Rating: B-
Dir: Alex Scharfman
Star: Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant
Maybe I need to start a new category: When Mythical Animals Attack. As well as this, it would include Reign of Fire, Mermaid Down and also Incident at Loch Ness. For there are elements here in common with our beloved WCAA films. Certainly, the latter have their share of family drama and evil pharmaceutical bosses, seeking to exploit nature’s wonders for their own ends. The latter mogul in question here is Odell Leopold (Grant), dying of cancer on his ultra-remote Canadian estate. Company attorney Elliot Kintner (Rudd) is summoned to become a company proxy, a move which would make his career. A widow, he drags along his daughter Ridley (Ortega), a reluctant guest intended to prove Elliot’s credentials as a good person.
On the way, the car hits and kills a young example of the local wildlife. As the title suggests, it’s not exactly a deer, and its blood turns out to have remarkable healing properties. Needless to say, this is of enormous interest to Leopold, and his son Shepard (Poulter), for reasons both personal and financial. There are only a couple of problems. The subject might not be entirely dead. More of a direct threat, mommy and daddy ‘corn are out there in the woods. They are very unhappy about their offspring being eaten, injected and even snorted by the obnoxious rich. Those familiar with mythology will know only one thing can tame a unicorn. Anyone know where we might find a pure-hearted maiden? Let’s just hope the unicorn hasn’t seen Ortega in X.
There’s a lot to enjoy here, with an excellent script, and near-perfect casting, just about everyone being perfect for their part. Particular praise to Barry‘s Anthony Carrigan as Griff long-suffering servant to the Leopolds, and Jessica Hynes as the family’s enforcer [In my head canon, this takes place in the same universe as Shaun of the Dead, with Yvonne having continued her paramilitary career]. A little less successful is Ortega, who feels somewhat too old for the role. A supposed art major, she acts every part the bratty teen, and I took an instant dislike to her nose-ring. #KidsTheseDays. The social satire won’t win any points for subtlety, yet the Leopolds aren’t quite the outright villains you might expect. The amusement they provide is highest when it veers into Schitt’s Creek territory.
I was, however, slightly disappointed in the unicorns. They never look “real”: perhaps that was a deliberate choice? They’re almost entirely CGI, and not the good kind at that. However, I am prepared to let it slide, since Scharfman wields his pointy-faced equines with enthusiasm. It’s not just impalings – there is no shortage of those, certainly. These ponies can also squish your head and rip out your intestines, since we are basically talking pissed-off Clydesdales by the film’s climax. I would not be averse to further entries in a Murderous Mythical Universe from Scharfman. Get him to Arizona, and he can make Night of the Killer Jackalope.
The film is in wide release next Friday.