Spoilers would turn around if they were you.

Sometimes a movie reaches a certain reveal or milestone and you can guess entire development from then until the ending. I find it annoying when that happens early. It’s a rare and sad occasion to literally hit that mark before the title card shows up. There might be more for some audiences to enjoy, but I almost checked out and considered swapping features. Still, we must endure. Pass the scalpel, please.

(Credit: A24)

Death of a Unicorn (2025) was written and directed by Alex Scharfman. Single parent Elliot (Paul Rudd) and daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) are traveling to a private lodge in the countryside. They’re late to meet Elliot’s boss Odell (Richard E. Grant), his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni) and their son Shepard (Will Poulter). Odell is dying of cancer. Elliot is their lawyer. In typical fashion, Elliot is oblivious and dismissive to what his daughter tells him. So we have the absent parent and the rebellious but smart daughter tropes established pretty early. On the way, they hit a unicorn.

Now you’d expect the film to dance around and away before revealing its main plot device, but the unicorn is on full display quite early. That would be great if it had more to do later, but actually it does felt like we have filler until we hit the next arc change. Until then, we get to see Odell, Belinda and Shepart prance around as a villainous family trio of one-percenter billionaires in the most cartoonish fashion. It gets old fast. They only care about monetizing the creature’s corpse specially once they call in scientist that find that grinding the horn to dust has a full healing effect of Odell.

Rudd is usually up for the sympathetic role but here it feels like his role as Elliot is to be intentionally dismissive and patronizing to his daughter. There’s no full redemption arc, you do expect him to come around but there’s no progression curve. At some point he just switches. Ortega’s Ridley fares much better, but as the voice of reason she sabotages herself. Using the scarce moments in which she has everyone’s ear, she loses time explaining unicorn lore she has dig up instead of voicing the most pressing warning. And that is, that they’ve hit a baby unicorn and parent vengeance in on the way.

Now, if this were a horror film and it is to some degree, gore is not the only thing on the menu. You’d expect some inventive stalking and killing scenarios. Not really, it’s unsurprising bloodshed with zero surprises. Everything is pretty much on a single track as a theme park ride the rest of the way. You’re not even really worried or scared. I’m afraid at that point I was just stuck waiting for the ending.

Not recommended for the most part. As a horror comedy without much comedy and no scares at all, I can’t quite see it finding a large appeal. Ortega does her best, but Rudd is playing a rather unlikeable character in a dull feature. Some audiences might find some entertainment but be turned away by the gore, while horror fans looking for gore will be bored with the lack of scares. Only worth to save it for the very end of your rainy day watchlist.

That will do for now.