{"id":11589,"date":"2025-03-30T00:08:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T04:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11589"},"modified":"2025-04-23T00:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:54:18","slug":"death-of-a-unicorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/30\/death-of-a-unicorn\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of a Unicorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violent content, gore, language and some drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alex Scharfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Scharfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dan Romer and Giosue Greco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Fong\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, Tea Leoni, Anthony Carrigan, Jessica Hynes, Sunita Mani, Steve Park, Kathryn Erbe.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The latest A24 feature Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> often feels like a variation of Jurassic Park with the notion of mythical (as opposed to extinct) creatures hunting humans looking to exploit them for financial gain. Unlike the Spielberg classic, it\u2019s not storytelling on a grand scale. It doesn\u2019t rely on massive (and costly) set pieces to get its point across, but it manages just fine nonetheless. It\u2019s both a thrilling (and often bloody) creature feature and a pointed satire of how the other 1% lives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is it that constitutes great acting? I\u2019d say it\u2019s the ability to portray characters that elicit a strong response from audiences be it positive or negative. I felt nothing but contempt for the characters played by Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I), Tea Leoni (Deep Impact) and Will Poulter (Midsommar). They play this awful wealthy family who should star in their own reality show with all the bad behavior they display. They\u2019re greedy, selfish, arrogant, phony, opportunistic, uncaring and only slightly less idiotic than the Kardashians. I was rooting for the killer unicorns to finish them all off. I wasn\u2019t too crazy about Paul Rudd\u2019s (Ant-Man) character, the ultimate yes-man, either. He\u2019s pliable to the point of having no spine. At the very least, I wanted him to get a big jab in the ass from one of the one-horned creatures.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only character I liked in Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> was Ridley (Ortega, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), the college-age daughter of Rudd\u2019s character Elliot. He brings her along on a weekend trip to his boss\u2019 family estate in the Rockies where he\u2019s to be named legal liaison for their pharmaceutical company. She doesn\u2019t want to be there. She and her dad haven\u2019t been close since her mother\u2019s death. Also, she doesn\u2019t love the idea of spending time with rich people. She\u2019s an idealist who resents their values of lack thereof. Dad makes her come for the sake of appearances. She is not a happy camper. She\u2019s also the only decent person in the room.<\/p>\n

\u00a0En route to their destination, Elliot gets distracted and hits an animal in the road. The animal turns out to be a baby unicorn. In an attempt to cover up his misdeed, he bludgeons the severely injured creature to end its suffering. He then puts it in the back of his car until he can find a place to dispose of the body. They finally arrive at the mountain mansion where the meeting about Elliot\u2019s new position at the company commences. It seems to be going okay until the not-dead unicorn starts thrashing around in Elliot\u2019s smashed-up rental car. That\u2019s when things really start going haywire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Odell Leopold (Grant), a demanding sort, is gravely ill with cancer and on his last legs. He sees $$$ in the dead (?) unicorn. The magical properties in its purple blood give it medicinal value. It could be used to cure all diseases, especially the big C. Exposure to it cured Ridley\u2019s acne and Elliot\u2019s allergies. He has it tested on himself and it works. He puts it on his team of doctors to reproduce it for immediate mass production. That\u2019s when the baby unicorn\u2019s parents come looking for him. They\u2019re pissed and out for human blood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s the deal about unicorns according to Death of a Unicorn<\/strong>. They\u2019re not the beautiful, benevolent creatures depicted in so many fantasy stories. They\u2019re vicious, dangerous beasts not to be f***ed with. Ridley learns all this by researching The Unicorn Tapestries<\/em> on-line. She tries to warn everybody, but nobody listens to her. Odell\u2019s rude wife Belinda (Leoni) dismisses her as a resentful child who should just let the adults speak. They\u2019re going to be sorry they didn\u2019t heed her warnings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The worst one of the bunch has to be the son Shepard (Poulter), an obnoxious prick who treats the guests and servants like they\u2019re beneath him. He\u2019s the kind of guy who bellows orders at the family butler Griff (Carrigan, Barry) from across the house. A habitual drug user, he comes up with the idea of grinding the horn into powder and snorting (or smoking) it. Yeah, let me know how that works out for you, a**hole.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> marks the feature film debut of writer-director Alex Scharfman. It\u2019s pretty solid as far as first efforts go. The CGI effects are wonky. The dinosaurs in the first Jurassic Park look far more convincing. Spielberg made audiences believe they were flesh-and-blood real. You can tell these unicorns were created on a computer. It takes something away from the overall experience. Also, Scharfman doesn\u2019t explore Elliot and Ridley\u2019s grief with any depth. It feels shallow and superficial. It\u2019s like he injected it hoping audiences might make an emotional connection with the heroes of this tale. That\u2019s fine, but give it the attention it deserves.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I already said, the acting is one of the film\u2019s strong suits. I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to predict Oscar nominations all around, but the performances in Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> are unusually strong for the genre. Ortega, an It Girl who actually deserves the designation, is very good as the kind, damaged idealist who advocates for the supposedly mythical beings. Rudd is also good as the dad whose attempts to reconnect with his daughter are overshadowed by his attempts to please his boss. Grant, Leoni and Poulter are all sufficiently hateful as exploiters of a miraculous discovery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Death of a Unicorn<\/strong> works on two levels. It\u2019s a decent survival thriller about a group of people running from dangerous creatures. It has a few cool kill scenes. Scharfman gives it extra bite by savagely skewering the upper class. In addition, he manages to strike a nice balance between the two things. Tonally, it\u2019s a bit of a rocky road, but he manages to keep it on course. In the end, Scharfman delivers a weird, bloody and funny hybrid of horror, comedy and dark fantasy. I doubt it will appeal to mainstream audiences though. It\u2019s one of those films that belong on the late-night circuit. That\u2019s where it will find its fans.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death of a Unicorn (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violent content, gore, language and some drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alex Scharfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Scharfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dan Romer and Giosue Greco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Fong\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, Tea Leoni, Anthony Carrigan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Death-of-a-Unicorn-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11593,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589\/revisions\/11593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}