Death of a Unicorn Review (Film, 2025)

content warning: blood, gore, violence against women, violence against animals, medical/surgical footage, needles, foul language, drug use, alcohol use, vaping

Horror films are often rich with satire. Find your target; exaggerate your target; obliterate your target. Writer/director Alex Scharfman’s feature length debut takes a lot of great, creative swings at the predatory nature of American healthcare, specifically pharmaceuticals, through the lens of unicorns.

Ridley has to travel with her father Elliot to visit Elliot’s boss, ailing pharmaceutical CEO Odell, and his family—philanthropist wife Belinda and misanthrope son Shepard—in their remote home nestled in a protected wildlife reserve. Ridley doesn’t see eye to eye with her father, and a routine college daughter/frustrated father argument leads to the titular Death of a Unicorn. That sucker just came out of nowhere. Ridley makes a special bond by embracing the creature’s glowing horn before Elliot tries his best to humanely put it down with a tire iron so the visit can go on as planned.

That opening sequence is the litmus test for Death of a Unicorn. If that brutally dark and seemingly out of nowhere series of events sounds appealing to you, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in this satirical horror/slasher about unicorns and pharmaceuticals. Scharfman loves a good misdirection, which is a great way to make these massive CGI unicorns feel real in this world.

The unicorns are the draw and the film does not disappoint. These massive beasts are fully rendered in daytime and nighttime, surprisingly realistic creatures with a true sense of weight and life to them. You believe they’re real, breathing creatures who bleed purple blood and generate electrical charges with their massive golden horns. As a lifelong fan of unicorns, I can only say, “they do exist,” kick up my feet, and brace for the rest of the film.

The elephant in the room is Paul Rudd as Ridley. He just doesn’t feel like he belongs, and not in the desperately wanting to fit into the CEO’s family so he can provide a better future for his daughter way the film wants him to stick out. This is a very different style of humor that needs to be played quite straight and honest and Rudd wants to wink at the camera a bit too often. It’s not a bad performance, just mismatched for the film as presented.

The rest of the cast is stellar. Jenna Ortega finds new depth in her current artsy/gothy protagonist track, imbuing Ridley with a sense of depth and purpose that not many young actors could achieve. Richard E. Grant is powerful and pitiful in equal measure as the terminally ill Odell, still able to command a room that he can no longer safely stand up unaided in front of. Téa Leoni is hysterical as his misguided wife, running the charitable wing of the family business but not knowing the difference between a vaccination or a vasectomy when helping underprivileged communities. Will Poulter steals the film as the ruthless, pleasure-driven heir who hasn’t met a substance he won’t try once. Anthony Carrigan as beleaguered butler Griff and Jessica Hynes as terrifying head of security Shaw find fantastic moments as they go about their daily tasks at the mansion, while Steve Park as Dr. Song and Sunita Mani as Dr. Bhatia are believable and endearing as the pair of research doctors investigating what, exactly, that massive creature is that Elliot and Ridley dragged in from the streets.

Death of a Unicorn features fantastic scares and fight sequences I’ve never quite seen before. There are beats you will anticipate, but the reality of fighting a massive mythical beast with super strong legs, a giant head, and a a sharp horn add so much more possibility than your typical bad guy with a mask and a knife. There’s a self-awareness to the writing that acknowledges the brutality of what is happening and still tries to rationalize it knowing full well that everyone in the mansion is not making it out alive.

If you like weird horror films with a lot of gore, give Death of a Unicorn a try. Alex Scharfman has a clear voice and I’m excited to see what he comes up with next.

Death of a Unicorn is playing in theaters.