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Jenna Ortega has recently stated in an interview for New York Magazine that the reason she left the revised Scream franchise soon after her co-star Melissa Barrera was fired for public comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war, was not down to pay or scheduling conflicts as was reported at the time, but was indeed in response to the removal of Barrera. This is not a surprise, it happened literally a day later. Whether she did this out of solidarity with her on screen sister or because she simply didn’t want to do Scream VII without her, they are clearly close.

Their choice of replacement movies indicate a shared sensibility too. Barrera went to to make Abigail, with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who also left the Scream series, which like those famous slasher films involves a group of people getting picked off one by one by a killer. Ortega in turn has chosen this, which looks on the surface to be modern fairytale but is actually another story about trying not to get stabbed. It starts with Paul Rudd hitting the titular mythical creature with his car, then after a brief bit of social commentary around big pharma it ultimately becomes a sharp horned monster movie. 

In the New York interview Ortega also spoke about her passion for supporting innovative directors and original cinematic properties. Acknowledging the success she has found with legacy sequels and spin offs she talked of the importance of this wider work. After this she has work for Taika Waititi and Bird of Prey’s Cathy Yan coming up, and Death of a Unicorn is the first film of director Alex Scharfman. 

Scharfman may have great things in his future, this movie shows potential, but he’s not currently comparable to Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett who are the current masters at this sort of thing. Their work on V/H/S, Devil’s Due, Ready or Not, Scream V and VI and Abigail have a great mix of surprise, horror, fun and character that this film does not quite manage. It also compares to Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods (not only because of the murderous unicorns). Taken on its own merits it is entertaining enough, and Ortega, Rudd, Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni and Will Poulter all do great work but the script and story needed a bit more edge. The plot is often a little predictable and when not it is because it doesn’t make sense, rather than it being particularly clever. 

I do have to comment on the marketing too. If they’d kept to true nature of the movie back I think this would have done it a few favours. The trailer and the main poster (above) give too much away, the latter of which was clearly chosen because it puts star Ortega front and centre. The teaser with a unicorn under a sheet is a better image and there is also a great Drew Struzan style one sheet by artist Tony Stella that has been oddly buried. 

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Ortega’s departure from Scream is definitely that movie’s loss but I respect her choices, even if this one doesn’t quite nail the landing. Original film’s are getting rarer so any should be celebrated. Similarly mainstream American cinema is dominated by family films (Minecraft has just made an absolute mint at the box office) so anything that pitches elsewhere brings variety too (although proper horror is another very successful area right now). It may not reach its target then but I like what Death of a Unicorn is aiming for.