THE STORY – When a man and his daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn with their car, his boss tries to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties – with horrific results.
THE CAST – Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni & Richard E. Grant
THE TEAM – Alex Scharfman (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 104 Minutes
First-time feature director Alex Scharfman is sure to have a long, great career ahead of him if his debut, “Death of a Unicorn,” is any indication. Premiering at South by Southwest to thunderous applause by an audience eager to witness murderous unicorns take their anger out on humanity, this ensemble film thrills and destroys in cosmically wonderful ways. Only a studio like A24 could deliver such hilarity while simultaneously giving a relationship drama legs to stand on.
“Death of a Unicorn” stars Paul Rudd as Elliot Kintner, a widower who travels with his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) to a weekend meeting with his boss’s family. Elliot, the Leopold family lawyer, is skilled at crisis management. After touching down in the pristine Canadian wilderness, it’s clear that his relationship with his daughter is fractured, to say the least. Driving into the mountains en route to the Leopold family’s gorgeous mansion compound, Elliot and Ridley’s car accidentally hits a creature of great significance. As the film’s title suggests, the creature in question is a unicorn. With a singular horn glowing brightly and purple blood spread onto the highway, the mythical beast’s demise will surely make Elliot late for his meeting. To his daughter’s dismay and horror, Elliot bludgeons the unicorn to put it out of its misery, loads it into their rental vehicle, and continues on with their travels.
Arriving at the home of the Leopold family, the cancer-stricken Odell (Richard E. Grant), his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), and their grifter adult son Shepard (Will Poulter) are shocked at Elliot and Ridley’s finding while noticing that the unicorn is still alive. Quickly discovering the creature’s supernatural restorative abilities, the family takes advantage of the situation and uses the animal’s blood and horn to cure Odell’s life-threatening disease. Understanding that they all could make a massive load of cash by exploiting the unicorn’s curative properties, the Leopolds enlist the help of scientists (Sunita Mani and Stephen Park), much to the dismay of young Ridley. Ortega’s character’s selfless nature gives way to a nose-ringed know-it-all that seeks to stand in the Leopolds’ way at every step. But the unicorn hasn’t had the last laugh yet, and the entire group is subjected to tortuous displays of maiming and slaughter as more unicorns materialize.
“Death of a Unicorn” builds upon its eat-the-rich premise to humorous charm and “Jurassic Park”-like antics that delight in its utter destruction. The entire ensemble cast appears to be having the time of their lives in a movie that takes horror to supernatural levels. Watching Poulter snort the unicorn’s horn dust like cocaine while Rudd and Grant hunt other unicorns in the Canadian forests could be viewed as crass, but the cast and Scharfman’s dialogue make it a majestic ride to witness.
Scharfman’s eye for marvelous landscapes and cosmic practical effects creates a beautiful film that’s visually stunning, utterly disgusting, and altogether hilarious. Rudd, Ortega, Leoni, and Poulter are top-notch in a film that leaves nothing to the imagination while asking audiences to buy into its ridiculous premise. In other hands, “Death of a Unicorn” could possibly fly off the rails in awful directions, but Scharfman guides viewers on a celestially sound journey that seeks to lay bare man’s inherent corruption while fictional creatures get their revenge.
