Death of a Unicorn (2025)

Score: 4 / 5

A directorial debut hasn't been this exciting in a while, with writer-director Alex Scharfman's genre-blending and deeply satisfying Death of a Unicorn. Brimming with a stunning cast who very much understood the assignment and decided to work overtime with it, the film transforms from what could easily have been a mediocre creature feature and class-conscious satire into an original, entertaining, somewhat psychedelic trip dripping with style and fun.

Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as Elliot and Ridley, a father/daughter duo spending the weekend at the alpine mansion of his new client; their relationship is tense, as Ridley's mother recently passed from disease, and their terse conversation isn't helped by Elliot's severe allergies. Traveling through a nature preserve around the estate that bears the name of its lord, the duo stop their car after hitting and apparently killing a unicorn. Or, rather, fatally injuring it; Elliot panics and brains the beast with his tire iron, splattering both man and girl with its purple blood. Almost immediately they realize something magical has happened, as his allergies immediately subside and Ridley's acne clears. Ridley also experiences an ethereal vision while touching the horn, leaving her shaken and desperately curious. Fearing any dark marks on his record for this major job opportunity, Elliot determines to hide the corpse in his vehicle, sure he'll bury it quietly on the estate after nightfall.

Their arrival at the mansion is a thing of beauty, and I'll elide details of the utterly delicious characters we meet there. Suffice it to say that Elliot's employer is Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), a billionaire head of a pharmaceutical company (notice the constant thematic interest in health and wellness?), and his cancer appears to be in its final stages, hence Elliot's summons to help clean up shop, so to speak. His wife (Téa Leoni) and son (Will Poulter) are present, but it's never quite clear what role they play in the company, if any; they seem at a blissfully ignorant remove, both flattering dear old dad and slyly ready for their lives to jumpstart after his demise. They're the kind of family you expect to see dramatized in The White Lotus as "stupid rich" people, and their house staff (Anthony Carrigan and Jessica Hynes) are only marginally better; there is an edge to their unique brand of service, though, that is worth paying attention to. After all, servants understand their masters much better than the reverse.

The Leopolds aren't blind, though, and they aren't incompetent. No family that makes billions is unable to sniff out opportunity when it appears on their doorstep, and the shaken father and daughter who arrive don't sport worthy poker faces. Once the Leopolds discover the unicorn -- inexplicably alive in Elliot's car -- they kill it again and begin experimenting with its blood and horn, harvesting its curative properties without fully understanding them. Would you question such a miraculous and fast-working cure for cancer? Perhaps not, but bigger problems than unintended side effects are en route.

Some similarities to Jurassic Park cannot be avoided here, and I think the film somewhat capitalizes on that. Apart from themes of wealthy people recklessly exploiting the natural environment for the sake of even more fame and fortune, and their comrades who genuinely care about the creatures being exploited, there are some shared plot points, such as the parents of the captured, injured beast coming to rescue it and punish the human aggressors. Indeed, this is where the film tilts from fantastical dark comedy to a still very funny monster horror flick, as the young dead-ish unicorn's parents come galloping down from a remote cave in the Rockies to the estate, intent on wreaking their revenge.

In almost Spielbergian fashion, Ridley becomes the voice of reason as chaos envelops the household. She researches folktales of unicorns, learning that unicorns are much more violent and dangerous than kids' cartoons would have us believe, trying to convince the others to right their wrong and give the unicorn's corpse back to its family. Her lone dissenting opinion niggles her father, though, and it's Elliot's somewhat wide-eyed uncertainty between right and wrong, capitulating or resisting, that pulls the plot forward, even as the unicorns stalk and invade the house, brutally slaughtering the people in fabulously gory fashion.

We could talk about a few dead-end plot points, like the unnecessary grief that colors Ridley and Elliot, or the perhaps solidly B-movie visuals meant to titillate in the same way monster movies did a few decades ago, but it's really the concept and cast of this film that make it so worth watching. All the actors are showing us amazing individual work, especially with the comedic elements of their dialogue, and their mutual chemistry is some of the best ensemble work I've seen in years. Larry Fong's notable cinematography is fluid and exciting, and the CGI for the monsters worked well for me, even with its somewhat cartoonish style. For a wild, wacky ride through unbridled imagination, you could do a lot worse than Death of a Unicorn, the kind of film I'll always want to watch for the pleasure of its simplicity and earnestness.