Dog’s Movie House: “Death Of A Unicorn” Unique, Funny Horror Flick!

“Death Of A Unicorn” features Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as Elliot and Ridley, a father and daughter whose relationship has been strained by the death of Ridley’s mother. Desperate to take care of his daughter, Elliot takes a job as a proxy lawyer for billionaire pharmacuetical magnate Odell Leopold (a wonderfully smarmy Richard E. Grant). Odell just happens to be dying and wants Elliot to be both proxy and executor of his estate when he finally passes. The Leopolds happen to live on a massive wildlife preserve with limited phone service and Elliot is paying more attention to his phone than the road when he hits what appears to be a juvenille horse. Of course, the equine animal is actually a mystical unicorn that resists all attempts at Elliot’s “merciful” attempts to put it out of it’s misery. So the two load the creature into the back of their car and make their way to the Leopold compound.

Upon arriving, Elliot and Ridley discover that the blood of the unicorn has remarkable healing powers, a fact not lost on the dying Odell. Soon the tycoon and his obnoxious brood including his scheming wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and their overbearing son Shepard (Will Poulter) have not only successfully restored Odell’s health, but are quickly putting the finishing touches on a plan to monetize the rarest of treatments. One problem: the young unicorn has parents and the two massive beasts are understandably pissed off. And these aren’t the cuddly little unicorns you’ve seen in children’s books, oh no. . .instead we have a couple of Clydesdale-sized beasts with coal-black coats, nasty serrated four-foot horns and some seriously sharp teeth.

And human asshats are on the menu!

Scharfman does some really good work in his debut feature with a sharp script that doesn’t skimp on the unsavory nature of the characters. In fact, there are only two folks you are rooting for during the entirty of the film. The first is Ortega’s Ridley who understands the nature of the peril they face well before anyone else, but her relative age and lack of social standing render her warnings unheeded until it’s too late. The other is the mostly silent butler Griff, played by an excellently droll Anthony Carrigan. The Leopold’s treat him as disposible labor and Carrigan does a great job of elliciting sympathy without much in the way of dialogue.

The rest of the characters fall into the realm of “I can’t wait for them to get skewered” territory. The entire Leopold family are irredeemable snots. Funny snots, of course, but snots nonetheless. Grant, Leoni, and especially Poulter are having a ball playing entitled rich pricks and it’s not hard to sympathize with the four-legged beasts somewhat. And what of the eternally loveable Paul Rudd? Is he not the epitome of goodness and light in this darkest of moments? In a word. . .no! Rudd’s Elliot means well, but he spends most of the movie not listening to his daughter and making all the wrong decisions. Elliot does finally see the light but it takes him a long-ass time to get there and, if anyone but Paul Rudd were playing Elliot, you’d be rooting for him to get eaten first.

The kills in “Death Of A Unicorn” are suitably gory and many of the attacks are fairly intense. The creature designers do a pretty cool job of making a normally majestic animal into something powerful and scary. The CGI is a little spotty at times: sometimes the unicorns look just a tad shiny and don’t fully blend into their environments, but those moments are few and far between. Overall, I’d say “Death Of A Unicorn” is a winner when it comes to an original horror film that brings the laughs and the violence in equal measure. If “Death Of A Unicorn” sounds like your kind of flick, you will be in for a very good time! 4 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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