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Death of a Unicorn
2025 film by Alex Scharfman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Death of a Unicorn is a 2025 American dark fantasy[5] comedy horror film written and directed by Alex Scharfman in his directorial debut. It stars Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as a father and his daughter who accidentally kill a unicorn, causing them to be hunted down by its parents. Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, and Richard E. Grant appear in supporting roles.
Death of a Unicorn had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Festival on March 8, 2025, and was released theatrically in North America by A24 on March 28, 2025. It received mixed reviews from critics.
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Plot
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Widowed father Elliot Kintner and his teenage daughter, Ridley, are spending a weekend at the estate of Elliot's boss, Odell Leopold, and his family—his wife, Belinda, and their son, Shepard. While driving to their destination, Elliot accidentally strikes and injures a small unicorn with his car. When Ridley touches its horn, she experiences strange, cosmic visions, which Elliot abruptly stops after he bludgeons the creature with a tire iron.
The Kintners arrive at the Leopolds' estate with the unicorn's body hidden in their car. Shortly after their arrival, Ridley discovers that the unicorn's blood has cleaned away the acne on her face; Elliot's vision has also improved, and his allergies are gone. The Leopolds eventually discover the unicorn still alive in the car, which is promptly shot by the Leopolds' assistant, Shaw. Upon learning that the unicorn has magical healing properties, Odell suggests they experiment with it.
A group of scientists working for The Leopolds, led by Dr. Song, successfully create a concoction by grating off some of the unicorn's horn, which cures Odell of his cancer. As a result, Odell orders the unicorn to be taken to their laboratory for further testing, wanting to monetize its healing properties. Having read the story behind The Unicorn Tapestries, Ridley argues that the Leopolds should not be misusing the body of the unicorn, but they dismiss her concerns. As the unicorn is prepared for transport to a laboratory, the researchers are attacked by a pair of much larger, aggressive unicorns. They kill several of Odell's workers before escaping into the woods. Odell organizes a hunting party to kill them, insisting that Elliot join them.
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Shepard steals a vial of the unicorn's grated horn, which he snorts, and orders another scientist, Dr. Bhatia, to saw off the unicorn's entire horn. Ridley realizes the unicorn is a foal and is still alive. She attempts to text Elliot to head back immediately. Meanwhile, Elliot and the hunting party fall into a lethal trap set by the older unicorns. Several people are killed, including Odell. The survivors return to the estate, where they realize that the unicorns are the foal's parents. They attempt to offer the unicorns their child back to them in exchange for their lives, but this plan backfires when the unicorns realize the foal's horn is missing.
The unicorns follow the remaining survivors into the estate, where Belinda is disembowelled by one of them. Elliot, having stolen the horn, offers to distract the other unicorn by luring it outside so Ridley can escape. Ridley is held at arrow-point by Shepard, having learned that unicorns are docile towards pure-hearted maidens after experiencing visions from snorting the horn. The parent unicorns arrive and immediately become docile to Ridley. As Shepard ties up the unicorns' legs, Elliot stabs Shepard with the horn, only to get stabbed back with his arrow.
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Shepard then attempts to kill Ridley, but is fatally kicked by one of the unicorns. Near death, Elliot reconciles with Ridley before succumbing to his injuries. Seeing Ridley mourning over her father, the unicorns bring Elliot and their foal back to life with their magic and leave peacefully. However, the Kintners are promptly arrested by the police who assume they have committed a mass murder. As the Kintners are being driven away, the unicorns, seeing the Kintners' predicament, help them by ramming the police car, causing it to swerve off the road as the Kintners brace for impact.
Cast
- Paul Rudd as Elliot Kintner, Ridley's widowed father
- Jenna Ortega as Ridley Kintner, Elliot's daughter
- Will Poulter as Shepard Leopold, Odell's son
- Anthony Carrigan as Griff, the Leopolds' butler
- Sunita Mani as Dr. Bhatia, a scientist
- Stephen Park as Dr. Song, a scientist
- Jessica Hynes as Shaw, the Leopold family personal assistant
- Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold, Odell's wife
- Richard E. Grant as Odell Leopold, Elliot's boss
- Kathryn Erbe as the voice of The Unicorn Tapestries's narrator
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Production
Death of a Unicorn was announced in May 2023, with Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd set to star in the film for Alex Scharfman.[6] In November 2023, it was announced that Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Jessica Hynes, and Steve Park had joined the cast of the film.[7]
Filming began in Hungary in July 2023.[8] The production was granted a waiver to continue with its production during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, as A24 is not part of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.[9]
Music
In November 2023, it was announced that the score would be composed by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies.[10] However, in February 2025, Dan Romer and Giosuè Greco were revealed to have taken over composing duties.[11]
The official trailer, released on December 18, 2024, contained a rendition of "Good Vibrations" by American rock band the Beach Boys.[12]
Musician St. Vincent released the soundtrack song "DOA" on March 28, 2025.[13]
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Release
Death of a Unicorn premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest on March 8, 2025, and was released theatrically in the United States by A24 on March 28, 2025.[14][15][16]
Reception
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Box office
In the United States and Canada, Death of a Unicorn was released alongside A Working Man, The Penguin Lessons, and The Woman in the Yard, and was projected to gross $7–8 million from 3,050 theaters in its opening weekend.[17] The film made $2.7 million on its first day including an estimated $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $5.8 million, finishing in fifth.[2][18] In its second weekend, the film made $2.7 million (dropping 53%), finishing in sixth.[19][20]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 206 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Receiving some sparkle from Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega's father-daughter rapport, Death of a Unicorn's broad satire is a bit too on the horn but makes for an entertainingly splattery creature feature."[21] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[22] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.[2]
In a mixed review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis found the satirical elements of the film unconvincing, writing that the jokes about class-consciousness "don't land hard or at all".[23] Dargis singled out Jenna Ortega's acting as among the best parts of the film and as providing "the story just enough heart". Ty Burr of The Washington Post awarded the film two out of four stars, with praise for the comedic performances but criticism for the direction. Burr wrote: "The result is a tonally confused, gracelessly shot and edited misfire that squanders its premise on escalating suspense and ugly, unconvincing digital effects".[24]
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References
External links
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