Director/Screenplay – Alex Scharfman, Producers – Tyler Campellone, Tim Headington, Drew Houpt, Lucas Joaquin, Lars Knudsen, Theresa Steele Page & Alex Scharfman, Photography – Larry Fong, Music – Giosue Greco & Dan Romer, Visual Effects Supervisor – Andrew Orloff, Visual Effects/Creature Design – Zoic Studios (Supervisors – Ian Fenton & Rob Price), Creature Concept Development – Weta Workshop, Special Effects Supervisor – Endre “Bandi” Korda, Puppets & Prosthetics – Filmefex (Designers – Zsolt Egressy & Ivan Poharnok), Production Design – Amy Williams. Production Company – Ley Line Entertainment/Square Peg/Secret Engine.
Cast
Jenna Ortega (Ridley Kintner), Paul Rudd (Elliot Kintner), Richard E. Grant (Odell Leopold), Will Poulter (Shepard Leopold), Téa Leoni (Belinda Leopold), Anthony Carrigan (Griff), Jessica Hynes (Shaw), Sunita Mani (Dr Bhatia), Stephen Park (Dr Song)
Plot
Elliot Kintner has been invited to spend the weekend at the private estate of his employer, the aging billionaire Odell Leopold. Elliot brings with him his seventeen-year-old daughter Ridley who he has recently taken custody of following the death of his wife. Elliot is hoping to persuade Odell to sign papers that will allow him to create a charity trust. As they drive up to the remote estate, they crash into an animal on the road. Upon examination, Rudley realises it is a unicorn, just before Elliot clubs it with a tire iron to put it out of its misery. At the estate, they realise that the unicorn is still alive. The Leopolds becomes fascinated with it. Ridley discovers that the blood of the unicorn can heal. This is immediately ingested by Odell who makes a complete physical remission from cancer. He then sets about trying to market the unicorn blood. However, Ridley has been researching the unicorn tapestries and realises that this will not end well. This is born out as the unicorn’s family come attacking and slaughtering everybody in the house to rescue their child.
Death of a Unicorn was a directorial debut for Alex Scharfman, previously a producer on a number of indie films going back to the early 2010s that include Resurrection (2022) and House of Spoils (2024). The film is executive produced by Ari Aster, director of films like Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019) and Beau is Afraid (2023), and is released via A24.
Unicorns are figures out of mythology that date back to Ancient Greece and earlier. They appear on screen in numerous fantasy films from the Harry Potter series to Onward (2020), Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) and most exquisitely Legend (1985). On the other hand, Death of a Unicorn is a unicorn film with a difference. I initially resisted sitting down to watch as I expected it would be something cutsie about a girl who protects a unicorn – maybe something like Prancer (1989) but with a unicorn instead of Santa’s reindeer, at its best something as magical as the animated The Last Unicorn (1983). Instead, I was complete surprised by what I found – something that entirely defies expectations of being any type of standard fantasy film.
The difference becomes evident from the outset as we follow Paul Rudd and daughter Jenna Ortega as they set out driving. The dialogue is sharp and acerbic, the relationship between them prickly, not at all anything resembling a family film. When we come across the unicorn they have just run down, Jenna seems to connect with it and experience transcendental visions, which are brutally interrupted as Paul Rudd beats it to death with a tire iron to put it out of its misery.
Jenna Ortega touches the unicorn where it is run down on the road(l to r) Jessica Hynes, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter, Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega and Anthony Carrigan regard the dead unicorn
The film finds its feet in a big way about twenty minutes in once we reach the lodge and are introduced to the family. As soon as the healing powers of the unicorn blood are discovered, Death of a Unicorn takes on a disturbing tone of a parable about greed. The dialogue that goes on in the background as the family members start wheeling, dealing and making plans is often hilariously deadpan and barbed.
During these scenes, the film brings out its acting big guns with Richard E. Grant as the dying patriarch and Téa Leoni as his wife. The surprise among these is Will Poulter, only a few years ago a child actor in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), We’re The Millers (2013) and The Maze Runner (2014). Both Richard E. Grant and unexpectedly Poulter, who spends the last half as a mad coked up fiend, give great performances, with Téa Leoni also standing up well if being somewhat overshadowed by these others. On the other side of the coin, I am yet to join the whole Jenna Ortega bandwagon and she lacks much of a presence here. (Rather amusingly, the film seems to want to give her the virgin’s magical powers over the unicorn but goes out of its way to never mention the word virgin – at most, she is called a ‘young maiden’).
While the first half of Death of a Unicorn is about the greed and avarice that surrounds the discovery of the unicorn, the second half goes in a different direction altogether. Here is almost becomes a Monster Movie where the various people in the lodge come under attack by ferocious unicorns. This seems designed to shatter all cutsie notions of what unicorns are and have the unicorns acting in vicious and nasty ways, including battering people around, impaling them on their horns and eviscerating them. Even the designs (from the Weta Workshop) emphasize something feral in its design.
