Who doesn’t love unicorns? The most magical of creatures with glittering manes and of course those majestic horns, they are the stuff fairy tales are made of. Well, you won’t quite look at them the same way after A24’s Death of a Unicorn, in which they use those horns to gut folks, and their hooves to trample people who, well, they kinda deserve it. Following the medicore thriller-comedy Opus, A24 gets back into the groove with a genre film that fills that need for some good unicorn-based gore.
For the first time ever, Paul Rudd plays a character I didn’t want to root for. His pharmaceutical rep Elliot Kintner still has his heart in the right place, but I found him insufferable. Jenna Ortega plays his teen daughter Ridley, who clearly wants nothing to do with her Dad as they road trip it to a weekend meeting with his terminally ill boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), in hopes of moving up in the Big Pharma family’s ranks. Elliot’s ambitions are his biggest concern and that seems to be what’s eating away at Ridley, along with grief over the death her mother and his wife.
The movie’s title comes true when Elliot accidentally hits a unicorn in the road. But it isn’t quite dead yet, and while Ridley is in some kind of mental link with it, Elliot takes the chance to bash its mythical brains in. Once Lepold discovers the unicorn’s blood has magical healing properties, well, he not only wants it for himself but he sees an opportunity to corner the market on a new curative that only the wealthiest can afford. What they didn’t know is that killing a unicorn comes with horrible consequences.
Writer/director Alex Scharfman wants Death of a Unicorn to be a satirical look at the comically evil rich folks we have in our country right now. The Leopolds could just as easily be the Trumps with their dismissive attitude towards the working class, their fraudulent charitable causes, and more. Along with egotistical patriarch Odell, there’s his equally maniacal wife Belinda, played by Tea Leoni and it’s good to see her back in a major movie. There’s also Will Poulter who steals nearly every scene as the coked-up Donald Jr.-esque son, Shepard, who can’t help snorting some of that sweet sweet unicorn horn. But other than Shepard, the Leopolds aren’t that interesting or funny. Making bigger impressions are Anthony Carrigan as their beleaguered manservant Griff, who just can’t catch a break from these rich bozos; and I also enjoyed Spaced legend Jessica Hynes as the Leopolds’ personal security.
But the best part of Death Of a Unicorn is when the rampaging begins. Scharfman has the goods at capturing the horror of the situation. These unicorns aren’t cute and cuddly, they’re terrifying, and they come up with some novel ways of decimating a human body. It would’ve been enough to get a horn to the gut or two, but we see quite a lot more than that and it’s disturbing to see these beloved creatures unleashed violently. I loved it, and most genre crowds probably will, too.
As far as performances go, Rudd is going to win over most audiences because Elliot has a kind-hearted reason for his unscrupulous behavior. But for me, his arc is never as convincing as it needed to be and I wanted him to meet the underside of a unicorn’s hoof. Ortega, who really needs to move beyond teen roles at this point, is better as Ridley, an art major whose knowledge could save everyone if they bothered to listen to her. But since when do the wealthy listen to people like us?
Death Of a Unicorn is high-concept stuff and Scharfman doesn’t quite achieve all that he set out to. That said, how often do you get to watch unicorns go on a wild murder spree? Forget “Eat the Rich”, popularize unicorns trampling the rich for our enjoyment.
A24 releases Death Of a Unicorn in theaters on March 28th.
