Death of a Unicorn starts strong with some solid laughs and exciting monster movie action, but it’s unlikely to be a memorable installment in the “eat the rich” genre boom.
Thanks to the irreverent and cutting legacy of Knives Out, the last half decade has been brimming with satirical takes on the many brutal ways the wealthy can bite it.
From Triangle of Sadness, Parasite, The Menu and The White Lotus, the reach of this bloodthirsty subgenre has become the go-to for comedies and dramas across the board. Death of a Unicorn is without a doubt another notch in this designer, premium-leather belt, but is it the best? No.
Thanks to some acutely aware performances and genuine sense of play, it’s a fun time that doesn’t take itself too seriously. But like many of these movies, in trying to focus on the quirk and gross-out factor, it fails to make real magic.
What is Death of a Unicorn about?
Death of a Unicorn follows Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega), as they head into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend retreat at his employer’s estate to secure his new place on the board.
But on the way there, tragedy strikes when they accidently hit a unicorn with their car. To hide the crime, they shove the mystical animal in their trunk, only to find when they arrive that it’s actually still alive.
When it’s discovered the unicorn’s blood has healing abilities, the wealthy Leopold family (who made their money in pharmaceuticals), decide to take the creature for themselves and try to make a new fortune from its magical properties.
Naturally, nature fights back, and Elliot, Ridley, and the family are forced to fight for survival when another unicorn comes looking for its baby.
Jenna Ortega and Will Poulter steal the show
The cast of characters in Death of a Unicorn is predictable enough. There’s the young woman who rebukes the vapid lifestyle of the uber-rich, the outsider who wants to be part of it, and the senseless selfish antagonists whose cruelness comes from their cluelessness about the world around them.
Some of these poor souls get more focus than others, meaning some of the cast – like Richard E. Grant’s Odell and Téa Leoni’s Belinda – are left feeling forgotten and stereotypical.
Ortega and Poulter undoubtedly steal the show, willing to throw themselves into farcical levels of fear and frenzy. But this is no surprise – Ortega is a seasoned scream queen at this point, and Poulter has never been afraid to embrace the silliness.
In lesser hands, Alex Scharfman’s script might have been less convincing, but Ortega and Poulter (especially the latter as the despicable Shepard Leopold) keep things playful.
Doesn’t grab the unicorn by the horn
Let’s be clear: it’s a fun movie. There are some genuinely messy kills that would seem right at home in a true horror movie, and the laughs come often enough. But in walking the line between horror-comedy and satirical drama, it loses momentum from the second act onwards.
It’s a father-daughter drama and a cautionary tale about the greed of man, but neither of these angles feel fully explored. Instead, the movie focuses on flash and magic, and what’s left is an admittedly exciting action movie, but not much else.
A24Thankfully, there was little effort made to be realistic. The unicorns themselves teeter between being horrifying and comical (especially in the first half), and it’s doubtful they were ever made to be taken as a serious threat more than an attempt at a good on-screen monster.
And with all that, Death of a Unicorn is a good monster movie. The later action sequences through the house and surrounding jump scares are effective, and even though the ending is pretty anti-climatic, it’s obvious this might have worked better if there had been more focus on the chase rather than the moralistic musings.
Dexerto Review Score: 3/5 – Good
Death of a Unicorn is a fun comedy with classic monster flick sensibilities and a great stage for the younger members of the cast.
There are small sparks of magic that hint towards what could have been if the unicorn had been let off the leash a little more, and it may fail to stand out against some of the other horror-comedies of 2025 (read: The Monkey), but at least it’s an attempt at something more whimsical – something some of its big screen counterparts have been lacking.
Death of a Unicorn is in cinemas from April 4.
For more, check out all the other new movies coming out this month. You can also check out our list of the most violent horror movies of all time, and for more information on how we score TV shows and movies, check out our scoring guidelines here.
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