Alex Scharfman has been working in the indie movie scene for a good 15 years as everything from a location manager to a production executive. Now, he’s been given the reins as writer and director of the newest A24 horror/comedy, Death of a Unicorn.
Death of a Unicorn is about a lawyer named Elliot Kintner (Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd) who, along with his teenaged daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), is travelling to the secluded home of a wealthy pharmaceutical baron named Odell Leopold (Saltburn’s Richard E. Grant) to hopefully join the corporation. On their way through the wilderness, Elliot and Ridley hit a unicorn with their car and kill it. Both confused and mortified, they take the body to the house with them, and once they are there, it’s discovered that the unicorn has magical powers. But access to those powers comes at a horrible price.
With Death of a Unicorn, Scharfman has made one of those movies that takes a right turn at the midway point. At first, it seems as if it’s going to be one of those black comedy familial issue movies, but once it gets rolling, it quickly becomes an all-out creature feature. It basically goes from Knives Out to Jurassic Park at the drop of a hat. And it does it in the most awesome way.
Now, unicorns stabbing people through the chest with their horns is not all Death of a Unicorn has to offer. It’s just an added bonus. The movie actually makes some deep statements, albeit a bit on-the-nose, about greed, grief, poverty, and principles. Some characters want to exploit the unicorn’s mystical properties for financial gain, while others just want to leave it alone for the good of the species, and still others don’t seem to know which side of the fence they want to land on. Add in some heartbreaking history between Elliot and Ridley, and this monster movie has some surprising poignancy.
But Death of a Unicorn is, at heart, a monster movie. Although there are elements of fantasy, comedy, and drama within it, it’s the horror that breaks through. Once it gets going, there’s plenty of fun, gooey, splattery gore to be had. This is a movie with a body count, and each victim dies more gruesomely than the last. And it’s all in the name of revenge and comeuppance. It’s pretty satisfying.
While the movie objectively belongs to Jenna Ortega, who is fantastic, the supporting cast in Death of a Unicorn is top-notch. Will Poulter (Midsommar) is note-perfect as the spoiled heir-apparent of the pharma family, and Téa Leoni (who channels her Jurassic Park III performance) overacts in all the right places as the family’s matriarch. And then, there’s Anthony Carrigan (Gotham), who is morbidly terrific as Griff, the family’s butler, who may be the only person in the house besides Ridley who seems to have a conscience. Sunita Mani (GLOW) and Steve Park (Mickey 17) also hold their own as research scientists who are conflicted between doing what’s right and doing what’s being asked of them by their boss.
If Alex Scharfman’s intention with Death of a Unicorn was to make a movie that’s both thought-provoking and entertaining, he’s succeeded. It’s fantasy and reality, both something that is derivative of the genre(s) and unlike anything ever seen. But most of all, it’s fun. It’s one of those movies where the audience can safely root for the “bad” guys, since the “good” guys aren’t actually good. And that’s where the carnage comes in. There’s nothing quite like cheering a unicorn horn through the heart to get the blood pumping.
GRADE: A
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
MPA Rating: R for some drug usage, language, gore, and strong violent content
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