Although writer-director Alex Scharfman makes a big swing with his A24 horror comedy debut, Death of a Unicorn struggles to live up to its bold premise.
The movie stars Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as Elliot and Ridley Kinter, an estranged father and daughter who put on a united front to get his family-oriented boss to sign a major deal at his isolated Canadian mansion, located on a mysterious nature preserve. But when they hit a unicorn on the drive in, the pair and their wealthy hosts soon become hunted by a pack of mythological beasts.
As the film’s moral compass, Elliot urges the group to leave the creature be, but when the discovery leads to unprecedented miracle cures, the pharma-rich Leopolds instantly see dollar signs.
But for a movie with a nearly two-hour runtime and a bonkers title with the plot to match, the action kicks off awfully late into the movie. Meanwhile, the laughs and gore are few and far between, and the satirical element ultimately takes a backseat to the father/daughter dynamic, which is heartfelt enough on its own… though we came for the unicorn bloodbath.
With supporting performances from incomparable talents like Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, Sunita Mani and Anthony Carrigan, the caliber of comedy feels underutilized.
And while the film touches on some serious issues through a humorous lens — like addiction, price-gouging and science deniers — the message felt uneven, hidden beneath a comedy-horror that struggles to find its footing, despite its star-studded roster.
It’s hard not to find relevance in a movie filled with generational strife about the world we’re leaving to our children, where the rich get richer and the poor keep working their asses off for a shot at a comfortable living. But watching rich people become the brutal victims of their own greed is feeling less and less like horror and more like torture porn for the 99% in the age of Luigi Mangione.
Title: Death of a Unicorn
Festival: SXSW (World Premiere)
Distributor: A24
Release date: March 28
Director-screenwriter: Alex Scharfman
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Park
Running time: 1 hr 44 min