By Seth Lukas Hynes
Death of a Unicorn
Starring Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd and Richard E. Grant
MA15+
4.5/5
An outstanding feature debut for writer-director Alex Scharfman, Death of a Unicorn is a suspenseful, clever horror-comedy and one of the best-written films of the year so far.
On their way to a pharmaceutical CEO’s estate, Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) hit a unicorn with their car.
The terminally-ill Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) decides to study the unicorn’s healing properties, but the unicorn’s fearsome parents come to reclaim their offspring.
Death of a Unicorn clops in the hoofprints of Alien, Jaws and Jurassic Park as a taut, unnerving (but very funny) horror film about corporate greed, scientific hubris and exploiting a dangerous, uncontrollable force.
Ortega and Rudd make a nuanced dysfunctional duo; Ridley starts the film as a defiant teen without being too angsty, and her pure-hearted efforts to appease the unicorns fall on deaf ears or mockery in the ever-worsening base-under-siege situation, while Elliot takes part in the Leopolds’ heartless scheme to secure her future.
Death of a Unicorn features wonderfully witty dialogue, and Odell and especially his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) twist hilarious Death of Stalin-like logical knots to frame their selfishness as noble or philanthropic.
The opulent manor and Canadian wilderness settings are stunning, and though the CGI for the unicorns isn’t the best, they still have a cool, formidable design and yield many moments of tense stealth and gory catharsis.
Like Gorgo in the trappings of Saltburn, Death of a Unicorn is a superbly-acted, brilliantly-written monster movie playing in most Victorian cinemas.
