Unwelcome (2023)

Unwelcome is the kind of horror-fantasy that feels hand-carved out of old folklore, where the countryside isn’t a postcard but a place with teeth, rules, and a hungry sense of tradition. Jon Wright leans into a deliciously odd tonal cocktail—creepy, grimly funny, and fairy-tale strange—while letting practical creature effects do the heavy lifting, so the goblins feel tactile and nastily real instead of weightless CGI. Hannah John-Kamen and Douglas Booth ground the madness with performances that sell the fear and the desperation, making the escalating dread hit harder because it’s tethered to human stakes. It’s not for the squeamish or anyone who wants “elevated” restraint—this one gets bloody and boldly unhinged—but if you’re in the mood for folk-horror with personality, bite, and wicked momentum, it’s a treat.

Unwelcome is clearly aiming for a folk-horror mashup where real-world menace (small-town hostility, home-invasion dread) collides with nasty little fairy-tale creatures, and the premise is genuinely juicy. The problem is the film can’t quite decide what it wants to be—grim and grounded one minute, pulpy creature-feature the next—so the pacing and tone feel uneven rather than thrillingly unpredictable. It also plays more subdued than you might expect from the setup, meaning you may spend a lot of time waiting for the goblin chaos to fully kick in. That said, the creature work and rural-Ireland atmosphere do deliver some memorable moments, but if you’re sensitive to brutal violence, sexual threat, and domestic abuse, or you want a consistently lean, punchy horror ride, this probably isn’t your night.