Of all the production companies that have constantly delivered innovative and exciting movies over the past few years, A24 really stands out. They have created medium hit after hit, especially in horror, with movies like Hereditary, Midsommar and more recently hits like The Brutalist, Heretic, and We Live In Time. It was a little surprising then that they seem to be dropping in quality of late with Babygirl, Opus and now, Death of a Unicorn. This newest comedy horror may have a decent idea, but it’s hard to maintain it for a feature. It might be mildly entertaining but falls short of past triumphs.

Elliot and his daughter, Ridley, are driving to have an essential and possible life-changing meeting with a wealthy family in the hills of Canada when they hit a horse-like creature. Investigating the animal, they discover it’s a unicorn. Taking it to the mansion, the family who made their money in pharmaceuticals realise that the horn has incredible medical powers and wants to exploit it. They don’t realise that the animal’s own family are out looking for their child and will stop at nothing to get them back.

Making his feature directorial debut, writer Alex Scharfman takes an unusual approach to the mystical creature and produces a Jaws/Jurassic Park hybrid with a handful of characters being hunted down by vengeful animals. Unicorns have become pretty, happy creatures al la My Little Pony. Here, he has returned to how they were looked upon in the Middle Ages as incredibly powerful but ultimately dangerous and not cute. The trouble is, once we have established this, the film struggles.

We get the family dynamics. Elliot and Ridley are as distant as they can be, especially after the death of Ridley’s mother. She resents being driven out to the middle of nowhere with her father, a man she has become estranged from, who could become incredibly rich if he can win the visiting family’s approval to become their lawyer. The CEO of the company, Odell, is dying from cancer and so must get his finances to share with his wife, Belinda and their son, the wayward Shepherd.

Most of the film’s first half establishes this group’s dynamics before the carnage begins. Throughout the film, there are interludes where Elliot tries to rekindle the relationship with his daughter. However, this slows things down. It doesn’t help that you know the wealthy family are intolerable, and you wait patiently for them to come to some grisly end, which means there is no tension.

The effects are pretty poor, too. With all the advances in computer-generated creatures, these look utterly unconvincing. This only leads to unintentional laughter in a film that lacks any real gags, considering that this is supposed to be a comedy horror. The gore is decent enough, but that’s all it is: an uneven gorefest that isn’t horrific, shocking, or inventive.

The real sadness is that here we have a talented cast wasted on the material to which they struggle to bring life. Paul Rudd, as Elliot, is fine, but you know he can improve. Jenna Ortega is a star in the making, but this doesn’t move her career forward. Richard E. Grant as Odell is fine as he tries to add that flair of quirkiness we know he can deliver. It is only Will Poulter as Shepard, the young man with more money than sense, who punches out his lines with aplomb and does the best with the material.

Death of a Unicorn is a disappointment. It has “could have been” written all over it with a more capable script, but this is very lacklustre. While it may entertain while watching it, it leaves you wanting something more substantial. Hopefully, this isn’t what’s to come from A24, considering how good their output has been in the past.

2 out of 5

Director: Alex Scharfman

Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E, Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Jessica Haynes, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Steve Park

Written by: Alex Scharfman

Running Time: 107 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 4th April 2025