Everyone knows what a Unicorn is. Mythical horse like creature with a single horn protruding from the middle of it’s head? The animal personification of glitter? Most likely to lead you to candy mountain but really steal your kidneys? Yeah you know what they are – but in the new film with Ant-Man and Wednesday Addams, what if they also were murder beasts?
Hitting cinemas, Death of a Unicorn is a dark comedy in an A24 movie sort of way and probably the perfect compliment if you just saw Companion in cinemas the other week and are looking for a little more of that. The film centres around Scott Lang and daughter heading into the remote mountains estate of a pharmaceutical multi-millionaire in hopes of becoming the family estate lawyer. That is until Cher’s Stepbrother (Oh yes, they were Stepbrother and sister in that movie, you probably forgot all about that part) hit’s a small horse with his rental car on the way, except it is not a small horse.
After a small altercation in trying to put ‘definitely not a small horse’ out of it’s suffering the pair find themselves slightly covered in the animal’s purple blood and putting the body in the back of the rental car. It isn’t long before it is discovered that the blood has regenerative healing properties like a 90 year old Hugh Jackman which of course catches the attention of the death bed level pharmaceutical multi-millionaire.
The film makes it’s own version of Unicorn lore which is not hard to do given that Unicorns have been mentioned across many cultures throughout history as far back as 2000 BC. This is to say while a lot focuses on the version of a horse that poops sparkles there is nothing central enough to stop going in the other direction and suggesting that they were revenge driven murder-horses – which is where we are with this film.
Definitely sitting more in the low budget remote cabin in the woods type camp, but with a bigger budget and instead of a cabin it is a fully decked out estate, the film plays out following the black comedy satire approach as we go from drag your daughter to your business trip to carving up an equestrian rhino for all it’s potentially big pharma product development worth to… let’s not spoil it right away.
Visually the film is solid with most of the film having practical effects with the exception of the Unicorn moving on it’s own steam. Not strictly a comedy but definitely in that dark humour/satire realm most of the film bounces between probationary Ghostbuster Gary Grooberson & Beetlejuice’s almost 3rd wife. With a runtime of just under 2 hours long this has enough going on that you are going to keep to your seat from start to finish.
So should you go see it? Actually, yes. While appealing to those who like their satire a little dark and a fan of myth, this film has a lot going for it but is absolutely not for anyone who is not tall enough to ride rollercoasters and has more than one shirt with a Unicorn and glitter on it. Add this one to your growing list of dark humour light horror date night films.
Death of a Unicorn is in cinemas across Australia from today
