Death of a Unicorn

A24’s Latest Misfire Tramples Its Own Potential

A24 cultivated a distinct brand of quirky and bold fare from the mid-2010s to the early 2020s. This curation arguably peaked with the Best Picture Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022). Since then, the feared shift from quality to quantity seems to have crept into the studio’s slate. A24 began spreading itself thin—still delivering original work, but increasingly producing films that felt like caricatures or parodies of what audiences had come to associate with it. A24’s most recent release, Death of a Unicorn (2025), feels like a further evolution of this troubling trend.

Death of a Unicorn follows widowed father Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his moody daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega), who accidentally run over a unicorn en route to the remote estate of Elliot’s big pharma boss, Odell (Richard E. Grant). They bring the carcass with them, and Odell—along with his greedy wife Belinda (Téa Leoni) and son Shephard (Will Poulter)—seeks to exploit the creature’s medicinal potential. But Ridley suspects that tampering with the unicorn’s remains will invite nature’s wrath.

This is the feature debut of writer-director Alex Scharfman. While he introduces an original premise, he also reveals a number of rough edges that suggest he still has plenty to refine as a filmmaker. Death of a Unicorn is framed as a horror-comedy with satirical commentary on Big Pharma and the greed of the elite. Yet the commentary is so blunt that the film offers no more depth than its trailer. It also fails to deliver on either horror or humor—the jokes feel timid and overworked, and the horror elements lack any real tension. Scharfman seems desperate to project quirkiness, resulting in eye-rolling moments like an adult unicorn ripping out intestines with its teeth, or a man snorting a line of powdered unicorn horn.

In many ways, Death of a Unicorn plays like something ChatGPT might generate if asked to write a generic A24 film. It carries the ambition and freewheeling spirit of a filmmaker unbound by convention, yet it suffers from flat characters, an erratic rhythm, and an unsteady tone. The talented cast is largely squandered. Despite the proven ability of actors like Ortega and Rudd to toggle between satire and sincerity, or the gravitas of Leoni and Grant, or the wild-card energy of Poulter, the script gives them little to work with. Their characters are thinly written, and their emotional climaxes are so underbaked that it’s easy to tune out. Even the wonderful Anthony Carrigan, best known for Barry (2018–2023), is relegated to a silent servant role—though in his few lines and glances, he nearly steals the show.

The unicorn itself—central to the film's premise—is another misstep. Rendered as a chunky CGI creature that resembles a bear more than a horse, the design is awkward and uninspired. The trailer wisely avoided showing it, and the reveal in the film proves why. Not even the inclusion of the “Unicorn Tapestries” from The Cloisters in New York, which the film tries to weave into its lore, can elevate the mystique or impact of the creature.

In the end, Death of a Unicorn is a dull and underwhelming affair. It tries too hard to fit the A24 mold and ends up lacking a clear identity or voice of its own. With heavy-handed social commentary, a shortage of laughs or scares, and a wasted ensemble cast, the film feels like a missed opportunity—a promising idea buried under the weight of its own pretensions.

4.5/10