Film Review – Death of a Unicorn

April 2nd, 2025 | POSTED BY Sarah Ksiazek

Unicorns are mythical creatures that commonly become kids’ obsessions, adorning the walls with pink bows and unicorns.  Unicorns typically are not associated with horror films, but Legend (1985) at least had them in the mix with some terrifying elements.  Death of a Unicorn (2025) attempts to flip what characteristics are commonly associated with these one-horned horses.

The film follows Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) as they travel into the Canadian wilderness at the behest of a powerful but ailing pharmaceutical head, Odell (Richard E. Grant).  The Leopold Wildlife Preserve holds immense land in a trust but also holds Odell’s massive home retreat.  Elliot travels there to try to cement his and his daughter’s financial future by ending up on the board of Odell’s company after his expected death.  Also at the home are Odell’s wife, Belinda (Tea Leoni), and son Shepard (Will Poulter), along with their ever-present servants Griff (Anthony Carrigan) and Shaw (Jessica Hynes).

On the way to Odell’s home, a distracted Elliot runs over a small horse with a horn.  Could it possibly be a unicorn?  It was not quite dead on impact, so Elliot went wild with a crowbar to finish it off.  Stuffed in the car (for some reason), it appears it is not quite dead still, but some odd things start to happen to Elliot and Ridley.  Elliot loses his need for glasses, and Ridley’s bad acne disappears.  Odell grasps onto a possible miracle cure for himself– the guy with all the medicine, power, and influence but cannot escape death’s grasp.

The best part of this film is, of course, the unicorns.  Writer and director Alex Scharfman blended some mythical characteristics with forest carnivores like bears and monogamous bonded pairs like blue duikers.  While the audaciousness of unicorns stands, it is the bond between a male and female unicorn and their offspring that kicks the film into high gear.  You do not mess with offspring, especially not animals that have a murderous streak with pointy and deadly magical horns.  Let’s just say there is more than one way to kill a human using a horn.  These are not the unicorns of your childhood daydreams. 

The film illustrates the perceived do-gooders in the pharmaceutical industry and the inherent greediness of the insanely rich.  Odell is facing death, and with a magical cure at his feet, he is the first to use it to save his life and then sell it to the highest bidder.  Elliot tries to ingratiate himself with Odell and his family for financial gain in his daughter’s name.  Elliot perceives himself to be better than Odell, but his daughter Ridley certainly does not think so, especially when she witnesses the plan for these unicorns, which her dad so willingly goes along with.  No matter how good you think someone is, some less-than-kind characteristics will emerge if money and power are within their grasp. 

Death of a Unicorn ends up being light on comedy and with a heavy bend towards horror in the film’s latter half from the unicorns.  Frankly, the film is just okay.  It lacks clever writing and character depth in the scenes with no unicorns and oscillates from campy to slightly dull.  The chemistry between Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega is practically non-existent, especially considering their two characters supposedly share a strong familial bond in the wake of tragedy, even if there is teenage angst involved on Ridley’s part.  While including mystical creatures in a new setting gets bonus points for creativity, the story and characters around the unicorns needed to be more interesting or at least more hilarious.  There was an opportunity there to make an absolutely absurd comedic horror film out of its premise, but Death of a Unicorn instead made it hard to find a film worth discussing.

A24, Alex Scharfman, Anthony Carrigan, Death of a Unicorn, Jenna Ortega, Jessica Hynes, Paul Rudd, Richard E. Grant, Tea Leoni