Death of a Unicorn
Death of a Unicorn
2025, 107 min., R
Written and Directed by Alex Scharfman
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Tea Leoni, Richard E. Grant
*1/2 out of ****
Upon sitting down to take in “Death of a Unicorn” I was expecting a good time with a combination of laughs and an exciting creature feature. That is not what I got. Instead there’s it’s a tonally confused mess that doesn’t know which direction to go in. Hell, it’s not even sure what it thinks of its own characters.
It begins with Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter Riley (Jenna Ortega) en-route to a corporate retreat for the weekend when they hit a baby unicorn. Riley is naturally curious and touches the dying beast’s horn which causes her to have cosmic visions and establish a supernatural connection with the animal. Elliot abruptly interrupts the moment by beating the unicorn seemingly to death with a tire iron.
Once they have reached their destination, they meet up with the owners of Elliot’s company which include deathly ill Odell (Richard E. Grant), his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), and their arrogant son Shepard (Will Poulter). They have invited the Kintner’s together to see how they connect as a family as part of the requirement for a promotion Elliot is seeking. They’re an insincere lot that immediately impose their superficial expectations on both father and daughter.
They soon discover that anyone who makes contact with the unicorn or are exposed to its blood are cured of any ailments. Riley’s acne is dissolved. Elliot regains his sight. Odell is cured of cancer. It is with Odell’s revelation that the family decides to exploit the unicorn for profit seeking to harvest its blood and the dust from its horn for their pharmaceutical company. Meanwhile, Riley does her homework and discovers that the unicorn’s parents will soon be seeking vengeance against all of them and they will be hunted.
The major problems inherent in the script have to do with an inconsistent narrative that doesn’t play by any rules which renders the totally game cast helpless. Everybody onscreen is right in a story that is oddly and confusingly wrong. Rudd and Ortega fare the best of all, lending some much-needed spark to their father-daughter duo. All the rest work overtime to elevate the obvious satirical elements and manage ring a few laughs out of the material, although, most of the jokes fall flat despite their best efforts.
For starters, Elliot initiates the killing of the unicorn and yet he is also a complete tool who continuously sucks up to the boss in a desperate attempt to please him. He beat a unicorn to death and yet he’s a total coward when it comes to facing his parents, who are vengeful against the rich family but not towards Elliot. Despite the fact that Elliot has caused violent harm their baby, the mother and father unicorns actually save him… twice.
The film makes all the usual attempts at class conscious satire that we have seen before. Arrogant behavior, condescending attitudes, “proper” speech, extreme hobbies, and frivolous materialism are all on the table. Very little of it is actually amusing mainly because the characters are so boorish that’s it’s almost impossible to feel connected with them in even the most remote sense.
Then there’s the subject of the unicorns, who are brought to life with the most unconvincing and ugly CGI that gives away the limited nature of the $15 million budget. They can establish a supernatural cosmic connection with anyone who comes into contact with them to the point of being sympathetic. Yet they are also vengeful towards those who have benefitted from them because the script deems them as being bad people. The film aims to make satire out of its characters but takes the unicorn theme seriously. I wonder how this would’ve turned out if they had adopted the satirical approach toward the unicorn mythology. At least it would’ve been consistent.
