Jenna Ortega brings freshness and spirit to “Death of a Unicorn.”
Fresh from its buzzy debut at the South by Southwest Film festival, “Death of a Unicorn” hits theaters riding on the star wattage of young “Wednesday” breakout Jenna Ortega, who takes this horror comedy into human territory and gives it a beating heart.
Sure, you can take critical potshots at the movie. We’ll get to that. But Ortega, 22 and a former Disney Channel regular, is the real deal. Already an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG nominee for playing the goth Wednesday Addams, Ortega is also known as a Gen Z scream queen for her roles in the “Scream” franchise and Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
Still from “Death of a Unicorn.”
She gets to show her varied talents as Ridley Kintner in “Death of a Unicorn.” The movie kicks off with art-history major Ridley and her compliance lawyer father Elliot (the ever-ageless and appealing Paul Rudd) — both grieving the loss of Ridley’s mom — on a road trip to the Canadian Rockies mansion of Big Pharma kingpin Odell Leopold (a vividly villainous Richard E. Grant).
On the way, a distracted Elliot hits and nearly kills a baby unicorn, a rare mythical creature said to have magical, healing powers. No sooner does the empathetic Ridley run to comfort and bond with the dying animal — a touch of the unicorn’s horn cures her skin condition — then Elliot bashes its head with a tire iron. Not cool..
Will Poulter in a film still from “Death of a Unicorn.”
That goes double for the covetous Leopolds, who see the unicorn as a chance to cash in big time. What else can the unicorn cure? Maybe even cancer, which afflicts Odell. The Leopolds, including wife Belina (a wasted Téa Leoni) and druggie son Shepard (a zany-scary Will Poulter) don’t give a whit about saving mankind only filling their already overflowing stock portfolios.
A word here in praise of Anthony Carrigan, so great as the Chechen mobster NoHo Hank on “Barry,” who plays the verbally abused family butler, Griff, with enough crack comic timing to make you cheer his every appearance.
Up to this point, writer Alex Scharfman, in an initially promising directing debut, is setting us up for a familiar but fierce satire of nasty one-percenters who can’t get enough. Sadly, it turns out that Scharfman is more interested in trotting out horror cliches, in which the family of the now-dead unicorn goes on a bloody rampage against human avarice.
Tea Leoni and Richard E. Grant in a film still from “Death of a Unicorn.”
That’s when “Death of a Unicorn” turns into a “Jurassic Park” wannabe filled with kill scenes whose terror is undercut by shockingly shoddy special effects. The rapport between Ortega and Rudd makes us believe, but whether by limited budget or imagination, the grisly rampage of the unicorns, whose blood runs purple, is amateurish to the max.
See one impalement by a unicorn horn and you’ve seen them all. It’s Ortega who brings freshness and spirit to a movie that starts strong but limps away as a missed opportunity.
Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega appear in this still from “Death of a Unicorn.”
