Starring Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth, Colm Meaney

Directed by Jon Wright

Warner Bros, in cinemas now

 

Maya and Jamie, desperate to escape urban violence in London, inherit a house in idyllic rural Ireland, only to find that there are even more malevolent forces at the bottom of their new garden.

It’s an age-old problem for cinemas. You have a humongous release in half your screens – let’s say a heartfelt semi-autobiographical Oscar hungry crowd pleaser by Steven Spielberg – so what on earth can you programme as an alternative?  I know! How about a re-working of Sam Peckinpah’s classic home invasion movie, Straw Dogs, but with added leprechauns?

Although, as Mark Stay’s script for Unwelcome reminds us earnestly on multiple occasions, these aren’t leprechauns at all – they are Far Darrigs, or ‘Red Caps’: basically, psychotic, knife hurling, ninja leprechauns. A lot of fun they are too, although if director Jon Wright is trying to emulate Joe Dante’s Gremlins, at times these little imps are more reminiscent of Michael Bentine’s Potty Time – and if you are too young to remember that televisual delight, I suggest you repair to YouTube straight away.

Let’s be honest, Unwelcome is all over the place and barking mad. The opening where Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) and Jamie (Douglas Booth) are attacked in their Camden flat seems to presage something more serious. Arriving in a rose-tinted Irish idyll, we get a helping of politics about English colonial rule. Colm Meaney, as ‘Daddy’ Whelan, along with his family of unpredictable, anarchic builders, are hired to fix the roof, and the feral grown-up children add a frisson of genuine danger. And then the leprechauns arrive, and in a well-attended screening at Didsbury Cineworld last night, the audience dissolved into hysterics of laughter and didn’t stop until the credits rolled.

I think it is supposed to be funny, but it’s hard to tell if the film knows quite how completely bonkers it is, especially as having crossed the line into complete insanity it makes a few attempts to be serious again.

Verdict: Is Unwelcome a good film? Technically, not really. There’s some very strange lighting, and clunky camerawork. The acting ranges from pretty dreadful to excellent, with Derry Girls’ Jamie-Lee O’Donnell – as the canny but menacing Whelan daughter – stealing every scene she’s in.

But…

…as it cut to black after its final ridiculous scene, there was a round of spontaneous applause, which is a rare thing in a multiplex on a Friday night. I had a thoroughly good time, although I did wonder whether someone had spiked my tea. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com