“Death of a Unicorn” is exactly what you’d expect from a title like that—wild, bizarre, and surprisingly hilarious. Jenna Ortega leads this offbeat horror-comedy, alongside Paul Rudd, as they turn the classic unicorn myth upside down in a bloody, twisted, and oddly emotional way.
A Deadly Encounter Sets the Stage
The film opens with a simple premise: father and daughter, Elliot (Paul Rudd) and Ridley (Jenna Ortega), on a road trip through a remote wildlife reserve. But things take a turn when they accidentally hit a glowing, majestic unicorn. Instead of a fairy-tale moment, this leads to a brutal confrontation. In a moment of panic, Elliot decides to bludgeon the unicorn to death with a tire iron—because what else would a dad do when faced with a magical creature on the road?
What follows is both absurd and captivating: Ridley feels an eerie connection to the unicorn and, as you’d expect, that sets off a chain of bizarre and bloody events that will leave you both laughing and cringing.
Magical Blood and Corporate Greed
As if things couldn’t get stranger, the unicorn’s blood turns out to have magical properties. Ridley’s skin clears up, Elliot’s allergies disappear, and a wealthy pharmaceutical family takes notice, seeing it as a golden opportunity to make a fortune. What begins as a dark comedy quickly veers into satirical horror, with the unicorns becoming merciless killing machines, and the movie diving deep into family dysfunction and corporate greed.
Jenna Ortega shines in her role, delivering a performance that channels a mix of Winona Ryder’s sarcasm in Beetlejuice and Christina Ricci’s dry wit in The Addams Family, but with her own emotional depth. The tension between her and Paul Rudd’s character—father and daughter, trying to bond amidst the chaos—is one of the movie’s most unexpected yet endearing elements.
Killer Unicorns and Over-the-Top Mayhem
The unicorns here are not the sparkly, gentle creatures of childhood lore. No, these are vicious, organized revenge monsters with glowing horns and plenty of gore. The chaos escalates when an electromagnetic unicorn corpse sends out a distress signal, setting the stage for even more carnage. Think Jurassic Park, but replace the raptors with murderous unicorns. It’s gory, over-the-top, and definitely not for the faint of heart.
A Cult Classic in the Making
“Death of a Unicorn” definitely feels like a B-movie in the best way possible. It’s pulpy, bloody, and filled with dark humor. The movie also has an A24 vibe, in the sense that it balances the grotesque with moments of surprisingly sharp satire. The rich characters played by Richard E. Grant and Téa Leoni are the kind of over-the-top villains you love to hate, while Will Poulter steals the show as their wild, drug-addicted son.
A Twist on the Monster Genre
At its core, “Death of a Unicorn” takes a clever approach to the monster genre, flipping the question on its head: who’s the real monster—the mythical creature, or the people who exploit it? The film may be over-the-top in its violence and absurdity, but it also makes a sharp commentary on corporate greed and environmental exploitation.
Should You Watch It?
If you’re into quirky horror-comedy with a pitch-black sense of humor and don’t mind a bit of gore, “Death of a Unicorn” could easily become your next cult favorite. It’s a film that doesn’t take itself seriously but delivers a surprisingly engaging mix of laughs, gore, and satirical edge. The unicorns here don’t sparkle, they stab—and it’s exactly the kind of wild ride that fans of offbeat horror will enjoy.