Death of a unicornA monster film in which two enraged predatory unicorns chuminate and run through the value of the exploiting and rich assholes, seems as much as possible from the classic atmosphere of unicorns than fragile, rare and slowly magical creatures. It is just as far from the more contemporary atmosphere of my little pony-GCUT GIRL around the concepts associated with unicorn: sparks, rainbow and friendship.
But in practice, the film retains an emotional and thematic nucleus intended to delight almost all long-standing enthusiasts of the mythical beast, and the writer-director Alex Scharfman fits even in certain psychedelic rainbow moments. That sets Unicorn In addition to many of his contemporaries in the field of gender subversions – films that take together the romance and zombies of Regency, or Slasher films and the children’s media in the public domain. When Polygon spoke to Scharfman, he clearly indicated that his objective was going beyond the simple achievement of a strange juxtaposition.
“It was really important to me that we did not make a cynical film. That is to say a monster film where the monster occurs To be a unicorn, “said Scharfman to Polygon about video chat.” It was really important to me that the film felt faithful to unicorns, both in terms of tradition, but also in terms of emotional valence they wear. “”
Image: A24 / Everett collection
In Death of a unicornTwo Parents of Licorne are unleashed through a remote manor, seeking to save and avenge their foal after the father / daughter duo Elliot and Ridley (Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit him with their car. The emotional line comes from the relationship of Elliot and Ridley and the Ridley connection forms with monstrous equines, in the same way that the mythology of unicorn describes the link between a unicorn youth and a pure (or virginal) girl.
Scharfman’s dedication to this configuration – Elliot and Ridley as a hero, and the wicked mercilessly capitalist as bad – mystified certain producers when he launched the film. “There were certainly people who, at times, were like:” Oh, why are you dealing with one of these emotional things, or one of these satire’s things? What if it’s only four friends during a hunting trip, and they kill a unicorn? “And I always said to myself: ‘It’s not a unicorn film, so it’s a film with a unicorn, but it’s not about a unicorn. “”
In the chicken and the egg of all this, says Scharfman, the idea of a film on people who accidentally kill a unicorn came first, and the horror element arrived second.
“I didn’t really know what to do with the story,” recalls Scharfman, “then somewhere telling the story to my friend, I just dropped And then a lot more unicorns arise and they kill everyone! I had never had the thought before, and it was only when I told my friend that I made, Oh, wow, it’s a way to make a creature functionality. “”
Image: A24
The kind of creature function, as Scharfman noted, is often delivered with an important anti-capitalist subtext, in films of Stranger has Jaws has Jurassic. And that brought the theme back to his idea of an original unicorn.
“I think that to really (make a unicorn film), you have to get involved with – of course, the tradition – but the emotional weight they transport for people, the meaning of their symbolism. In a way that talks about what they are, but also … I don’t know why they cannot have resonated these emotional associations with them, they are not symbolic. Symbolic of our own corruption.
Respect for the “emotional valence” of an idea that has lasted for thousands of years was not a question of precision for Scharfman, or to meet the expectations of an audience: it was a question of using an existing and powerful symbolism.
“It’s funny, because in some of these conversations, people say to themselves:” I did not know that unicorns had to do with class comments or socialist comments “, said Scharfman. “And as, well, hell yeahThey do it. They have always done so. This is the point.
Death of a unicorn is in theaters this Friday, March 28.
