Death of a Unicorn

As mentioned before, the core setting of this movie is actually very interesting, and should have led to many exciting plots and creative ideas. However, I feel that the movie didn't really make use of this highlight. The overall feeling is a bit too conservative and too formulaic, which is a pity. Many plots are old hat, such as the tense father-daughter relationship and the extremely capitalist wealthy family, and the way these plots unfold lack novelty. From a visual perspective, the special effects of the unicorn are not particularly outstanding, but they have reached a qualified level. The presentation of the unicorn and the animation effects need to be improved, or more realistic alternatives need to be adopted and polished. A lot of times, it would have been better to simplify it, as many of the death scenes ended up being boring and predictable. The design itself is good and fits in with the overall style of the movie. The overall shooting level is also okay.

Father Elliot (Paul Rudd) and daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit a unicorn. After the male protagonist killed it, it revived but was shot again. The female protagonist's acne disappeared because of the unicorn's blood. The male protagonist's eyes were filled with blood and his myopia was cured. The rich man Odell (Richard E. Grant) used the unicorn to cure his cancer. Later, another unicorn came to avenge them. After killing two people, the injured unicorn ran away and they went to catch it. It turned out that it hit the cub and it was the cub's parents who came to avenge it. The rich man was killed by the unicorn. A woman returned the cub with its horn sawed off to his parents and was torn to pieces. The male protagonist took the horn and was targeted by the unicorn. The rich man's wife's intestines were pulled out by the unicorn. It was quite strange that the two unicorns fell asleep as soon as they approached the female protagonist. The rich man's son tried to catch the unicorn and was also killed. In the end, the male protagonist was seriously injured and healed by the unicorn. The cub was also healed. Anyway, in the end, everyone died except the hero and heroine. The hero and heroine were arrested by the police as suspects of the massacre. The unicorn knocked over the police car. Then it ended inexplicably.

#Death of a Unicorn# (A-) is quite good and a pleasant surprise. I was not really interested in the trailer at first, but it turned out to be a monster disaster movie. It has many similarities with "Mickey 17", both showing the consequences of human greed for resources that do not belong to them. However, the cost of this film is very low, so the special effects of the unicorn are not very good, but it does not affect the entertainment and the effective information it conveys. There are rich horror and comedy elements.

Whether it is aliens or mythical beasts, when humans encounter natural resources that are within easy reach, it is difficult to resist the temptation to touch and plunder. However, this greed and cruelty will eventually bring disaster and revenge. This film seems a bit incredible, with unicorns suddenly appearing in the forest, but if you take it as a metaphor, unicorns represent ideal and scarce natural resources, just like a big pie falling from the sky, and then it is a moment to test human nature: different people will deal with such situations differently, and ultimately get different outcomes.

Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, and Richard E. Grant portrayed the wealthy family in the film in a very vivid and interesting way, and many of their lines were hilarious. These upper-class representatives were better portrayed than similar characters in "Micky 17". They were not exaggerated, but full of irony and representativeness, and their performances were just right.

Jenna Ortega plays another maiden-type role, representing a pure, kind, and unambitious person, the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty. This image of a "pure" young girl, from various ancient legends to princesses in Disney fairy tales, is deeply rooted in every corner of Western culture and is the most idealized type in mythology. Indeed, if you think about it, everyone hopes to find such a pure, kind, and undemanding woman as a partner. Whether men, women, or small animals, they all want to get close to such people, because they are not only harmless, but can also offer the purest dedication and love, and therefore often get the best ending in the story.

But in real life, if a girl is too innocent, it is indeed easy to be deceived and taken advantage of. Fortunately, Jenna Ortega's character is not naive, but has modern characteristics, with a rebellious personality, non-mainstream appearance and independent thinking ability. In addition, her father (Paul Rudd) is by her side to protect her. Paul Rudd's father's character arc is also well-shaped. He was originally a lawyer who focused on his career, but eventually realized the preciousness of his relatives. This magical experience gave the father and daughter more opportunities to get closer and build trust.

Perhaps the only flaw is that due to the low cost, the special effects of The Unicorn do look a bit cheap during the day. However, the part at night does not affect the creation of the horror atmosphere, and the intuitive killing and blood also make the film more attractive to adult audiences.

Personally, I think that maybe in the future we should make more low-cost movies like this that are packaged with entertainment elements such as comedy or horror, but have profound meanings at the core. Even if they don't make a lot of money in the end, they won't lose a lot of money either.

Director Alex Scharfman told Dazed magazine about the symbolism of the unicorn: "The unicorn often symbolizes untamed nature - something that has been destroyed because of the fundamental depravity of human nature. It is a deep shame that we destroy such things, and it is at this point that it also becomes a symbol of Christ imagery."

It is worth mentioning that the three unicorns in the movie not only have their own body shape, horns and fur colors, but also have completely different personalities. They are not copied and pasted at all, and even seem to be three different creatures in terms of personality. In the interview, the director also paid tribute to the inspiration brought to him by the Asian mythology system: "But in Asian culture, there are also unicorn myths. Chinese unicorn legends usually carry more celestial or sacred images and symbols." Personally, I guess the Chinese unicorn referred to here should be Qilin. Shen Kuo's "Dream Stream Talks·Strange Things" in the Song Dynasty recorded: "In the middle of Zhihe, Jiaozhi presented a unicorn, which was as big as an ox, with large scales all over its body and a horn on its head." Of course, unlike the Western unicorn, Qilin is said to appear only in times of peace and prosperity or when there are saints in the world, so it is called a lucky beast. But the connection between Qilin and auspicious air, creatures and the universe has also been localized by the director in the film. Whether it is the increasingly intense aurora when the unicorn appears, or the unicorn itself becoming a revenge machine for heaven, or a sacred beast that can break the boundary between life and death, they are all connected with it.

The film's portrayal of unicorns is different from the medieval religious-centered literary understanding, but it is also familiar: the themes of betrayal, atonement, and rebirth that are often used in Christianity are transferred to the male protagonist. The director also took the unicorn out of the medieval religious imagery and reshaped it in a modern way. The unicorn represents "natural resources" itself: whether it is fresh water, oil, or more directly biological entities. The arrogance and greed of the wealthy family who profit from nature have also become the modern framework that nailed Jesus to the cross. Compared with the modern highly commercialized, cute unicorn princess animation image like "Sunshine Rainbow Little White Horse", the return to the mythological system of thousands of years is obviously more consistent with the film's design of the unicorn's monsterization and the theme of satirizing the capital destruction of human greed. These themes are also often explored by monster movies, such as "Jurassic Park", "Jaws", "Alien", etc. The tapestry that inspired the heroine in the movie was not a fictional prop. The museum that the heroine's mother visited before her death was also the place where the tapestry was kept in reality. "The Unicorn Tapestries or The Hunting of Unicorns (French: La Chasse à la licorne) is a set of seven tapestries created between 1495 and 1505 and produced in the southern Netherlands. It is currently collected in The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This set of tapestries may have been designed in Paris and woven in Brussels. The picture depicts a group of nobles and hunters chasing unicorns in an idealized French rural landscape. The tapestry is woven with wool, metal thread and silk, and the still bright colors come from natural plant dyes" (from Wikipedia). The tapestry is divided into 7 chapters:

The Hunter Enters the Forest Unicorn Purifies Water Unicorn Crossing the Creek The Unicorn Revolt The Unicorn Surrenders to the Girl The Hunter Returns to the Castle Unicorn Lying in the Garden On the girl's hypnotic effect on the unicorn : Leonardo da Vinci (yes, the same Leonardo da Vinci who painted Mona Lisa) once wrote: "The unicorn indulges its nature and has no self-control - because of its admiration for the beautiful girl, it forgets its own ferocity and wildness; it throws away all fear, approaches the sitting girl, and falls asleep peacefully on her lap, so the hunter takes the opportunity to capture it." The film also directly draws on the traditional setting of the interaction between unicorns and humans.

Religious metaphors about unicorns : The hunters' pursuit, killing, and resurrection of the unicorn are believed to symbolize the arrest, suffering, and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that the unicorn can only be captured by hypnosis under the guidance of a young girl has also been linked by many scholars to the Virgin Mary.

Dramatic and comic group portraits The wealthy Leopold family: Odell: The eldest of the family. He was dying of a terminal illness, but he was rejuvenated by the blood of unicorns and began his journey of hunting animals for profit. Whether it was his boasting before picking up the gun that he had killed various large protected animals, or his confidence in thinking that he was the only one who could tame them after being surrounded by unicorns, it was a comedy of greed. Belinda: Odell's wife. From the fact that she told the heroine who begged to release the unicorn's corpse, "Stop pretending", it can be seen that she is a hypocrite who usually talks about environmental protection, charity and justice, and uses her false benevolence and justice to seek benefits. Shepard: Odell's son, the only son but not the successor of the family business. From the fact that he used the heroine's research to take credit for his parents, it can be seen that he is a child with no knowledge and his thoughts and opinions are not valued by his parents. But his greed is exactly the same as his parents. In the last moment, in order to keep the unicorn for himself, he watched his mother die tragically and was unwilling to relieve her pain. The rich man's employees: a female assistant, a bald butler and two scientists : The setting of four different types of characters also represents their different attitudes when interacting with power and money, implying the different end of those who serve the rich in the film.

The female assistant Shaw is a typical loyal executor who does the dirty work for the boss's family. She is the first person to discover the unicorn in the heroine's father's car and shoots randomly. In the end, she was attacked and killed while hunting an adult unicorn. Dr. Song, an East Asian male scientist, is the chief scientist of a pharmaceutical company. In order to keep his job, he has to follow his boss's outrageous demands. In the end, when he was transferring a little unicorn, he was pierced by the unicorn father who came for revenge. Dr. Bhatia, an Indian female scientist, is a research assistant. She followed the master's instructions and sawed off the horn of the little unicorn. She is also a smart person. She knows that she needs to protect herself and steals a can of elixir powder made from animal horns. However, when she was sent to deliver the little unicorn, she was killed by an adult unicorn because of the missing horn. In the end, she paid the price of her life for the rich man. Griff, the bald butler: a hardworking, responsive, no nonsense worker. In the final stage, he was sent by his boss to open the door at the risk of his life. He exploded and angrily accused the rich woman and her son of not even knowing whether they had children. He managed to stay out of the melee and sneak away to call the police. Female protagonist Ridley Kintner and her father Elliot Kintner The heroine Ridley has been protecting the unicorn from beginning to end. She is a true "Virgin Mary" (no derogatory meaning) and "savior". Her father Elliot is actually no different from the rest of the people who serve the Leopold family. Lawyers and executives are just high-level employees in front of billionaires. The growth of her character mainly comes from witnessing what the billionaire family said and did and being influenced by his daughter's attitude towards the unicorn. From stealing the horn to keeping a backup, to stabbing Shepard to death to save the unicorn, the character's redemption line is also completed. Before death, the heroine and the stabbed father completed the reconciliation of the father-daughter relationship that had drifted apart after losing their mother. In the end, the director arranged a perfect ending for everyone: not only did Elliot and the little unicorn come back to life together, but the two people arrested by the police were also rescued by the unicorn family in a carjacking.

Story summary:

Premiered at XSW Film Festival, it tells the story of lawyer Elliot who kills a unicorn on his way to a wealthy estate with his daughter Ridley, only to discover that its blood can cure diseases. The Odell family wants to monopolize its medicinal value, but it triggers revenge from an adult unicorn.

Viewers are complaining:

The film was inspired by the brutal depictions of unicorns in 15th-century tapestries and medieval art, and alluded to the greed of the Sackler family in reality. It satirized the rich class's exploitation of nature through the interweaving of bloody killings and absurd comedy, and received good reviews at the film festival premiere. Foreign film critics commented on the film as follows: "Produced by A24, "Death of a Unicorn" wraps sharp social criticism in a bloody fairy tale shell, opening up a path of black humor between the absurd and the real."

The film has a strong cast, and Will Poulter's Shepard is a major highlight of the film. He brings this conceited and fickle rich kid to life. For example, Shepard has a compound bow and can't wait to use the unicorn to satisfy his own selfish desires. Poulter's delicate performance vividly shows the selfishness and absurdity of the character. Anthony Carrigan plays the butler Griff. Although he doesn't have many scenes, he interprets the character's sophistication and helplessness just right, and every appearance can leave a deep impression on the audience. Actors such as Paul Rudd, Tea Leoni, and Richard E. Grant also fully demonstrate the characteristics of the characters, making the whole story more full.

At the same time, the unicorn in the film is another highlight: the director combines practical special effects with digital special effects: in the scene of the unicorn's revenge, its movements and attacks are quite impactful, achieving a certain visual stimulation effect. However, the CGI effect in the first half of the film is not good, and the unicorn does not look real enough. Compared with "Jurassic Park" more than 30 years ago, it lacks the realistic presentation of the creature.

In summary, this film is suitable for viewers who like horror comedy style and are interested in social satire themes. For those who pursue in-depth narrative, high-quality special effects and a strong horror atmosphere, this film may not meet their needs.

PS: The last sentence of the trailer: We don’t negotiate with monsters! This sentence is so funny!