Death of a Unicorn

Death of a Unicorn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Scharfman
Written by	Alex Scharfman
Produced by	Lucas Joaquin Tyler Campellone Drew Houpt Lars Knudsen Alex Scharfman Tim Headington Theresa Steele Page
Starring	Paul Rudd Jenna Ortega Will Poulter Téa Leoni Richard E. Grant
Cinematography	Larry Fong
Edited by	Ron Dulin
Music by	Dan Romer Giosuè Greco
Production companies	Secret Engine Monoceros Media Square Peg The Royal Budapest Film Co Ley Line Entertainment
Distributed by	A24
Release dates	March 8, 2025 (2025-3-8) (SXSW) March 28, 2025 (2025-3-28) (United States)
Running time	107 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million[2]
Box office	$8.9 million[3]

Death of a Unicorn is a 2025 American comedy horror film written and directed by Alex Scharfman. 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 theatrically released in North America by A24 on March 28, 2025. It received mixed reviews from critics.

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 runs over a unicorn foal 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 hidden in their car. Shortly after their arrival, Ridley discovers that the unicorn's blood has cleaned away the acne on her face, and Elliot's vision has 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 capitalize on its capabilities. Having read the story behind The Unicorn Tapestries, Ridley argues that the Leopolds should not be messing with the unicorn, but they do not listen to her. While wheeling the unicorn away, the group is ambushed by a larger unicorn, who kills Dr. Song. After it escapes into the woods, Odell organizes a hunting party to kill it, with Elliot joining them.

Meanwhile, Shepard steals a vial of the unicorn's grated horn and orders another scientist, Dr. Bhatia, to saw off the unicorn's entire horn. Ridley realizes the unicorn is still alive and attempts to text Elliot to head back. At the same time, Elliot and the hunting party find the older unicorn, only to get ambushed by a second unicorn. The two bigger unicorns slaughter several people, including Odell and Shaw. The survivors learn that the unicorns are the parents of the unicorn foal, and they decide to offer them their child in the hopes that they will leave them alone. However, the plan backfires, as the unicorns discover the horn missing and kill Dr. Bhatia.

One of the unicorns follows the remaining survivors into the Leopolds' estate and disembowels Belinda. Elliot, having stolen the horn, offers to keep the other unicorn distracted by luring it outside so Ridley can escape. The next morning, Ridley is held at arrow-point by Shepard, having learned that unicorns are docile towards pure-hearted people after experiencing visions from snorting the grated horn he stole. The two unicorns arrive and immediately lay themselves on the ground to be comforted by Ridley while Elliot stabs Shepard with the horn, only to get stabbed back with his arrow.

As Shepard is fatally bucked by a unicorn, Elliot dies from his injuries, but the unicorns bring him and their foal back to life with their magic. However, he and Ridley are promptly arrested after the Leopolds' butler Griff—having escaped to get help—arrives with the police who, upon seeing the many corpses around the estate and the Kintners' bloody clothes, assume they have committed a mass murder. As the Kintners are being driven to jail, the three unicorns arrive and, upon seeing their predicament, help them out by ramming themselves into the police car, causing it to swerve off the road as the Kintners brace for impact.

• 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
• Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold, Odell's wife
• Richard E. Grant as Odell Leopold, Elliot's boss
• Anthony Carrigan as Griff, the Leopolds' butler
• Jessica Hynes as Shaw, the Leopold family personal assistant
• Sunita Mani as Dr. Bhatia, a scientist
• Steve Park as Dr. Song, a scientist
• Kathryn Erbe as the voice of The Unicorn Tapestries's narrator

Death of a Unicorn was announced in May 2023, with Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd set to star in the film for Alex Scharfman.^[4] 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.^[5]

Filming began in Hungary in July 2023.^[6] 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.^[7]

In November 2023, it was announced that the score would be composed by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies.^[8] However, in February 2025, Dan Romer and Giosuè Greco were revealed to have taken over composing duties.^[9]

The official trailer, released on December 18, 2024, contained a rendition of "Good Vibrations" by American rock band the Beach Boys.^[10]

Musician St. Vincent released the soundtrack song "DOA" on March 28, 2025.^[11]

Death of a Unicorn premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest on March 8, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on March 28, 2025.^[12][13][14]

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 2,800 theaters in its opening weekend.^[15] 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][16]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 169 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."^[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[18] 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".^[19] 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".^[20]

• Death of a Unicorn at IMDb