There's a delicate line that must be walked when doing a horror comedy, particularly one that indulges in gore in the manner of Death of a Unicorn: If someone is going to be killed by a unicorn kick to the face - and we are meant to laugh at said death - the character needs to have 'earned' that end and we need to be removed enough from the horror that we can laugh at said death. Death of a Unicorn mostly succeeds at this, though not enough that it doesn't complete avoid tonal issues.
The film follows Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) as they travel to visit Elliot's dying boss Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant). As they travel through the Canadian Rockies, they hit and apparently kill a unicorn which they end of bringing with them to the secluded Leopold estate. Once there, they discover the healing properties of the unicorn and encounter its angry parents.
The film tries to be a bit of a satire by having the Leopold family - Odell, wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), and son Shepard (Will Poulter) - aggressively start working to monetize the use of the dead unicorn while also having Ridley be a 'pure-hearted maiden' who happens to espouse many liberal viewpoints, but there isn't too much meat to it, and the film could've easily left most of it on the cutting room floor without hurting the overall product.
The film is much stronger when it goes wider in its target through the use of The Unicorn Tapestries - focusing more on those that want to capture and abuse the magical powers of unicorns vs. the more specific target that the Leopolds represent - and might've benefitted from a more subtextual approach to the politics.
All of the actors do a great job: Paul Rudd plays a slightly more mature character than normal, and Jenna Ortega continues to cement her Scream Queen status. It feels as if Tea Leoni is playing a reference to a particular person, but I couldn't name who, though she is very much having fun with the part. Of the smaller parts, Sunita Mani somewhat surprises with much richer character work for her Dr. Bhatia than I think the film called for, but it was appreciated nonetheless.
Really, it's just frustrating that the film almost hits a home run but keeps getting in its own way with the early asides that go nowhere and throwaway bits that too sparse to break the tension effectively or played down in a way that limits their effect. A reference to a character eating unicorn steak could've been a darkly hilarious moment or could've pushed the satire further, but instead it's just a quick sequence where the meal is handed to a character and then... moves on.
Those quibbles aside, it is still a mostly-funny movie that I think most people would enjoy. It took a big swing (I don't think I have seen unicorns used as a movie monster outside of a short bit in 2011's The Cabin in the Woods) and while it might not have gone the distance, I appreciate that it went for it.
7 out of 10.
