DEATH OF A UNICORN Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Alex Scharfmann
Stars: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Jessica Hynes, Steve Park, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani.
Corporate lawyer Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is driving through the Canadian Rockies to visit his boss Odell Leopold (Richard E Grant), the head of a large pharmaceutical company. Odell is dying of cancer, and Elliot is headed there to sort out his will and secure the succession for running the company. He is accompanied by his surly, restless teenaged daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega, from the tv series Wednesday, etc), but their relationship is strained.
On the way through the windy mountain roads their vehicle hits an animal. That animal turns out to be a unicorn foal. As the wounded beast lies bleeding a crying in the middle of the road Elliot tries to finish it off with a tyre iron. Ridley grabs hold of its horn and experiences a strange hallucinogenic vision. They load the almost dead animal into the back of the car and continue on their journey.
On arriving at the Leopold’s sprawling rural retreat they are greeted by the wheelchair bound Odell, his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni, in her first film role in over a decade) and dimwitted and arrogant son Shepard (Will Poulter, recently seen in Warfare, etc). Leopold’s staff includes the ruthlessly efficient assistant Shaw (Jessica Hynes) and the disapproving and mute butler Griff (Anthony Carrigan) and a couple of research scientist working to try and find a cure for cancer. Ridley discovers that her acne has cleared up, and Elliot finds that his vision has also cleared.
During dinner and discussions, they are all disturbed by the sounds of the distressed unicorn, which has come back to life. Realising the unique healing powers of the unicorn’s horn, Odell has his scientists Dr Song (Steve Park, from Mickey 17, etc) and Dr Bhatia (Sunita Mani) try to harness its magical healing and regenerative properties. But they are more interested in the commercial aspects of their findings than altruism.
Ridley though, out of curiosity, has learned more about the darker history of the unicorn and tries to warn Elliot and Odell of their capacity for violence. But that is when all hell breaks loose and the unicorn’s enraged parents attack the family home, reaping havoc.
The malevolent unicorns here are a far cry from the usual image of them as beautiful mythical and good creatures. Rather here they come across more like the ravenous dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park franchise. Unfortunately, the low rent CGI special effects are not of the same calibre and they are a bit iffy and their digitally created unicorns look decidedly fake. And the film loses much of its energy with its over the top climax which requires a suspension of disbelief.
Death Of A Unicorn offers up a critique of class, big pharmaceutical companies, commercialism and corporate greed, and scientific exploitation. This marks the debut feature film for former producer Alex Scharfmann (Resurrection, etc) and served up an intriguing premise. However, this tonally uneven mix of black comedy, horror and satire is not a complete success, although Scharfmann does deliver plenty of gore and blood.
The film looks good with Amy Williams’ superb production design creating Leopold’s sprawling house. Scharfmann himself has drawn upon images from lots of tapestries depicting the mythic history of the unicorn to shape many of the scenes in the film.
The performances are something of a mixed bag. Rudd normally plays the likeable everyman, but here his character is unsympathetic, while Grant chews the scenery with his grotesque characterisation of the insufferable Odell. Poulter makes for a vile and greedy Shepard. Ortega’s angst-ridden Ridley is a familiar character in her body of work. Carrigan brings some humour to the material with his performance.
★★☆
