The Incomer – a brother and sister living in splendidly weird isolation on a supposedly uninhabited Scottish island, trying to repel/kill a council-sent intruder on their land while dressing up as knights of old and a plague doctor / medieval Big Bird – is what you would get if you combined 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and The Whicker Man, and made a heartfelt comedy out of them.
Well at least that’s what I think we’re getting, judging by its trailer (check it out below) – and you only have until 25 September to wait to find out, if you’re American. We Brits get a limited UK release from 4 September and the comedy has already shown at this month’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Grant O’Rourke and Gayle Rankin
Here’s the synopsis:
The Incomer is a modern folk fairy tale set on a remote Scottish island, where two siblings survive by hunting seabirds, retelling the stories of their ancestors, and defending the isle from dreaded Incomers’. Their world is upended with the arrival of an awkward council worker who has come to uproot them from their homeland on behalf of the government.
Gayle Rankin, Domhnall Gleeson and Grant O’Rourke
The film is written and directed by Scottish filmmaker Louis Paxton and stars Domhnall Gleeson as vegan council drone Daniel and Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke as siblings Isla and Sandy, with Emun Elliott, Michelle Gomez and John Hannah rounding out the cast.
From the trailer, it looks like Daniel’s council boss Roz (Michelle Gomez) is the villain of the piece (Americans – imagine the mayor from Jaws but in Scotland.)
The Incomer won the Next Innovator Award at Sundance 2026.
Watch the trailer for The Incomer now: