Released on March 28, 2025, the comedy-horror Death of a Unicorn earned $10.8 million in the Box Office, failing to break even with its budget of $15 million. The film opens with Elliot Kitner (Paul Rudd), and his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), landing on a plane. Their relationship is immediately established when Elliot allows Ridley’s head to fall off his shoulder to pick up his work papers, symbolizing his prioritization of his work over his family. As the two are travelling to meet with Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), Elliot’s boss, and his family, Elliot hits a unicorn.
Our first look at the unicorn takes away from the magic of the film as the creature falls into the uncanny valley, appearing out of place in regard to the environment. Ridley has a psychedelic experience when she touches the horn of the unicorn, developing a “connection” with the creature. However, the creature is not yet dead. After arriving at the Leopold’s mansion, researchers working under Odell discover the unrivaled healing properties of the unicorn horn, which the Leopold’s then decide to exploit. Ridley, somehow the only character with ethics in the film, advises the family against this, and of course, her warnings reflect reality. The unicorn foal’s parents arrive at the mansion, slaughtering over half of the cast except for Elliot, Ridley, and Shepard. By literally snorting crushed unicorn horn, Shepard learns that unicorns are docile towards maidens of pure hearts (shocker) and attempts to use Ridley as bait. With his daughter’s life on the line, Elliot finally grows a spine and stands up for his family, resulting in the deaths of both men. The unicorns revive both their foal and Elliot, only to ram Elliot and Ridley off the road during their departure. What happened to leaving an emotional impact on the audience?
As Alex Schafer’s directorial debut, Death of a Unicorn critiques themes such as corporate greed and exploitation by combining horror and comedy. However, as a horror-comedy, Death of a Unicorn was heavy on the horror and light on the humor. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of gore and violence; characters are impaled, dismembered, and disemboweled throughout the film. Yes, horror films should be, to put it simply, horrifying. However, the horror element of Death of a Unicorn overpowered the dry humor sprinkled throughout the film, and so the film failed to meet my expectations based on its genre. Unfortunately, I did actually laugh at Will Poulter’s character a couple times.
Death of a Unicorn was especially disappointing as a film distributed by A24, a film production and distribution company known to specialize in “elevated horror.” Nothing about this film was particularly insightful or impactful. The initial issue with this movie is that the plot is too predictable, and so any significant (but rare) character development has no real impact on the audience. Scenes that attempt to build tension lack weight as the outcome is already clear to the audience. Ortega is once again typecast as a broody but rebellious girl. Furthermore, her role as the “fair maiden” of the unicorn legend is evident from the moment she shares her knowledge of unicorn folklore with the audience. Most characters were heavily one-dimensional. Our antagonists, the Leopold’s were especially shallow with limited motivations, possibly to embellish the depth of lead characters such as Ridley and Elliot, who were unfortunately just as uncompelling.
Death of a Unicorn personally rates a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The only aspect of the film I actually enjoyed was the soundtrack. Composed by Dan Romer and Giosuè Greco, the whimsical but sinister soundtrack embellished the atmosphere and mood of each scene. By taking a sneak peek behind the scenes, I discovered that the unicorns featured in the film were primarily animated through puppets as opposed to CGI. Despite poor compositing, the revival of practical effects on such a low budget film partially redeems Death of a Unicorn for its various shortcomings. Although the film could be an interesting experience for horror lovers simply looking for a “good time”, I would not add Death of a Unicorn on my watchlist.
