Death of a Unicorn
Following its explosion in mainstream popularity over the last decade, A24 has reached a crossroads in its journey: stick to its roots of unique, left field storytelling, or take the increases in budget and countless awards and become one of the behemoths of the movie making business. Naturally, any functioning business would endeavour to continue to grow, and A24 are no different, but with this comes the challenge of avoiding pumping out dud popcorn movies.
The early signs are promising for Death of a Unicorn: an endearing and talented cast, an exciting sci-fi concept and a high flying distributor behind it. The plot follows Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), who travel to the luxurious mountain lodge of his employer, Odell Leopold (Richard E Grant). En route, the pair hit a unicorn with their car and take it to the Leopold’s with the plan of burying it in the night. However, magical occurrences lead to the family exploiting the power of the beast and dancing with death as a result.
It is very apparent what kind of movie Death of a Unicorn is trying to be from the off, as it treads on common ground with a Glass Onion meets Parasite “the wealthy must fall” feeling. Grant, Will Poulter and Tea Leoni feast on these insufferable characters who only have money and success in a capitalist world as their sole motivations. Elliot is a widower trapped in this world because of his drive to provide for his rebellious daughter, but he continuously distances himself from her because of it. What this unicorn adventure does is bring all of these characters together in a fight to survive, albeit with different ideas of what to do with the animal’s magic powers.
Death of a Unicorn is a magical bloody blast from start to finish, wasting no time in splattering its characters in purple gore and showing the audience gory details of how it was shed. Poulter steals the show as the useless son born into a world of power and status, but along with all of the roles in the feature, is a caricature that is a bit predictable. The folklore and mythology inserted into the movie comes as the most interesting element, and the reality of unicorns being deadly beasts comes as a welcome contrast to how we normally imagine the horse-like creatures to be.
The movie trundles along, ticking boxes as it goes, but it never truly takes the leap of faith that would elevate it to more than just a “weird and wonderful” couple of hours.
Guy Lambert
Death of a Unicorn is released nationwide on 4th April 2025.
Watch the trailer for Death of a Unicorn here:
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