Death of a Unicorn Is Here: Is the New Comedy Horror Starring Jenna Ortega Worth-Watching?
A perfect option for those who still re-watch movies from the 90s and 2000s.
A24's new release may come as a disappointment to those accustomed to the leisurely slow-burners like The Lighthouse, Hereditary and The Green Knight that made the studio famous in the horror arena.
Financial appetites are changing, and as a result, conceptual B-movies are increasingly appearing in the A24 catalog.
Death of a Unicorn largely repeats the B-movie recipe: a '90s cozy trope multiplied by a stellar cast: scream queen Jenna Ortega and blockbuster actor Paul Rudd.
What Is Death of a Unicorn About?
What do you do when you hit a unicorn on a deserted highway? Anyone who has seen at least one horror movie knows that an animal under your wheels is just the first link in a chain of trouble.
Instead of a deer, workaholic Elliot hits a mythical horse with a shimmering horn. Ridley, his teenage daughter, is on the side of the injured animal, not her father.
And the phone is ringing: the unlucky travelers found themselves in the middle of a nature reserve on their way to the boss's private estate for the weekend.
Dad has to sign a contract, and the presence of his daughter is a guarantee that he is a reliable person. But what to do with the horse?
Death of a Unicorn Is a Nostalgic Movie for Millenials
Death of a Unicorn wants to be a nostalgic movie much more than a relevant one – and it refers to Harry Potter quite often. For millennials, the movie is a smorgasbord of childhood memories, be it Jurassic Park, Alien, Harry Potter or Jaws.
Steven Spielberg's influence can also be seen in the balance of power in the central conflict: Ridley can't come to terms with his father's conformism and tries to instill humanistic thoughts in his father, by investigating a legend from the tapestries of the Metropolitan Museum.
Death of a Unicorn Lacks Dynamism, but Can Brighten a Movie Night
The montage transitions from 90's blockbusters and the mischievous idea of carnivorous magic horses are quite capable of pleasing, but the director clearly lacks work with dynamics.
For most of the movie, viewers are forced to wait for the unicorns to finally burst into the mansion and aggressively kick some rich people with their hooves and pierce others with their horns.
Despite the diversity of the idea, Death of a Unicorn lacks the insanity and shameless lunacy that makes us constantly re-watch our favorite B-movies from the 90s.