{"id":30929,"date":"2025-03-27T01:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T08:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=30929"},"modified":"2025-03-27T01:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T08:35:13","slug":"death-of-a-unicorn-disappoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=30929","title":{"rendered":"DEATH OF A UNICORN Disappoints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 104 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This motion picture from A24 opens exclusively in\ntheaters on March 28th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of a mythical creature appearing unexpectedly and\ncausing a wide variety of reactions (from curiosity and wonder, to vanity,\ngreed and a selfish desire to own) is a fantastic concept for a feature. Death\nof a Unicorn<\/em> has such a great premise that it\u2019s too bad it never manages to\ndevelop the idea to its fullest potential. Alas, it\u2019s one of those\ncould-have-been-great films that ends up missing the mark. It doesn\u2019t break much\nnew ground and ends up a disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ridley Kintner (Jenna Ortega) is a moody college student\nunhappy to be forced into a business trip with her dad, Elliot (Paul Rudd).\nHe\u2019s a lawyer who has been asked to visit the remote wilderness mansion of\ndying pharmaceutical magnate Odell (Richard E. Grant) and help with his estate.\nThis is a major client that could help Elliott tremendously in his career. But\non the way there, the father and daughter strike a unicorn dead with their car.\nThe lawyer throws the carcass in the trunk and races to the meeting, acting\nlike everything is fine. However, the beast starts moving, drawing the\nattention of Odell, his wife Belinda (T\u00e9a Leoni) and son Shepard (Will\nPoulter). When they realize the unicorn may have regenerative properties, the\nopportunistic family immediately takes advantage of the situation. However, it\nsoon becomes clear that this lifeform isn\u2019t alone. More unicorns arrive at the\nestate and hunt down the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are issues right from the start as Ridley and Elliot\nmake their way north. The pair have lost the family matriarch and the father\nhas become work-obsessed, causing tension in their relationship, but the tone\nearly on is odd. Several elements of the opening act are intended to be\nhumorous, even after the nasty accident. In fact, the father makes so many\nridiculous decisions (including his hiding of the large unicorn, and trying to\nact like nothing has happened even when it starts thrashing around in front of\neveryone), that it\u2019s hard to suspend disbelief or relate to the\nleads.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This reviewer always tries to give the filmmakers a chance\nto make up for a clumsy opening act, but things don\u2019t improve much from there.\nDespite being a ruthless industry leader with an equally self-centered family,\nthe hosts don\u2019t come across as cunning, nor clever. Son Shepard is so arrogant\nand blunt that he earns a few chuckles here and there. However, most of the\ncharacters in the film (with the exception of Ridley and one staff member) are\nso dense, it\u2019s hard to think any of them would be this well-positioned in their\nfields. You can have one or even two numbskulls in a story as comic relief, but\nwhen the majority of the characters are written this way, it is a problem. The\nirrational behavior and decisions seem forced in order to move the plot forward,\nwasting a great cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually, the movie turns into a series of unicorn\nattacks. Admittedly, it is funny to see the fantastic creatures take their\nrevenge on the humans. Their pointy horns are used frequently to impale victims\nand some of the violent deaths earn a smile, but many of the CGI effects leave\nsomething to be desired. Shots of individuals being chased around the property\nand through the mansion by the horned beasts don\u2019t look convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie also tries to insert heartfelt discussions about\nloss and life-beyond-death during the finale, but even these sweet notions come\nacross as confusing and contradictory to previous story points. Given this is a\nmovie about killer unicorns, I don\u2019t want to harp on plot holes too much, but\nthe script doesn\u2019t resolve itself in a satisfactory manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Death of a Unicorn<\/em> experiments with a unique monster\nand delivers a couple of bizarrely entertaining moments, but the tone and\nattempts at humor aren\u2019t quite on target, and the characters frustrate more\nthan they engage. Despite having the potential to address bigger themes in an\noriginal or humorous way, it resorts to the usual horror tropes. In the end,\nthe film doesn\u2019t wow, enchant or even deliver the nightmarish weirdness one\nwould hope for. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 104 minutes This motion picture from A24 opens exclusively in theaters on March 28th. The notion of a mythical creature appearing unexpectedly and causing a wide variety of reactions (from curiosity and wonder, to vanity, greed and a selfish desire to own) is a fantastic concept for a feature. Death of a Unicorn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,605,4660,5491,5492,5493,5494,9319,10560,15833,16987,19635,23555,24292],"class_list":["post-30929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-a24","tag-comedy","tag-death-of-a-unicorn","tag-death-of-a-unicorn-film-review","tag-death-of-a-unicorn-movie-review","tag-death-of-a-unicorn-review","tag-horror","tag-jenna-ortega","tag-paul-rudd","tag-richard-e-grant","tag-tea-leoni","tag-unicorn","tag-will-poulter"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}