levels (pay special attention to some of the thick fabrics the locals wear, where textures are virtually palpable). There are a number of stylistic bells and whistles that show up interstitially, often for rather brief moments, where the imagery is intentionally distressed and quasi- noisy looking. Some of the dark material, notably a lot of the nighttime forest imagery, doesn't offer a wealth of fine detail.

Unwelcome Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unwelcome features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Christian Henson's well considered score offers some good support for the tensest scenes, and provides a lot of subliminal angst at other times, creeping through the side and rear channels in a kind of sinister way. Early scenes like the street toughs breaking into the apartment, but then especially a lot of the later material outside, offers really good placement of ambient environmental effects in the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, despite some "local" accents. Optional English subtitles are available.

Unwelcome Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (HD; 12:48) features Jon Wright and Mark Stay.


• Making the Red Caps (HD; 5:24) is a brief but fun look at the fabrication of prosthetics for the forest creatures with Shaun Harrison, who helped craft the effects.


• Trailer (HD; 2:19)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Behind the Scenes is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Unwelcome Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of interestingly, the forests that are at the heart of both this film and Death Knot bear more than a surface similarity, and they're both full of some seeming ill intent. Unwelcome doesn't totally succeed, but it's often quite interesting. I think the film may actually have benefited from CGI for the menacing Red Caps, since the prosthetics are just a little comical, and the actors portraying the creatures seem more like marauding children than frightening forest sprites. Technical merits are solid and the supplements enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.