‘Our House’ review: Galway opener is lively, unbalanced Northern Irish home invasion thriller

Dir/scr: Peter Young. Northern Ireland. 2026. 88mins

Family reconciliation becomes a matter of life and death in Peter Young’s resourceful debut feature Our House. Three siblings are reunited by the death of their mother in a film that promises a Dogme-style family therapy session where old grievances are aired and home truths finally spoken. Young takes the material in a different direction as it morphs into a lively home siege thriller; that unexpected gear change is effectively handled, even if the frantic plot twists require a considerable suspension of disbelief.  

The frantic plot twists require a considerable suspension of disbelief

Our House was developed under the Northern Ireland Screen New Talent Programme and should boost the career of 29 year-old writer/director Young, who has made his name with a number of shorts including Good Grief (2021), No Such Thing (2022) and Pub House (2024); the latter of which was nominated for Best Northern Irish short at the British Short Film Awards. The presence of hit television drama Blue Lights alumni Hannah McClean and Michael Shea in the cast could add some homeground interest  following a world premiere as the opening night of the Galway Fleadh.

Young opens with an unsettling (and possibly unnecessary) flash forward suggesting that all will not end well. We then meet Nathan (Shea), the scruffy, black sheep of the family who returns home following the death of his mother Mary (Carol Moore). He is greeted by his older brother Thomas (Andy Doherty) and sister Patricia (McClean). It quickly becomes apparent that none of the trio is especially grief-stricken, and that their presence for the wake is out of reluctant obligation. Thomas has remained at the remote family home caring for their mother, and expects his sacrifices to be repaid in her will. 

Young provides his trio of young actors with well defined characters: Thomas is angry and entitled; Patricia is steely, sarcastic and heartless; and the drug-addled Nathan is widely regarded as a waster. Under the same roof for the first time in years, their discomfort unfolds in petty disputes, old grievances and an inability to be civil with each other.

There is a modest television drama feel to the film’s first half, as if Young is deliberately lulling us into a false sense of what the film might be all about. The writer/director does marble all the heated conflict with moments of black, absurdist comedy, especially as Thomas lays claim to every bit of crockery and stick of furniture. The jaunty score by Andrew Simon McAllister and closing song from Irish folk rock band Goats Don’t Shave add to the impression that it is all a bit of a lark.

The reading of the will becomes a pivotal moment that starts to tilt the film in a different direction. None of the siblings are satisfied with their late mother’s wishes; that the home and surrounding property are said to be worth €1million considerably ups the stakes. There is also the matter of uncle Jim ( Colin Connor) who asserts that he was promised the property.

All trust is abandoned and all paranoia embraced for a second half that places the emphasis on tension, threat and a fight for survival. Young doesn’t quite make the most of the rural setting or a coveted house filled with empty rooms, secret corners and a cluttered, claustrophobic attic. Yet he still shows a good deal of promise in the tight running time, the confident performances and some directorial flourishes – not least the camera’s bobbing and weaving along with Nathan as he becomes the garrulous, coked up life and soul of the party at his mother’s wake, frantically pressing tea and biscuits on the bewildered mourners.