The new A24 flick is here, and trust us, you’re not prepared for this blend of dark comedy, monster movie mayhem, and “eat the rich” satire. Get ready for a weekend getaway from hell as a corporate lawyer and his perpetually annoyed teenage daughter head to a billionaire’s remote Canadian compound. This isn’t your average family drama, though. On the way, they have a vehicular encounter with an honest-to-goodness mythical creature. The title says it all, folks—a unicorn is going to meet its maker via a rental car bumper… or maybe a tire iron.

What happens when you mix pure, magical power with Big Pharma greed? A whole lotta blood, apparently. Once the ultra-wealthy pharmaceutical family realizes the miraculous curative properties of the unicorn’s horn and blood—say goodbye to cancer, hello to clear skin!—they decide to capitalize on this goldmine. Unfortunately for them, this creature was just a baby, and its parents are not happy. Tune in to see if money can buy survival when a pair of massive, vengeful unicorns come knocking for their offspring and a little bloody retribution.

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Episode Review

Death of a Unicorn is an absurdly fun and gloriously gory ride that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a good thing because, let’s be real, the premise is bananas. The film is a smart, albeit somewhat safe, critique of corporate greed and the whole “eat the rich” subgenre we’ve been seeing lately. The Leopold family is a collection of hilariously awful caricatures—you’ll be actively rooting for the mythical beasts to tear them limb from limb. The father-daughter relationship between Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega provides the movie with its emotional anchor, though some critics felt it was a little underdeveloped and mostly served as a plot device. Honestly, though, I was having too much fun watching rich people get violently owned by angry unicorn parents to complain too much about the melodrama. It’s definitely a popcorn flick, but one with a sharp little horn to the side of the pharmaceutical industry. The biggest negative? It takes a while for the monster mash to really kick off, and when it does, some of the visual execution feels a little rough around the edges. Still, it delivers a genuinely good time.

But What Does It Mean?

Death of a Unicorn operates as a dark fairy tale for the modern era, skillfully employing the conventions of horror-comedy to explore potent social anxieties. It uses a fantastical premise not as escapism, but as a lens through which to magnify the moral decay wrought by unchecked capitalism, it is at times “heavy-handed” but consistently entertaining.

The film’s central themes—corporate greed, class disparity, and the perversion of family values—are inextricably interwoven. The unicorn, a symbol of purity and nature, serves as a catalyst, its tragic death and the subsequent discovery of its powers acting as a stress test that reveals the profound moral bankruptcy of the characters. The Leopolds’ impulse to monetize a miracle, Elliot’s willingness to sacrifice his principles for professional advancement, and the stark contrast with the unicorns’ pure parental instincts collectively paint a grim picture of contemporary values.

Ultimately, Death of a Unicorn uses its absurd and often gruesome narrative to deliver a clear, if unsubtle, cautionary message. The film stands as a warning about the dire consequences of commodifying the sacred, desecrating the natural world, and prioritizing profit over the fundamental bonds of humanity and family.

Reception and Audience Response

Critical and Commercial Performance

The film received “mixed or average” reviews from critics.

• Rotten Tomatoes: 53% positive score from 214 critics. The 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.”
• Metacritic: A weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 40 critics.
• CinemaScore: Audiences gave the film an average grade of “B–” on an A+ to F scale.
• Box Office: The film debuted to $5.8 million, finishing fifth in its opening weekend, below its projection of $7–8 million. It ultimately grossed $16.1 million worldwide against a $15 million budget.

Points of Criticism

• Writing and Pacing: The script is frequently criticized as underdeveloped, inconsistent, and failing to elevate its “solid premise.” The satire is often described as “heavy-handed,” “on the nose,” and “unsubtle.” The film drags in the middle, taking too long for the horror elements to begin.
• Characters: Elliot Kintner is widely seen as an unlikeable protagonist, making his redemption arc feel unearned. Ridley Kintner is viewed as a passive, underdeveloped version of Ortega’s typical angsty teen role. The Leopold family are considered one-dimensional, cartoonish villains.
• Plot and Logic: A significant continuity error noted by multiple viewers is the jarring jump from night to bright daylight during the film’s climax. The ending, where the unicorns revive Elliot and then attack the police car, was seen as nonsensical and divisive.
• Wasted Potential: Many viewers felt the film wasted the talents of its cast, particularly Anthony Carrigan, who was given minimal screen time.

Points of Praise

• Performances: Will Poulter’s comedic performance as Shepard Leopold is almost universally cited as the film’s standout highlight. Anthony Carrigan is also praised for his dry, humorous delivery as Griff.
• Entertainment Value: Despite its flaws, many viewers found the film to be an “absurdly fun,” “campy,” and “entertaining popcorn movie.” The gory and creative kills were frequently praised as a high point.
• Originality: The premise of using unicorns in a horror context was seen as refreshing and original, and the film was lauded for its ambition as a “big swing” by A24.

The Cast

• Paul Rudd as Elliot Kintner: A widowed lawyer and workaholic vice president of ethics and compliance for Leopold Laboratories. Rudd plays against his usual lovable type, making Elliot a shill who is too eager to please his boss, even at the cost of his conscience and relationship with his daughter.
• Jenna Ortega as Ridley Kintner: Elliot’s teenage daughter, a self-proclaimed anti-establishment art history student who has a better moral compass than everyone else in the movie. Her performance is singled out as one of the best parts, providing the necessary heart and grounding the film’s wilder elements.
• Richard E. Grant as Odell Leopold: The billionaire, cancer-stricken head of the pharmaceutical family and Elliot’s boss. Grant is predictably fantastic, chewing the scenery as the cartoonishly greedy plutocrat.
• Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold: Odell’s wife, who is just as keen to exploit the magical discovery for profit. Leoni brings a welcome wacky energy to the role.
• Will Poulter as Shepard Leopold: Odell and Belinda’s grifter adult son. Poulter delivers a memorable, over-the-top performance as the spoiled heir, whose efforts to experiment with the unicorn’s horn dust are a highlight of the film’s dark humor.
• Anthony Carrigan as Griff: The Leopold family’s long-suffering butler/assistant. Fans of Barry will recognize Carrigan’s dry delivery, which adds a lot to his minimal screen time.

Special Effects

The special effects are a real mixed bag here, which is kind of what gives the movie a fun, late-80s horror vibe, whether that was intentional or not. The unicorn design itself is cool—these aren’t the pastel fairy tale versions. They are described as ancient, almost prehistoric, with rhino-like bulk, razor-sharp talons, and a fearsome look. Critics are split, however, on the execution. Some felt the CGI was “shoddy” and “cheap,” particularly in broad daylight, arguing that the budget limitations were noticeable. On the other hand, there’s a surprising amount of practical effects and puppetry used for the creatures, which makes them feel more tangible during the close-up, gory kill scenes. The final bloody rampages are satisfyingly gruesome, even if the visuals aren’t always perfectly polished. Let’s call it “charming B-movie technicality.”

Rating

4 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis and Plot Breakdown

Elliot Kintner, a recently widowed lawyer and ethics VP at the pharmaceutical company Leopold Laboratories, takes his estranged teenage daughter, Ridley, on a trip to a secluded, high-end wilderness retreat in the Canadian Rockies. Elliot is there to meet his terminally ill billionaire boss, Odell Leopold, and secure a significant position by proving his loyalty.

While driving through the Leopold’s private nature preserve, Elliot, distracted by a phone call from his demanding boss, accidentally hits a young, horse-like creature with his car. Ridley, with her greater compassion and anti-establishment views, is horrified, but Elliot, panicking about being late and covering up the crime, bludgeons the injured creature to death with a tire iron and stuffs the carcass in the trunk of the rental car. Ridley briefly touches the unicorn’s horn, experiencing a fleeting, magical connection.

Upon arrival at the luxurious Leopold compound, the family—Odell, his wife Belinda, and their adult son Shepard—quickly discover the unicorn’s body, which Elliot failed to dispose of properly. They soon realize that the mythical creature is no ordinary beast: its blood and horn shavings possess incredible, miraculous curative properties. Odell, who is dying of cancer, is completely healed, and others experience minor but profound curative effects.

Driven by insatiable corporate greed, the Leopold family (a transparent satire of Big Pharma dynasties) immediately moves to secretly exploit this discovery to create a new pharmaceutical goldmine. They enlist a team of scientists to harvest the creature’s remains. Ridley objects, viewing their actions as a horrific desecration of a magical being, putting her at odds with her father and their hosts.

The situation spirals into a creature-feature nightmare when the initial unicorn is revealed to have been a baby. Its parents, two monstrous, full-grown unicorns, arrive on the scene to seek bloody, supernatural revenge on the humans who killed their offspring. Chaos ensues as the unicorns go on a rampage, brutally killing the scientists, mercenaries, and the greedy Leopold family members in spectacularly gruesome ways. Elliot, forced to confront the consequences of his ambition and moral compromises, must fight for his and Ridley’s survival. Ultimately, Ridley’s inherent respect for the natural world and the creatures—as opposed to her father’s corporate obedience—allows her to survive the onslaught, providing a final, if slightly safe, message about capitalist exploitation and the wisdom of nature. The climax sees the father and daughter having to work together, though the experience leaves a permanent mark on Elliot’s soul (and some of the Leopolds’ vital organs on the wall).

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Photos

Film Overview

Death of a Unicorn is an American film categorized as a dark fantasy, comedy horror, and creature feature. It was written and directed by Alex Scharfman in his feature directorial debut and distributed by A24.

Director	Alex Scharfman
Writer	Alex Scharfman
Production Companies	Ley Line Entertainment, Square Peg, Secret Engine, Monoceros Media, The Royal Budapest Film Co
Distributor	A24
Genre	Dark Fantasy, Comedy Horror, Satire
Running Time	107 minutes
Budget	$15 million
Box Office	$16.1 million
Release Dates	World Premiere (SXSW): March 8, 2025 (Theatrical): March 28, 2025 HBO Max (Streaming): July 25, 2025

Notable Quotes

1. Odell Leopold: “This is a pharmaceutical goldmine! We’ve got to find a way to monetize the… the… whatever-it-is.”
2. Ridley Kintner: “You hit a mythical creature with a rental car! That’s the most ‘you’ thing I could possibly imagine.”
3. Ridley Kintner: “They’re not glittery. They’re fanged. You look at the tapestries, Dad. They’re a warning against hubris!”
4. Shepard Leopold: “I am a visual thinker! And right now, I’m visualizing a world where I’m immortal!”
5. Griff: “This is not the best use of time.” (Comment made while barricading a door with a grandfather clock)

Meet the Characters of ‘Death of a Unicorn’

Before we dive into the chaotic world of Death of a Unicorn, a film that masterfully blends dark comedy, horror, and scathing satire, it’s helpful to get acquainted with the key players. The story kicks off when a work-obsessed father and his teenage daughter take a trip to his billionaire boss’s remote estate. Their weekend goes bizarrely off-script when they accidentally hit a mythical creature with their car, setting off a gruesome chain of events fueled by corporate greed and supernatural revenge. This simple guide will introduce you to the main characters and their roles in this wild ride.

The Kintners: The Father-Daughter Duo

At the heart of the story are Elliot and Ridley Kintner, the father-daughter pair who find themselves trapped between their own moral failings and the insatiable greed of their hosts.

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd)

• A Widowed Workaholic: Elliot is a corporate lawyer and the vice president of ethics and compliance for Leopold Laboratories, a title that serves as the film’s central irony, as his moral compromises drive the plot.
• Desperate for Approval: His primary motivation is to please his boss, Odell Leopold, and secure a significant promotion. He embodies the moral decay required to climb the corporate ladder, a key theme in the film’s critique of wealth disparity.
• The Catalyst: In a departure from his typically lovable persona, Paul Rudd portrays Elliot as an initially unlikeable figure who accidentally hits the unicorn and whose willingness to cover it up ignites the film’s central conflict.

Ridley Kintner (Jenna Ortega)

• The Activist Teen: Ridley is Elliot’s daughter, an art history student with a sharp, anti-establishment worldview. Crucially, her knowledge of medieval lore, specifically The Unicorn Tapestries, informs her warnings against exploiting the creature.
• The Moral Compass: Horrified by the commodification of the majestic creature, Ridley consistently acts as the story’s conscience. Critics widely praised Jenna Ortega’s performance, noting that she provides the film’s necessary “heart” and grounds its wilder satirical elements.
• The Mystical Connection: After touching the unicorn’s horn, Ridley forms a unique, spiritual connection with the creatures. This bond allows her to understand the immense danger the Leopolds are inviting.

Their complicated situation is only made worse by the cartoonishly wealthy family hosting them for the weekend.

The Leopolds: The Cartoonishly Greedy Family

The Leopold family serves as the film’s satirical takedown of the ultra-wealthy elite and the Big Pharma industry. They are hilariously awful caricatures representing pure, unadulterated greed.

Family Member	Who They Are	Function in the Satire
Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant)	The cancer-stricken billionaire CEO of Leopold Laboratories and Elliot’s boss.	After the unicorn’s horn cures his cancer, he becomes the main driver of the plan to dissect and monetize the creature’s miraculous healing properties.
Belinda Leopold (Téa Leoni)	Odell’s wife and a wealthy socialite.	She is just as keen as her husband to exploit the magical discovery for profit, showing no moral reservations about their grotesque plan.
Shepard Leopold (Will Poulter)	The spoiled, entitled adult son of Odell and Belinda.	Widely considered a comedic highlight, Will Poulter’s over-the-top performance embodies generational privilege and dark humor, especially in his memorable attempts to recreationally use the unicorn’s horn dust.

While the two families drive the central conflict, another character makes a lasting impression.

A Memorable Mention: The Butler

Griff (Anthony Carrigan)

Griff is the Leopold family’s long-suffering butler and assistant. A fan-favorite standout, he steals the show with his minimal screen time, providing a source of dry, stoic humor with perfect deadpan delivery. He acts as a put-upon observer to the chaos unfolding at the estate, representing the silent complicity that enables the whims of the ultra-rich.

Ready to Watch!

Now that you’ve met the key players, you can see the central conflict taking shape: the moral struggle of the Kintner family is pitted against the insatiable, cartoonish greed of the Leopolds. The film uses this dynamic to fuel a unique blend of horror, dark comedy, and “eat-the-rich” satire. With this guide, you are now fully prepared to understand the key relationships, motivations, and satirical targets in Death of a Unicorn. Enjoy the show!

Death of a Unicorn: Complete Plot Summary (Spoilers)

1.0 The Fateful Journey and the Initial Incident

1.1 The Kintners’ Strained Relationship

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd), a recently widowed corporate lawyer and vice president of ethics at Leopold Laboratories, and his estranged teenage daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), embark on a weekend trip to a remote estate in the Canadian Rockies. The trip’s purpose is for Elliot to secure a major promotion from his terminally ill, billionaire boss, Odell Leopold. Their father-daughter relationship is frayed; Elliot is a workaholic shill desperate to please his employer, while Ridley is an anti-establishment art history student whose moral compass clashes with her father’s naked corporate ambition.

1.2 The Accident

While driving through the Leopolds’ private nature preserve, a distracted Elliot accidentally strikes a small, horse-like creature with his SUV. As Ridley rushes to the injured animal, she touches its horn and is immediately overwhelmed by strange, cosmic visions. Panicked about the consequences and desperate to hide the evidence, Elliot abruptly stops her connection by bludgeoning the creature with a tire iron. He then stuffs the body into the trunk, with both of them splattered in the creature’s iridescent blood.

This grim secret in tow, the Kintners continue their journey to the luxurious Leopold compound.

2.0 A Miraculous—and Terrible—Discovery

2.1 Unforeseen Side Effects

Shortly after their arrival, Elliot and Ridley discover the unicorn’s blood has miraculous healing properties. Ridley’s acne has completely cleared up, and Elliot’s chronic allergies and poor vision have vanished, offering the first taste of the creature’s incredible power.

2.2 The Greedy Hosts

The Kintners’ hosts, the Leopold family and their staff, are the primary antagonists of the story, a collection of cartoonishly awful caricatures driven by an insatiable appetite for profit and power.

Character	Role	Primary Motivation
Odell Leopold	Billionaire CEO of Leopold Laboratories	To exploit the unicorn’s healing properties to cure his cancer and create a pharmaceutical goldmine.
Belinda Leopold	Odell’s opportunistic socialite wife	To capitalize on the discovery for immense personal and financial gain, matching her husband’s greed.
Shepard Leopold	The Leopolds’ spoiled, entitled adult son	To snort, smoke, and drink unicorn horn dust in every way possible, convinced it will make him a godlike “visual thinker.”
Shaw	The Leopold family’s personal assistant	To enable and execute the Leopolds’ exploitative plans with ruthless efficiency.
Griff	The Leopolds’ long-suffering butler	To stoically endure his employers’ absurd and dangerous whims with dry, understated wit.

2.3 The Plan for Exploitation

The Leopolds quickly discover the unicorn—still alive—in the Kintners’ car. After their assistant Shaw shoots it, they enlist their private team of scientists to study the creature. The plan to monetize the unicorn is solidified when a concoction made from its grated horn is injected into Odell, instantly curing his late-stage cancer. Seeing a monumental profit, Odell orders the unicorn to be taken to their laboratory for further harvesting.

2.4 Ridley’s Warning

Appalled by the desecration of a magical creature, Ridley researches The Unicorn Tapestries, including a conjectured restoration of details missing from “The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden” tapestry—a fictional element within the film’s world. She warns the family that mistreating a unicorn will invite a severe and violent supernatural response. Her concerns, rooted in folklore and reverence, are contemptuously dismissed by the Leopolds, who see only a financial opportunity.

As the family proceeds with their ghastly plan, they remain blissfully unaware that they have sealed their own horrific fate.

3.0 Nature’s Bloody Vengeance

3.1 The Parents’ Arrival

The creature the Kintners hit was merely a foal, and its two parents—ancient, prehistoric beasts with rhino-like bulk and razor-sharp talons—soon arrive seeking revenge. In a brutal attack that turns the film from black comedy to full-on horror, they savagely kill Dr. Song and several security personnel. The creatures become passive only when they encounter Ridley, with whom they share a mystical connection.

3.2 The Failed Hunt

Feeling immortal after being cured of cancer, the hubristic Odell organizes a hunting party to capture the adult unicorns, forcing Elliot to join them. The hunt backfires spectacularly when the party is ambushed by the unicorn pair in a lethal trap. Both Odell and his assistant, Shaw, are brutally killed.

3.3 Shepard’s Descent

During the escalating chaos, Shepard’s greed and delusion intensify. He begins snorting the grated unicorn horn dust, which gives him a god complex. Convinced he can harness the creature’s power, he forces another scientist, Dr. Bhatia, to saw off the foal’s entire horn, a desecration made all the more horrific when Ridley realizes the foal was never truly dead.

With the hunting party decimated, the enraged unicorns turn their attention toward the main estate where the last survivors have taken refuge.

4.0 The Siege at the Estate

4.1 Trapped Survivors

The vengeful unicorns lay siege to the Leopold mansion, trapping the five remaining survivors inside:

• Elliot Kintner
• Ridley Kintner
• Belinda Leopold
• Shepard Leopold
• Dr. Bhatia

4.2 A Grisly End

The unicorns breach the mansion’s defenses. The survivors send Dr. Bhatia outside to offer the foal back as a peace offering. Upon realizing its horn is missing, the unicorns tear him apart. Soon after, one of the unicorns gets inside and finds and disembowels Belinda, leaving Elliot, Ridley, and Shepard as the last ones standing.

With nowhere left to run, the remaining survivors are forced into a final, desperate confrontation.

5.0 A Final Confrontation and Magical Resolution

5.1 Elliot’s Sacrifice

In the film’s climax, Shepard holds Ridley hostage at arrow-point. Having learned from his horn-dust-induced visions that unicorns are docile toward a “pure-hearted maiden,” he intends to use her to control and capture the creatures. Elliot, in a final act of redemption, steals the severed horn to lure one of the unicorns away from Ridley. He manages to stab Shepard with the horn but is mortally wounded when Shepard shoots him with an arrow. As Shepard collapses, one of the unicorns kicks him, ending his life.

5.2 A Miraculous Revival

As Ridley mourns her dying father, the parent unicorns witness her genuine grief and remorse. In a final, stunning act of magic, they revive not only Elliot from his fatal wound but also their own foal. With their family restored, the unicorns depart peacefully, leaving the blood-soaked Kintners amidst the carnage.

The magical resolution gives way to the harsh arrival of human law, which cannot comprehend the otherworldly events that transpired.

6.0 An Unlikely Escape

6.1 Arrested for the Carnage

The estate’s butler, Griff, returns with the police. Upon discovering the massacre, the authorities are unable to believe the Kintners’ insane story about killer unicorns. Covered in blood, Elliot and Ridley are promptly arrested as the primary suspects in the killings.

6.2 The Unicorns’ Intervention

The film’s final scene shows the Kintners being driven away in the back of a police car. The unicorns reappear, and as the Kintners put on their seatbelts and brace for impact, the creatures ram the car off a lakeside road, freeing them from custody. The closing credits display the imagined tapestry from Ridley’s research, which mirrors the film’s events and includes a final image of a carriage being rammed into a lake with two occupants swimming safely away.