Death of a Unicorn
Hey everyone and welcome. Today we will be talking about the film Death of a Unicorn. Fun Fact: The Unicorn Tapestries are real and were made between 1495 and 1505 and were woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk. While the movie offers a meaning to them, the real meaning has often been debated. This film came out in 2025 and stars Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, and Will Poulter and was directed by Alex Scharfman. So without further ado let’s get right into it.
Death of a Unicorn follows a group of people who kill a unicorn and notice that its blood has healing properties. Ridley wants to leave it and give it back to its parents, but the group she's with wants to harvest it and sell it for billions of dollars. Ridley must find a way to stop them, but the unicorn parents also make an appearance, and they will kill in order to get their baby back.
Death of a Unicorn is a dark comedy. It has similar vibes to We’re The Millers, Alien, or Antlers.
The title Death of a Unicorn did not catch my attention because I thought it was going to be some sad, depressing movie, and then I saw the trailer and realized it was going to be like a slasher but with mythical creatures, and I was sold. I think the idea is inventive because I have seen in so many projects how Unicorns are seen as pure, and their blood is useful, so having that be a driving force for the characters was cool to include, but this film lets us know that it's not alone and now you have pissed off the parents. Upon watching, I think the themes of this movie are greed and animal cruelty, both of which end up being the death of many of the characters.
Jenna Ortega stars as Ridley, who is dragged on this trip by her dad. Ridley doesn't want to be there, and I can't blame her once you see how her dad acts, and when they hit the unicorn, she has a connection with it. At first, I was thinking shes just so angsty, but you realize that it's because her father doesn't seem to care about her needs at all. I love how she stuck to her feelings and did research and tried to save the unicorns even though they were scary, but that is also what makes them not go after her. Lately, I've been thinking about how hard it is to have good morals and be rich, and I think through her character, we see where that disconnect is because, yes, some rich people donate to causes which they show, and it looks like they are helping, but the true test is in a situation like this, would you try and save the creatures or use them to harvest blood and make you lots of money. I think no one is perfect, obviously, but a character like Ridley reminded me that it's not always about the money and that sometimes you should do your best to help instead of just only looking out for yourself.
Ridley figures out about the unicorn history from the unicorn tapestries, which was great to include. There's a small moment in the movie where her dad says she's studying art history, and I think that moment is supposed to tie into why she knows about the tapestries, but she also sees the tapestries in a picture of her mom. I was wondering why they added that because it wasn't that important because there were clearly other things going on, so knowing her major after the unicorns started killing wasn't very useful. I think it would have worked more if either she knew about the tapestries from her studies or because of her mom, or if they wanted to use both, maybe have her mom's picture remind her that it was something she did a project on or discussed in class. It's a small thing, but I did feel like that was a wasted opportunity.
Paul Rudd plays Ridley's dad, Elliot, who got on my nerves the entire movie. From the get-go, when we see them on the plane, I should've known he was going to be a horrible father. His daughter is sleeping on his shoulder, and he drops his papers and is trying to figure out how to pick them up. I don't think he should have just left them, but he could have figured out where to put his daughter's head before he just let it drop and hit the armrest, which showed how he valued his work more than her. We are constantly reminded of this, which was extremely frustrating because she's a smart girl with a natural curiosity, but I realized the issue is that he is not listening to what she wants. He just wants her to do what he wants her to do, but anytime she requests help, he does what he wants to do, usually to boost himself in front of his rich boss and their family. It was annoying because he would say he's doing it to make sure he can take care of her, but he's clearly high up in the company, so it doesn't seem like money is an issue. I think the worst time was when she was talking to him one-on-one without the family and saying it was a unicorn, and he insisted on saying it was a horse. In the end, he helps but also gets killed, but he is brought back to life, so I guess he redeemed himself.
Richard Grant, Tea Leoni, and Will Poulter were the rich family who invited Elliot, and I think they played rich so well. There is this fake concern for things they are helping with, and they really are just throwing money at problems, and it doesn't really affect them. They are greedy, and even after learning the unicorn can heal itself, they keep taking from it, not allowing it to heal, which shows that animal cruelty was also not a problem for them. I love how the film doubles down on them being awful by showing how they try to plan anyway to get lots of money out of these unicorns, instead of figuring out who really would need the cure, they find who will pay the most, not caring when nonfamily members get killed, and even after family members get killed, they still won't give up the baby which they know will stop the killing because they want money. They acted like they were some higher power, like the dad being mad at the doctor for not discovering unicorns, and in reality, they weren't, and these creatures didn't care that they were rich. It just showed how greed is bad, and in the end, it didn't get them anywhere but dead. They did, however, give some good laughs with how out of touch they were.
The setting of this film was perfect to show why these creatures would not have been encountered in such a long time. It's a lot of open space, and there aren't many houses so the number of people visiting would be low. From Ridley's research, it seems like they honestly want to be left alone, but just because they are reserved creatures doesn't mean they won't attack if in danger.
There were some Brutal deaths throughout the movie, with the unicorns impaling, biting, and kicking people. One thing that was bugging me is that we saw so many times how they use that horn as a weapon, and these people kept leaning into things to try and hear where the thing were, and I was like, that is not a smart decision which did lead to more deaths. The deaths were very graphic, which really helped show that it wasn't an injury, these people were gone. I also must note how these Unicorns were so smart; when one of them was injured and was healing itself, the humans were distracted by it, only for the other one to come in and take them out. The healing factor was a game changer because that made things more difficult, and these unicorns were really about to test these people's commitment to being richer.
My favorite part of this movie was Will Poulter as Shepard, who is the son of the company owner. He was just so funny being this douche who thinks his down-to-earth and likable. He seemed like he was always trying to impress everyone, but no one really cared. He did whatever he wanted even after people told him not to, like stealing the unicorn dust because he was under the impression that he knew best. At first, I was like, maybe he has some redeeming qualities because he seemed to care about Ridley, but as the film went on, I realized he was just pretending, and he was really disrespectful to people who he felt were underneath him. Even though I was rooting for the unicorns, he had a chance to get rid of one and stop the killing, but instead, he wanted to capture them to make more money, which would eventually backfire. I thought his death was extremely funny due to him saying it was a horse in the beginning, and one thing I know is that if you are behind a horse, you can get kicked, which could kill you the unicorn kicks him, and he lands on his neck killing him which made me laugh at how ironic it was. His character sucked, but Will really embodied him and made me hate him but also wonder what else he would say that would be so dumb.
Death of a Unicorn is a crazy, fun movie that will have you rooting for the Unicorns and hoping they make it out alive. The cast was great, and I liked the story about this mythical beast and how it tied into greed and animal cruelty.
