Action, gore dominate suspense and scares in violently funny ‘Death of a Unicorn’
“Death of a Unicorn” — 3 stars
As a fantasy-horror-comedy steeped in mythology, writer/director Alex Scharfman’s “Death of a Unicorn” goes for action over suspense, gore over scares and convenient inconsistencies over thoughtful internal logic.
But as a sassy class satire eviscerating the mindset, attitudes and ethical shortcomings of the exorbitantly wealthy, “Death” delivers a timely expose of the semantic tactics of control and disinformation sowed by the hilariously clueless and unabashedly selfish rich elite.
Scharfman wisely cast People magazine’s 2021 Sexiest Man Alive, Paul Rudd, to play male lead Elliot Kintnor, a sellout corporate attorney of adjustable morals. He injects just enough humanity to keep the shallow, spineless character connected to us.
In the opening, Elliot is on his way to meet his boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), a big pharma mogul dying of cancer at his palatial compound nestled deep within a ridiculously vast wildlife preserve.
Traveling with Elliot is his teen daughter and millennial-in-distress, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), a dark and withdrawn soul still mourning the untimely death of her mother.
After their car accidentally strikes a strange-looking animal, the father and daughter seem traumatized to discover what appears to be a badly injured baby unicorn gasping for breath on the road.
Instinctively, Ridley touches the animal’s glowing horn, launching into a hallucinogenic trip resembling a mashup of sequences from “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Fantastic Voyage.”
Dad brutally interrupts this spiritual bonding by bashing in the beast’s head with a tire iron. Elliot and Ridley pack the carcass into their car and head over to Leopold’s compound, keeping their rare cargo a secret.
Until the unicorn revives. Yes, just like Wolverine.
In short order, it becomes apparent that unicorn blood can magically cure diseases and injuries.
Leopold instantly feels its effects. He looks younger. His cancer disappears. He walks unassisted.
He and his two greedy heirs Belinda (Téa Leoni) and Shepard (Will Poulter) realize they can make hundreds of millions by harvesting the magical unicorn body parts.
“This can help people!” Belinda chimes. “Our people!”
Wait, our people? Insanely rich, aristocratic white people, just like her?
Meanwhile, Ridley — the only character with a strong moral compass and a sense of curiosity — does some online homework and realizes that unicorns possess an extremely dark history of violence, weaponizing their spiral horns to disembowel people who annoy them.
So, when a couple of angry adult unicorns show up at the compound searching for their missing baby, it’s “Death Wish” meets “Jurassic Park.”
Poulter’s Shepard masticates the scenery here, cheerfully snorting ground-up unicorn horn (a reference to the superstitious medicinal effects of real rhino horns?) and uttering delusional, self-serving observations to justify his callous misbehavior.
When Leopold leads a group of armed security people to hunt down and kill a wounded unicorn, it’s not because they can profit from it. In their Orwellian doublespeak, it’s the “humane thing” to track down and put the poor creature out of its misery.
“Death of a Unicorn” showcases all sorts of death, not only of a mythological creature, but the death of decency, the death of compassion and especially the death of empathy.
Even though Anthony Carrigan’s Griff has worked for years as the Leopold family assistant and butler, they are surprised to learn he has kids. As a lowly servant, he simply never mattered to them.
“Death of a Unicorn” succumbs to a disappointingly pat and unsatisfying ending. (Why would the adult unicorns help Elliot? Did they forget about the tire iron? After centuries of skillfully hiding their existence, why would the beasties so brazenly reveal themselves to the outside world?)
In the movie’s memorable key shot, Scharfman places a menacing unicorn nose-to-nose with a quivering Ortega, evoking a similar image from David Fincher’s second sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic “Alien.”
Coincidence?
Ortega plays a Ridley, doesn’t she?
• • •
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Anthony Carrigan, Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter
Directed by: Alex Scharfman
Other: An A24 theatrical release. Rated R for drug use, language, gore and violence. 104 minutes.