“As a horror film it’s not too scary and as a comedy it’s not overly funny. As a fun piece of scary Saturday night cinema, it’s a gentle ride.”
Con Nats
3.5 lines of magic horn
The unicorn has recently become a symbol of left-wing naivety, gay rights and derision from the Right, without reference to mythology. They’re actually nasty beasts and it’s this dichotomy that makes them perfect villains in this comic-horror film.
Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega) are off to spend a weekend at the lavish premises of pharmaceutical billionaire and philanthropist Odell Leopold (Richard E Grant), his trophy wife Belinda (Téa Leoni) and their rambunctious son Shepard (Will Poulter who must have been channelling Don Trump Jr for this role). They’re going to discuss Elliot taking over the legal side of his business as he is riddled with cancer.
Their lavish house is in the middle of a lush private sanctuary and on the drive there Elliot accidentally crashes and kills a unicorn. For reals. They soon discover that its blood and horn has amazing healing qualities. It cures Ridley’s acne, Elliot’s eye sight and Odell’s cancer. It can’t be replicated but it sure can heal other sick billionaires.
Ridley starts to delve into unicorn mythology and it seems they can resurrect themselves, will give themselves up willingly to virgins and will turn viciously on their captors. (No riding them over rainbows). These unicorns have a lionesque growl, are deadly with their hoofs and horns and that’s when the horror begins. Meanwhile Shepard has discovered the powers of the horn powder by snorting it, which tells you this script has its horn planted firmly through its cheek.
Writer-Director Alex Sharfman’s (Resurrection) script follows the horror standards faithfully. The ethnics go first, there are jump cuts to scare, short character arcs for the leads and even the names of our protagonists are heroes from sci-fi films. The jump scares don’t quite fire as well as some jokes do but it has lots of fun on the way. The deaths are more schlock than comic although it looks absurd to have unicorns being the monsters. But there is little that is original about this film and Sharfman has a long record in this genre.
The acting is a class above the usual horror films and this goes along at a good gallop. Special mentions to Anthony Carrigan as Griff the Butler and Jessica Hynes as Shaw his offsider who play their stereotypes straight and are the funnier for it. And it’s good to see Richard E Grant back in film. He, Leone and Poulter especially have a lot of fun.
As a horror film it’s not too scary and as a comedy it’s not overly funny. As a fun piece of scary Saturday night cinema, it’s a gentle ride.
3.5 lines of magic horn
Con Nats, On The Screen
