Film

The Incomer

A comedy-drama set on a remote Orkney island where two isolated siblings fiercely protect their home from outsiders, until a bumbling council worker arrives to displace them. It's quirky and tender, mixing dark humour with genuine melancholy about belonging, stubborn tradition, and what we're willing to lose to stay put. For anyone who loves character-driven stories about people at odds with the world.

TMDb rating3.6

If you liked this

Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016

A gruff old man and a foster kid bond while evading authorities in the New Zealand bush. Taika Waititi balances comedy and real emotional weight, with two isolated people learning to trust again against the odds.

But It leans heavily into quirky humour that won't land if you're not in the mood for that particular register of whimsy.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople poster

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a man's life, intimate and quietly devastating. Like The Incomer, it finds profound truth in small moments and the courage needed to simply exist as yourself in an indifferent world.

But Minimal plot and dialogue. If you need constant forward momentum or explicit emotional statements, the restraint will feel remote.

Moonlight poster

What We Did on Our Holiday2014

Family secrets and tensions erupt during a Scottish holiday. It captures that claustrophobic intensity of people stuck together, with dark comedy threading through genuine hurt—similar emotional texture to what The Incomer achieves.

But Sometimes the tonal shifts feel jarring, and the resolution is more neat than earned.

What We Did on Our Holiday poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Incomer

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Visitor Q2001

Both explore how the arrival of an 'incomer' acts as a mirror to reveal the rottenness or fragility beneath surface isolation.

Takashi Miike's grotesque, transgressive film about a stranger who invades a suburban family and destroys their illusions. Like The Incomer, an outsider forces an isolated household to confront who they actually are—but Miike uses body horror and cruelty where The Incomer uses awkwardness and charm.

But Deliberately obscene and deeply unpleasant. It traffics in shock value that many will find unwatchable rather than illuminating.

Visitor Q poster
More like this (5)

The Banshees of Inisherin2022

Two men on a small Irish island face the dissolution of their lifelong friendship. Martin McDonagh creates an isolated world where character and landscape are inseparable, comedy and tragedy bleeding together.

But If you find McDonagh's style too theatrical or his violence gratuitous, this won't change your mind. It's very much his thing.

The Banshees of Inisherin poster

Toni Erdmann2016

A father crashes into his daughter's rigidly controlled life, forcing her to remember how to be a person rather than a function. Emotionally acute about the masks we wear and why we wear them.

But It's a slow build that takes a long time to commit to its heart. German cinema pacing may test your patience if you prefer clarity over ambiguity.

Toni Erdmann poster

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson drives through Scotland in haunting silence, an outsider observing the landscape and people. Unsettling and hypnotic, it explores the fundamental strangeness of encountering the truly foreign.

But Intentionally cryptic with minimal narrative. Long stretches of no dialogue or plot will alienate anyone wanting conventional storytelling.

Under the Skin poster

The Quiet Girl2022

Both films locate profound human drama in peripheral Irish landscapes and find salvation or damnation in the relationship between newcomer and established community.

An Irish-language film where a neglected girl is placed with a foster family in rural Ireland. Silent, observant, with landscape as character. It understands how isolation can be either prison or refuge depending on who controls it.

But It's in Irish with English subtitles, and the pace is glacial. Minimal plot or incident may feel like nothing is happening.

The Quiet Girl poster

Halt and Catch Fire2014

Both examine how people define themselves through defiance and creation, and what costs they're willing to bear to avoid erasure.

Four seasons of people building something that matters against indifference. It's about the fierce need to make your mark before you vanish, whether through technology or sheer stubbornness. The emotional architecture here is The Incomer's backbone extended into epic form.

But It's a prestige drama that can feel airless and talky. If you're not invested in the characters by episode three, the later seasons will bore you to fury.

Halt and Catch Fire poster

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