[Movie Review] Death of a Unicorn (2025)
Plot Summary: Father-Daughter duo Elliott and Ridley hit a unicorn with their car and bring it to the wilderness retreat of a mega-wealthy pharmaceutical CEO.
Director: Alex Scharfman
Writer: Alex Scharfman
Runtime: 1 hour 47 mins
Main Cast:- Jenna Ortega as Ridley
- Paul Rudd as Elliott
- Will Poulter as Shepard
- Richard E. Grant as Odell
Review by: Samuel
What I Liked
This is tough because while I enjoy the plot and premise, I do think a full-length film was not the best medium for this story. Not a lot happens so feature length is just too long. What would happen if a vengeful unicorn came after a group isolated in a cabin? That’s really what this comedy-horror asks, and it is honestly an interesting narrative but one that would be served better as a short film or even given the Love+Death+Robots Treatment.
I think it’s the proper amount of gruesome with some jaw dropping kills. I think Will Poulter is THE STAR of this movie with his portrayal of a hilarious trust fund kid who believes he’s smarter than he is. I even like the dynamic between stars Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega (playing father and daughter). Honestly if this were a 25-30 minute outing, I think it would have been absolutely perfect.
What I didn’t like
There not much else to add here. You have a unicorn seeking to avenge it’s offspring that was struck down by a car. A LOT of this movie involves back and forth discussions on what to do with the baby unicorn (that was accidentally struck down). This could have been an interesting dialogue on the morality of using this magical creature and whether humans should have access to it power, but this is a COMEDY-horror, so these conversations constantly devolve into how best to profit from the creature, and eventually it’s vengeful parent.
That’s all to say, as far as actionable items that move the plot forward…there’s not much of that here. I found myself checking my watch at a certain point thinking “how much longer can they possibly drag this out.”
Summary
So this is tough. I don’t think it’s a bad a narrative on paper at all, and it does offer some good laughs and great kills as a comedy-horror. It’s just that, as a movie, it fails to keep you invested/interested during its 1 hour 50 minute runtime.
