The right movie premise can ignite the imagination. When you hear it, you can see the movie in your mind’s eye, and the only thing that needs to happen is the reality of the film must live up to what’s in your head. Consider these:

• A love story that takes place during the doomed voyage of the Titanic.
• A bomb is placed on a city bus, and when the bus slows below 50 MPH, the bus will explode.
• An alien hunter goes after the most dangerous quarry of all – man.

It’s great if you have a premise that strong, and it’s far better if you can execute the premise with skill. But what if you have a premise that’s not bad, but a little weird? Something off kilter enough that when people hear it, they cock their heads like Michael Myers. In a case like that, it’s up to the marketing department* to sell what the film is to the public. But what if the marketing doesn’t quite communicate what the movie is, or what if the idea is so odd that it can’t be concisely sold? Then you have Death of a Unicorn, the new horror/comedy/satire/family drama smashing its way into theaters.

We’re introduced to Elliott (Paul Rudd), a legal liaison working with the mighty Leopold Pharmaceuticals. He’s journeying through the Rockies to the Leopold family’s remote mountain stronghold, and for Elliott, this should be the brass ring. The family’s patriarch is Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), who is in the final stages of cancer. Odell needs a keen legal mind to get his affairs in order, and this gig could set Elliott up for life financially.

It would be cause for celebration, but Elliott isn’t in a celebratory mood. His wife has recently died due to illness. His relationship with his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) is strained. Odell has commanded Elliott to bring Jenna to the meeting to demonstrate his strength of character, and Jenna is less than thrilled by this.

Tensions are high between Elliott and Ridley due to Elliott’s allergies, Ridley’s nuclear-powered snark, and the vast gulf of grief between them. They get even higher when the accident happens. When an animal bounds into the road, their SUV plows into the poor beast. As they recover, they discover that the creature they’ve struck is an honest-to-God unicorn. A cavalcade of bad decisions follow. First, Elliott sees the unicorn is in agony, and decides to put it out of its misery by bludgeoning it to death with a tire iron. Then, he chucks its corpse into the back of the SUV, figuring he’ll hide the accident from the Leopolds. 

Unfortunately, the Leopolds discover the corpse, and discover that unicorn blood has mysterious curative properties. Odell, his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), and their jackass son Shepard (Will Poulter) see fabulous financial opportunity. They also see that the dead unicorn is only formerly dead. It has parents looking for it, and those parents are pissed.

While I have my issues with Death of a Unicorn, respect must be paid to director Alex Scharfman. He takes enormous swings with a wild-ass idea. It’s an audacious take for a creature feature, and when the film leans into that lunacy, it works pretty well. The horror/comedy of it all is strong, as Scharfman balances the horror of a unicorn killing people with the comedy of a unicorn killing rich people. Having said that, there are two other movies wedged into the horror/comedy. One is a family drama about grief, and whenever the film focuses on how Ridley and Elliott are coping, it comes to a screeching halt. The other is a satire about how rich people can’t help but monetize everything, which is a completely accurate take. That means Scharfman has to keep a ton of plates spinning, which translates to his film sometimes feels unfocused. 

Scharfman’s screenplay runs into similar issues, but when it works, it works beautifully. The trauma aspect of the script feels unnecessary when there’s a perfectly good comedy/horror survival story right there. Critic Brian Tallerico made the perceptive point that this film was hugely inspired by Jurassic Park, particularly the parts where the wealthy ignore common sense and pay for it. I think if Scharfman had focused a little more on making a funnier and stranger version of Jurassic Park, he would have had a tighter script. The script works much better when it contrasts the relative normalcy of Ridley and Elliott with the billion dollar madness of the Leopolds.** Its characterization is solid, and it’s great fun seeing these people smash into each other.

Speaking of which, the film is impeccably cast, for the most part. All of the Leopolds, from Richard E. Grant’s cadaverous Odell to Tea Leoni’s oblivious Belinda are excellent. Particularly so with Will Poulter’s Shepard, who steals the entire damn movie. He’s a kind of elite we’ve become familiar with, the confidently stupid, and Poulter milks that for all he’s worth. I also thoroughly enjoyed Anthony Carrigan as the Leopold’s put-upon servant Griff. He’s able to get massive laughs from a sigh or a side-eye. You need a normal person to contrast with them, and that’s Jenna Ortega’s job. She takes a somewhat thankless role, that of a moody young woman who misses her Mom and has trouble connecting with her Dad, and makes the role feel organic. Weirdly, if there’s one role I thought didn’t quite work, it’s Paul Rudd as Elliott. If Ridley is the film’s moral center, Elliott should be the one who gravitates toward the celebratory selfishness of the Leopolds before pulling back at the last moments. I like Rudd as an actor quite a lot, and he does a good job playing a weak man. But I had trouble buying that he partially ran on selfishness or greed. 

Maybe it’s that I’m a little slow,*** but when I saw the trailer for Death of a Unicorn, I expected a little more surrealism and arch satire. I didn’t know I was in for a ridiculously fun splatter fest. Believe me, what I got was lots better than what I expected. While it may have issues with pacing and some screenplay problems, Death of a Unicorn will impale its way into (and through) your heart.

*A reminder that filmmakers generally have nothing to do with the marketing approach of their own movies.

**That’s one thing that’s painfully obvious these days, the idea that rich people don’t live in anything even close to a normal life. 

***I know, the word “maybe” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.