Death of a Unicorn Review: Paul Rudd & Jenna Ortega’s Unhinged Gorefest

Creature features bring quite the craziness. Whether it was the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park or the werewolves of Wolf Man, we’ve always gotten our fair share of humans trying to survive in the face of dangerous animals. But one creature has not gotten enough time in the limelight: the unicorn. Known to be “so fluffy” by Agnes in Despicable Me, Death of a Unicorn offers a, well, alternate look at the legendary creature with an iconic horn. From A24 and producer Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) comes a bold, unflinching film that has a few issues, but remains delightfully insane.

Paul Rudd stars as Elliot Kintner, a man traveling with his teen daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) to meet with his boss. The film opens with a clear defining action for Elliot. On a plane, Ridley falls asleep and puts her head on his shoulder. Elliot drops a work document on the floor. Initially, he doesn’t want to get Ridley’s head off his shoulder, but ultimately, he decides to lunge for the paper, causing Ridley’s head to slam onto the armrest. In one move, we know how Elliot cares for his daughter, but he cares for his work enough to allow his daughter to suffer. The rest of the script delivers more of this idea and pushes our characters down their emotional journey.

That journey doesn’t always reach its full potential, particularly towards the end, as it hits a few predictable beats. But writer/director Alex Scharfman turns in some solid work in his directorial debut after years of working as a film producer. He deftly casts Rudd in this role where he can play a little bit against type. This role is a far cry from his recent work in Marvel and Ghostbusters; so much of his natural likability is gone in this movie. Elliot is generally well-intentioned, and there is some sympathy for him because he’s a single father trying to step up and be there for his daughter who misses her mother. But for the most part, he’s not easy to root for from the start.

The inciting event happens early on, as Elliot accidentally runs over a unicorn. We then meet a rich, colorful family of characters who Elliot wants to impress. The supporting cast includes Richard E. Grant and Téa Leoni as the father and mother, both of whom are strong actors that get a lot of opportunities for fun in this film. Anthony Carrigan delivers an excellent performance as their butler as well. But perhaps the one who steals the show the most is Will Poulter as Shepard, the eldest son. Every line of dialogue and action he performs is absolute gold. He’s a hysterical highlight of the film.

During the first 40-45 minutes, Death of a Unicorn pulls some mileage out of the sticky situation Elliot and Ridley find themselves in, as Elliot wants to impress the family while they have a half-dead unicorn in their car and Ridley just wants to leave the house and help the unicorn. But at some point, the first act does start dragging for a while, especially as we have a few too many moments where Ridley is doing research on the unicorns. The movie may have worked better if it had held more back from the audience and allowed us to find out more about these unicorns through encountering them, not by researching them.

But once we get through all of that, things pick up quite a bit. We have our first unicorn kill and the movie cranks it up to 11. We have bloody, violent kills perfect for the gore hounds and it manages to be quite a bit of fun. There’s a campy, humorous tone throughout as the film does not take itself seriously, allowing character drama to exist while embracing this absurd situation. Sometimes, it can feel a bit visually dull as the characters are standing in dark forests. But the movie gets even better when they have to hide from the unicorns inside the rich family’s ginormous mansion.

There are some “eat the rich” ideas in the film, especially with this ridiculously wealthy family, but it doesn’t push that theme far enough. Furthermore, even though the movie can be very entertaining, the direction of the horror often feels a little too simple and predictable. The jump scares happen precisely when you expect them too. It’s more of a comedy movie than an effective horror film, but the campy tone works wonders for this movie that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t aim for anything much higher than that.

Furthermore, there’s a cut to daytime in the final act that feels far too abrupt and jarring compared to what we saw before. It feels like there’s a time jump, and in the middle, a big chunk of the movie goes MIA. But overall, Death of a Unicorn manages to be funny and enjoyable to watch. It’s an average execution of an extraordinary premise but still remarkable, nevertheless. With its excellent performances, this movie manages to be just enough to bring a smile to your face.

SCORE: 6/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Death of a Unicorn review.