They let me write another movie! This one’s called UNWELCOME and it’s directed by the wonderful Jon Wright and was released in cinemas 27th January 2023 by Warner Bros in the UK and on March 8th by Wellgo in the USA. It’s rated 15 in the UK, and R in the USA.
It’s now available to buy on digital in the UK on the usual platforms, including Apple and Amazon. It should be available internationally on digital platforms, too (search for Unwelcome on your preferred provider — it’s on Paramount+ in Australia, for example).
Here’s the quick synopsis…
Londoners Maya and Jamie (played by Hannah John-Kamen and Douglas Booth) escape their urban nightmare by moving to the tranquility of rural Ireland – only to discover malevolent, murderous goblins lurking in the gnarled, ancient wood at the foot of their new garden. Additional cast includes Golden Globe nominee Colm Meaney, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (DERRY GIRLS), Chris Walley (YOUNG OFFENDERS), and Kristian Nairn (GAME OF THRONES).
And here’s the trailer…
And yes, that’s me in trailer at 1:03… I have no idea what the editors were thinking when they put me in trailer! “I know what’ll get bums on seats… that pasty flabby guy!”
I’m really proud of the finished film. Jon and the cast and crew have done an astonishing job of bringing the malevolent redcaps to life and making the lives of poor Maya and Jamie a living nightmare for our entertainment.
If you fancy reading a copy of the screenplay, you can download a PDF here.
Here’s what people are saying about UNWELCOME…
Ellen E Jones, GUARDIAN
Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
Jim McLeod, Gingernuts of Horror
“Unwelcome will work its way into your heart, one tiny stab wound at a time.” 8/10
Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat
Cheryl Eddy, Gizmodo
John Nugent, Empire
NYC Movie Guru
The suspense works and the mix of grue, cruelty and eccentric wit is distinctive.
Kim Newman, SciFi Now
Maria Lattila, Why Now
Chris Tilly, Dexerto
Matthew McMillan, The Upcoming
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, The Times
Fantasy BookNerd Blog
Alasdair Stuart, The Full Tilt
WHAT TWITTER SAID…
I understand that Twitter is not the real world and Mr Musk is doing his best to turn it into a digital hellscape, but it was great to see so much love for UNWELCOME after its preview screenings on Tuesday 24th Jan. Here’s a sample of my favourite comments (click on the image to embiggen)…

MAGAZINES on UNWELCOME…
We’re on the cover of FILM STORIES (Feb 2023) and there’s a five-page feature on how the film was made. You can order/subscribe here…

SFX, January 2023…


Empire, January 2023…

Empire also had a fun trailer breakdown with Jon Wright here.
Jon went into a bit more detail on the trailer with Yahoo here.
Lowdown Magazine, January 2023…


PODCASTS & INTERVIEWS…
Here’s a special Deep Dive of the Bestseller Experiment with me and director Jon Wright answering listener questions on the making of the film…
I was interviewed by BBC South East and they make me out to be a millionaire. I’m not. The money went on the film’s budget. Honest! Okay, it was just resting in my account…
Here’s Jon Wright on the Film Stories podcast with Simon Brew. It’s a great retrospective of his career so far and they say some nice things about me…
There’s a fun interview over on Gingernuts go Horror where I reveal who would win in a fight: the Redcaps of Unwelcome, or the Witches of Woodville. Click here to read the whole thing.

Sitges Film Festival Premiere
We had a wonderful premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in October, 2021. I blogged about it here.
All photos by Miguel Anxo, courtesy of Sitges Film Festival.








Posters
Posters for you to cut out and keep or whatever it is you crazy kids do with this stuff these days…



