Death of a Unicorn (2025)
An Unusual Monster Movie
Death of a Unicorn is about a father and daughter whose lives are upended by a chance encounter with a mythical monster. Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is headed to the wealthy estate of his boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), who is dying of cancer.
He is accompanied by his spunky, foul-mouthed teenage daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega). Both are mourning the death of Ridley’s mother, who passed away from cancer. On the way, they accidentally crash into a young unicorn.
In my analysis of the trailer, I wondered if this movie would cite the ancient legends about unicorns and maidens. Ridley is aware of these stories and dismisses them as misogynistic. It turns out that there’s some truth to them. She has a special psychic connection with the unicorns.
It turns out that unicorn horns can cure cancer. This brings up an interesting philosophical question. If an endangered creature’s horn (or tusk or whatever) could save millions of human lives, would we be justified in killing that species, even if it meant driving them to extinction? Ridley points out to her dad that her mom might have been saved by unicorn magic.
Death of a Unicorn is not interested in delving into this idea. The idea of sacrificing unicorns to save humanity is quickly dismissed. The Leopolds, you see, want to hoard all of the unicorn magic for themselves.
They hunt the remaining unicorns throughout their vast forest compound. They also find other creative uses for the unicorn horn. One character grinds it into powder and snorts it like cocaine.
Time for the unicorns to kick ass!
As you might imagine, this pisses off the unicorn’s parents. They embark on a brutal and gory rampage. I really enjoyed these scenes, and find it amazing that unicorns have rarely, if ever, been used this way in the past.
I appreciate this movie’s R-rated violence, even though it probably hurt its commercial prospects. There’s great gore here. Along with inevitable unicorn horn impalements, we get lots of other stuff as well.
Jenna Ortega is great at playing troubled teenagers, although she’s in danger of being typecast at this point. In any case, I found Ridley likeable and charming, in an offbeat sort of way.
Paul Rudd does a fair job as her dad. His character doesn’t have much depth, though. He’s a concerned dad, and that’s about it. The rich family are all caricatures, although I did enjoy Tea Leoni’s insufferable condescension as the family matriarch.
As for the unicorns themselves, they look badass for the most part. Jenna Ortega joked in an interview that they used real unicorns. In reality, this movie uses a combination of CGI and practical effects.
I wish they had used practical the whole time. This is a relatively low budget movie, and the digital effects aren’t great.
Rating
Death of a Unicorn is shallow, but it’s lots of fun. The unique monsters and glorious gore make it one of the most entertaining horror movies of the year so far.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all cost) to 10 (masterpiece): 7.5
