Death of a Unicorn is an unconventional genre mashup. It’s a fantasy/horror/magical realism comedy that reminds us the myth of the unicorn was once much darker (as a reminder: the surprise killer unicorn at the end of Cabin in the Woods). This film’s unicorns remind me of griffons, minotaurs, and hippogriffs… they scary!

The flick stars Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as a father and daughter on a trip through a wilderness preserve to meet up with their estranged family. Rudd hits a unicorn and brings the corpse to his family’s estate. The unicorn has regenerative powers and the family of big pharma execs see an opportunity. But not everything in the forest agrees.

I loved the chaotic crazy of this film. It starts as magical realism with dark, satirical humor. It eventually evolves into a a creature feature using unconventional monsters. I loved the throwback hints at what kind of movie this is as evidenced by the beeping tech the security team uses… sounds like Aliens motion trackers to me!

MVP goes to bald Anthony Carrigan as the family butler who can’t believe this shit. I also loved Will Poulter as a try-hard-but-not-too-hard family member who never skips an opportunity to snort something. Paul Rudd feels a little out-of-place but eventually rises to the level of his good natured incompetence.

I always love to see Jenna Ortega but she’s not given as much funny things to do… but that kind of makes sense as the maiden that even ferocious unicorns have to love by mythological decree. She’s not bad, but she’s not playing in the same dark comedy as the rest. The dynamic between her and Rudd takes a while to gel, but it gets there and actually moved me in the end.

As a dark comedy, it’s consistently funny (though not hilarious) but as a horror film, it’s pretty great. Even though it takes awhile to ramp up, once we get the odd looking CGI unicorns on the warpath, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. Plus some great splattery kills… horns aren’t the only weapon in a unicorn’s arsenal.

I also love how the film transitions without irony between dark comedy, gore, and transcendent beauty. There’s no cynicism to the magical realism when it hits, no darkness to its sudden flashes of beauty. A lot of this film hits me as an old school fantasy nerd who read some cool unicorn stories in his youth (hello Ariel the unicorn from The Book of the Change… and that’s a hell of a deep cut right there!).

I had so much fun with this film… loving the dark humor, loving the monstrous take on unicorns, and loving the magic. I think this is a pretty terrific film for all its genre mash-ups.

Score: 92