Hannah John-Kamen of Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Netflix series The Stranger (and soon to be seen in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) is tormented by goblins in director Jon Wright’s upcoming creature feature Unwelcome, and the folks at Empire have gotten their hands on a new image from the film. That image, along with one that was previously released, can be seen below. They both show us John-Kamen and Douglas Booth as Maya and Jamie,
a couple who decide to up sticks, escape from city life and head for the tranquility of rural Ireland after Jamie inherits a country house there. Unfortunately, their search for peace doesn’t quite go to plan – getting on the wrong side of some less-than-welcoming locals, and soon discovering there are malevolent, murderous goblins lurking in the ancient wood at the bottom of their garden.
Wright wrote the screenplay with Mark Stay. He told Empire that the goblins in Unwelcome are “Redcaps”, “a piece of Anglo-Scottish folklore that he has combined here with his Irish heritage”. He said,
My grandfather, who was an Irish farmer, believed in fairies. He used to say that he’d tried to build a wall at the foot of his garden, but every morning when he got up, it had been knocked down. He believed it was being built on fairy land, so he couldn’t have it there. And I had a book of fairy tales, Grimm fairy tales, in my grandfather’s house, which I always used to read when I went to stay. I’ve always been fascinated by myths and legends, and the sort of primal way that they tap into human nature.”
We first heard about this project last year, at which time it was going by the title The Little People. Described as “Gremlins meets Straw Dogs“, Unwelcome is a Tempo Production in association with Automatik VFX. The film was funded by Ingenious Media and produced by Piers Tempest and Peter Touche. Janine Modder, Matt Williams, Jamie Jessop, Andrea Scarso, Michael Reuter, Seb Barker, Doris Pfardrescher, Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder of Cornerstone Films, and Tempo’s Jo Bamford all serve as executive producers.
John-Kamen and Booth are joined in the cast of Unwelcome by Colm Meaney, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Chris Walley, and Kristian Nairn.
A specific release date has not yet been revealed, we just know that the movie is coming sometime in 2022.