Review: Death of a Unicorn

Directed by: Alex Scharfman

Written by: Alex Scharfman

Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant

Rating: [2/5]

If there’s one thing humanity has found a special talent in, it’s extracting natural resources from everything surrounding us. This appears not only in our consumption of the inhabiting animals but also the natural resources to sustain the lives we have built for ourselves. Death of a Unicorn posits what would transpire if humans would try to extract something from a mythical creature if it provided something of value. Without fully asking the question we all the know the answer, but unfortunately the film we receive here does nothing of value with its somewhat intriguing premise. 

Having to spend a weekend at the estate of his employers, on the journey there, Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) strike a mysterious animal, which happens to be a unicorn. Upon arriving at the estate, they and Elliot’s employers learn of something special in the bodily contents of the unicorn that they believe can lead to scientific discoveries and opportunities to profit. The only issue being that the family of the unicorn have arrived and will stop at nothing to get its body back. 

Quite the ridiculous premise when one thinks of it, but bountiful with opportunity, Death of a Unicorn has plenty it wants to dissect regarding humanity’s innate desire to extract resources from anything it can and the callousness of rich people. This trend has proven bountiful in recent years in Hollywood, where rich people receive their comeuppance for their unrelenting desire to obtain whatever they want no matter the price. Instead of this retribution happening by a human, it just so happens to occur with other unicorns that have entered the scene seeking to cause massive wreckage. 

Now, the idea of this carnage happening at the hands of unicorns does carry its very own comedic value because typically this mythical creature gets presented as a cute animal young girls fantasize about owning. Essentially a horse with a horn on its head, they’re meant to exist as docile creatures, but this film makes a valid point where if they decided to want to kill, they can be genuinely terrifying monsters. If anything, this film has made me look at unicorns in a different way, but that’s the best thing I can say about this film because everything else fails to deliver. 

In the very obvious class commentary on display, this feature fails to muster anything truly interesting about the central characters. It surely does not help when you have Paul Rudd playing such a rudderless character and had Jenna Ortega just floundering with the material given to her. When the main characters struggle to get a hold of their material and therefore creates a reliance on these over the top side characters, you know you’re in trouble. While these oblivious rich characters have good casting with Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, and Téa Leoni, they just feel cartoonishly ridiculous in this film. They have their comedic moments that allow the subsequent scenes with the unicorn killing all of them funny, but the central themes of the film never quite get to a place of full realization because the film turns into a creature feature. 

This film ultimately fails in this imbalance it has from the commentary it wants to make and when the unicorns start killing everyone, that never fully comes together. An issue that sucks out the enjoyment on both sides of this equation, where it just leaves you with this big pile of nothingness that elicits nothing but a shrug by the time the credits roll. Sure, we get to see these brazenly evil characters disemboweled by these mythical creatures as nature’s revenge, but a distinct lack of substance leaves this exercise feelings quite empty. 

While promising a fun time at the movies, Death of a Unicorn fails to muster anything of note. Even though it employs a wonderful cast, Alex Scharfman fails to synthesize all of his ideas into something cohesive and enjoyable. It leaves this taste of dissatisfaction where so much potential existed right on the surface. The continued struggle of Jenna Ortega to star in something befitting her talent continues as her rise to stardom unfortunately has not been met with material she chooses to attach herself to.