A24 should be careful. If they push out too many films without their signature “A24 vibes”, their cult following might shift. Of course, i always thought the worship around a distributor was odd. They buy movies and release them, and A24 pushes out a lot of indies. I suppose they have nabbed a certain amount of burgeoning auteur works to blur that line, but Death Of A unicorn is surprisingly mainstream and silly for the studio that just had a plethora of Awards friendly titles last year. this is from the studio that just gave you the Brutalist, Babygirl, Sing Sing, Queer, and Heretic.

In what I’m sure started as a parable on a post-it note, Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega play a slightly estranged father and daughter duo on their way to a huge mansion for one of dad’s clients.Along the way, they accidentally hit a unicorn with their car. They don’t have enough time to give this moment the proper reverence, so Rudd just tries to put it out of its mercy, throw it in the rental, and keep going. It isn’t until Rudd and Ortega, who both has a bit of unicorn blood on them, experience the healing properties that they realize there likely is a lot more to this unicorn.

Meanwhile, we have a rich family, their assistants, and a bunch of random security members and doctors primed for a body count to go up. The family includes Richard E. Grant, Tea Leioni, Will Poulter, and for good measure, Anthony Carrigan is hanging around too. When the wealthy get wind of what is going on, all they can think about is selfishly profiting off the remains of the unicorn. Despite pleas from ortega’s character, who feels connected to the unicorn, and believes that some bad is going to happen, everyone else just sees dollar bills. Soon, one by one, they won’t see anything.. because they’ll be dead. Can Ortega save herself and maybe her dad from the impending doom? Or, will the wealthy somehow triumph like they always seem to do?

Whatever the initial intent was, to try and use things as metaphors, or to hold a mirror to society and our own selfishness for exploiting natural resources, it gets muddled in a silly horror comedy where humans are violently picked off and hunted one by one by unicorns. A few films this year have tried to blend horror and comedy, but they mostly have been too mean spirited to work. Heart Eyes isn’t quite as cute as it thinks it is, and fear Street is too relentless to match the occasionally campy tone. However, Death Of A unicorn is silly, and despite being brutal and gory, it doesn’t feel like torture. No one suffers, and people who don’t deserve to die aren’t just randomly offed for a gag.

still, There’s something about the A24 of it all. Don’t they make elevated films? This is just as silly as Y2K, I just liked this a little less. I don’t see an auteur here, I see a film that struggles to find its footing, relying heavily on the premise to keep you interested. Most people who watch this will know exactly what they are watching, and fully expect this. Still, I think they might want their humor a bit more pointed.

the audio description is fine when talking about the gory details, but size relativity is important at times, and I feel like that gets lost. As more unicorns are introduced,their size varies, and I’m not sure how big is “big”.

I’m leaning slightly positive on this, though I did want more, and expected more. This felt right up my alley, and it still feels like it fell short.

Fresh: Final Grade: 6.3/10