By Folklore is interesting to dissect. Whenever a film tries to examine a foreign culture, no matter where in the world it comes from, there’s always a certain risk with it. If a film fumbles its execution, then it can turn something that’s fantastical and unique into something infinitely more generic. Take for example, unicorns. While unicorns have often been depicted as magical and pure creatures in modern media, which is indeed based on Medieval folklore, Death of a Unicorn decides to offer up a different, albeit semi-accurate interpretation of them – what if they were violent monsters?
Dark subversions of magical creatures are nothing new in film. Leprechaun famously turns a pleasant magical creature into a homicidal maniac. The Watchers made fairies into nightmarish ghouls. Now, Death of a Unicorn is doing the same for unicorns. It’s fine on paper for a horror movie, but that’s the only thing that Death of a Unicorn really has going for it. Any other attempt to add a unique wrinkle comes across as safe and predictable, which is fine if horror isn’t your thing, but not exactly great for veterans of the genre.
Death of a Unicorn
Director: Alex Scharfman
Release Date: March 28, 2025 (Theatrical)
Rating: R
Company yes-man Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), are invited to the private estate of Elliot’s boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) in the middle of the woods. The Leopolds are very family-oriented, so before Odell names Elliot to be the family’s representative before he passes from late-stage cancer, he wants to spend a weekend with Elliot and introduce him to his family, namely his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and son Shepard (Will Poulter). On the way to the estate though, Elliot hits a wild unicorn and, not wanting to leave a dead unicorn on the side of the road, stuffs it into his rental car. Once he and Ridley reach the Leopold’s estate, they discover that not only is the unicorn still alive, but its blood is able to heal injuries and diseases. So, with the Leopolds being incredibly wealthy and morally ambiguous, they try to exploit the unicorn for their own gains, which in turn gains the attention of the unicorn’s parents, who are willing to murder everyone to get their little foal.
It’s a basic premise for what is ultimately a more artistic take on a slasher film. Instead of having a homicidal serial killer that can’t be killed, just swap them for a literal magical being that can’t be killed and watch the fireworks fly. And at first, it seems like that’s the direction Death of a Unicorn is going to take. It spends a lot of time establishing the magical healing capabilities of unicorns, how their magic can apparently transcend the mortal plane, and how even fragments of their horns can unlock the full potential of the human brain. The film quite literally has the excuse to do anything it wants with its premise and write it off as magic. You could create whatever mind-boggling scenario you want, and as long as you say it’s because of a magical unicorn, very few people will object to it.
And yet, the film doesn’t go in that direction. The magic is more of a byproduct of the unicorn. The unicorns rarely, if ever, utilize it themselves. It’s the humans who do. In a way, that’s kind of the point. Nearly all of the human characters in Death of a Unicorn, with the exceptions of Ridley and the deadpan butler played brilliantly by Anthony Carrigan, want to use the unicorn for some selfish reason. Maybe it’s for money, scientific research, personal fulfillment, or cheap thrills, but most of them want to abuse the magic that the film presents to them. But what quickly becomes apparent is that this is yet another horror satire where the ultra-rich are the true villains and the unicorns are misunderstood creatures righteously striking out against those who wronged them.
Copyright: A24
Now look, I’m not going to say that I don’t get a good thrill watching a few out-of-touch millionaires get their comeuppance when they clearly don’t care about anyone but themselves. In that regard, the gruesome kills that the unicorns deliver to most of the cast is pretty damn satisfying. But it’s a concept that I’ve seen so much in the past few years. I think of films like Ready or Not, Knives Out, The Menu. Those movies all had distinct identities and had fun ridiculing the elite upper-class and making them suffer for how they treat lower-class people just trying to get by. Death of a Unicorn doesn’t really make a case for itself as a unique entity, instead coming across as “yet another one.” Again, I’m not against a movie that is punishing the rich for their greed, but it has to have more going for it than just that.
To his credit, Will Poulter does try to do just that. His character, Shepard, is from a completely different generation from his Boomer parents and comes across like a dumb rich kid who thinks he knows more than he does, but in reality is just trying not to come across as a constant screw-up. Seeing him try to follow his father’s footsteps is a mixture of funny and pathetic, and seeing him slowly get pushed to his limits (mostly through drugs), is entertaining, especially when he just goes full mask off and lets his true colors show in the third act. Jenna Ortega also does a decent enough job, but the script doesn’t give her much to do other than be the typical “pure virgin” associated with unicorn lore.
As for the actual unicorns themselves, they’re perfectly fine monsters. I’m actually more impressed with them technically since, in a complete shock to me, they were primarily done with practical effects! While there are certainly moments where CGI is utilized, the majority of the screentime the unicorns have is done via puppetry, which does make them feel more tangible and authentic. I can’t say I was all that impressed with how they performed their kills, especially because they didn’t bother to use any magic to do so, but they got the job done. With that in mind, I think I respect the unicorns are a bit of movie magic than I do as an actual core part of the movie. You could honestly swap out unicorns for any magical creature, like a phoenix, and it probably would have had the same overall impact.
Copyright: A24
As it stands, the biggest thing holding Death of a Unicorn back is simply how little it tries to rock the boat. Sure, it has magical unicorns, but there’s nothing that really makes them any different from other horror movie monsters. There’s a rich and greedy family that receives their karmic comeuppance. There’s a young girl who treats the unicorns with kindness and is ultimately the person everyone should listen to. It’s all very safe and expected. For a first-time director like Alex Scharfman, that may have been by design. It’s easy to pitch a movie that uses expected tropes and having a little twist on it was probably just enough for it to get approved. I like what he accomplished here, especially in terms of special effects and cinematography. I just wish the script were a bit stronger with some more punch to it.
Death of a Unicorn isn’t a bad movie by any definition of the word. It does everything it sets out to do, and it managed to make me laugh at a few bits. It just doesn’t go far enough. It could have used bizarre unicorn magic to kill its cast, but it didn’t. It could have made its characters more distinct and three-dimensional, but it didn’t. It could have made the resolution a bit bolder, but it took the easy way out. It’s a movie that will most likely satisfy people who don’t dip their toes in the horror pool too often, but for people who dive straight into the horror deep end, we’ll smash our heads in from how surprisingly shallow it ended up being.
