Death of a Unicorn (Scharfman, 2025)

Synopsis:

A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.

Directed by: Alex Scharfman
Written by: Alex Scharfman
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Teá Leoni, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant

My Edition:

Streaming on HBO Max

My Thoughts:

I found Death of a Unicorn equal parts wonderful and frustrating. The story itself is wildly imaginative and a lot of fun – who doesn’t want to see unicorns absolutely gut people?! Although the kind of wonky cgi work on the unicorns (they’re are cool, but a little goofy when you see them head on), I had a really hard time working past this weird (comping?) bit with Jenna Ortega. It was so distracting that I was trying to work out what exactly was done and why for several minutes after the scene ended. It was really, really odd.

With that out of the way though, overall I thought the movie was pretty great. This movie almost made me hate Paul Rudd. Almost. Aside from Jenna Ortega’s Ridley, and Anthony Carrigan’s Griff (ILY, Calypso, you absolute weirdo) Death of a Unicorn is filled to the brim with characters you are going to want to see die really, really badly. And most of them do. Really badly.

Aside from some truly entertaining kills, one thing I found really entertaining about this movie were all the (many, many) nods to Ridley Scott’s Alien. I mean –

Exhibit A: Ridley

Exhibit B: This scene with Ridley

Exhibit C: Ridley’s dad is Elliot (kinda like Ellen, amirite?)

Exhibit D: the things on the table that I can’t find a picture of that were clearly xenomorph eggs.

Etc.

There were a lot – I promise.

I also really enjoyed that much of the movie’s premise and just about all of its lore stemmed from the Hunt of the Unicorn or The Unicorn tapestries. You know the ones. They’re beautiful. They likely inform the depiction of unicorns in most people’s heads. They’re proto-Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. These beautiful tapestries have a place of pride in Death of a Unicorn.

I thought the lore was great, the acting was good, and the story was so-so. I wish that I felt Elliot deserved his fate a little more. But the kills along the way are a load of fun, and the unicorns themselves, although, as mentioned, a little goofy looking are actually pretty neat. And a little icky. And it’s worth mentioning that there are nods to other stories than just Alien. See if you can find them all!

Rating:

Don’t take it too seriously. And don’t be the type of person who doesn’t like media that has characters they don’t like or can’t relate to. That’s half the fun of stories like this. Seeing shitty people meet shitty fates.

Death of a Unicorn
Written and Directed by: Alex Scharfman
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Teá Leoni, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant
A24
US Release Date: March 28, 2025
Rated R
104 Minutes