Death of a Unicorn
A24 | Release Date: March 28, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
25
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistChase HutchinsonMar 8, 2025
It all makes for a clever, measured, mirthful, and joyous film with the real potential to be a modern monster movie classic whose legs could easily see it sprinting into being a routine rewatch every single year. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 27, 2025
Overall, Death of Unicorn falls short of being the Next Great Cult Classic but there’s enough here to enjoy for those who appreciate offbeat horror that doesn’t skimp on the grotesque aspects of the genre. Read full review
75
PolygonRafael MotamayorMar 27, 2025
Death of a Unicorn delivers on its biggest promise — a gnarly, funny creature feature with a fantastic ensemble, and all the unicorn-themed gore you can imagine. Read full review
75
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerMar 27, 2025
The suspense is solid, with just enough glorious gore to satisfy most audiences, and there are little touches throughout the film that sometimes feel plot-motivated, sometimes don’t, but all prove compelling. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 10, 2025
Writer/director Alex Scharfman’s script is clever, but this truly feels like the kind of project that collapses with the wrong people in it. Every member of this film’s ensemble understood the assignment, elevating this unique creature feature from just another disposable “Jurassic Park” riff into something memorable through their comic timing and group chemistry. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRocco T. ThompsonMar 9, 2025
Death of a Unicorn taps into the anti-capitalist strain in late-20th-century monster movies from Alien to Jurassic Park by tracing a clever through line from the unicorns of antiquity to the present. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 27, 2025
Here, at least, the performers — who include Téa Leoni as Odell’s wife, the very funny Will Poulter as the Leopold son and Anthony Carrigan as a put-upon servant — have the kinds of ductile faces, rubber-band moves and vocal dexterity that can keep even sluggish material moving. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineTrace SauveurMar 9, 2025
Death of a Unicorn may not be much more than another peg in an era of eat-the-rich cinema that has certainly become oversaturated in this form, yet time and time again its reflection of our times feels befitting. Read full review
70
ColliderNate RichardMar 9, 2025
Death of a Unicorn is a delight; a clever, sharp-horned, and violent horror-comedy that demands to be seen on the big screen with an audience. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiMar 9, 2025
Death of a Unicorn is incredibly entertaining. It's weird and a bit goofy (in the best way), with a satisfying ending and character interactions that are off the wall. Read full review
65
LooperReuben BaronMar 12, 2025
Not a great movie, but "horror-comedy where unicorns kill rich people" is the sort of high concept that guarantees some level of entertainment, and excellent casting helps compensate for its weaknesses on the screenplay level. Read full review
65
SlashfilmMichael BoyleMar 8, 2025
If you want to watch a bunch of silly rich people get murdered by a unicorn, this is the film for you. And if you want to watch Jenna Ortega co-lead a horror/comedy slasher movie again, you're gonna have a good time. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 27, 2025
Writer and director Alex Sharfman’s splurchy dark comedy carves itself into halves, a clever first half followed by a more routine second one. Yet it’s a feature film debut signaling a filmmaker of actual wit. So you go with it — I did, anyway, most of it, more or less — even when its sense of tone and direction goes sideways. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 11, 2025
Rather than a slick, high-concept fantasy action picture in the vein of Everything Everywhere All at Once, here is a B-movie throwback with its roots in the pulpy creature features of the 1950s. Viewed from this perspective, the shonky special effects are just part of the fun. Read full review
60
iEmily BootleApr 4, 2025
It’s a bog-standard, eat-the-rich message. But it does at least give the otherwise ridiculous unicorn story something to hang its horn on. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMar 10, 2025
With its ambitious gonzo premise, Death of a Unicorn starts off on strong footing, but it’s quickly apparent that the story doesn’t have that many places to go. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 9, 2025
As first features go, Death of a Unicorn is considerably more ambitious and imaginative than so much of what studios greenlight these days, which goes a fair distance to excuse some of its flaws. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerMar 26, 2025
This boneheaded movie’s got a dull point, but at least a lot of rich jerks get murderized by fanged, stab-happy unicorns. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 27, 2025
Unlike its unique and fantastical title creature, it’s a commonplace monster mash which serves up only frenzied commotion and tired social commentary. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenApr 2, 2025
Partly an impale-the-rich horror comedy, partly a fantasy monster movie, and partly a father-daughter trauma drama, Death of a Unicorn tackles more tones and ideas than a firmly established filmmaker could probably manage, so it’s no surprise that writer-director Alex Scharfman, making his feature debut, struggles to rein this in. But you have to admire the ambition and bonkers vision. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 1, 2025
What should be a nasty hoot, however, is closer to a ho-hum. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversMar 28, 2025
Charm magnets Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd do their best to lift this horror comedy out of the quicksand of cliches that surround it but it’s a losing proposition. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 27, 2025
Horror comedy, alas, is a tricky balance, and making a movie dance on a unicorn’s horn is trickier still; this one clearly needed a little more unicorn dust. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrMar 27, 2025
Perhaps an experienced director could have pulled it off, but Scharfman isn’t there yet, and the result is a tonally confused, gracelessly shot and edited misfire that squanders its premise on escalating suspense and ugly, unconvincing digital effects. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMar 27, 2025
The slasher-style kills are effective, and a couple of the tossed-off quips are good for some chuckles. (I liked when Leoni informed her guests that her butler was “making my famous moussaka” for dinner.) But a lot of the film lives up to its title. It’s just lifeless. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleChris VognarMar 26, 2025
The blinkered greed of the ruling class makes for pretty low-hanging fruit, and “Death of a Unicorn” can come off as smug and exceedingly pleased with itself. Writer/director Alex Scharfman runs out of places for his story to move as the plot fails to thicken. Read full review
50
ObserverLaura BabiakMar 24, 2025
Though there are glimmers of greatness tucked away in this film, its full potential goes unrealized and this fantastical, pharmaceutical flick ends up surprisingly unmemorable. Read full review
50
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaMar 12, 2025
Death of a Unicorn features fun fantasy ideas, but suffers from repetitive execution. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 9, 2025
Unfortunately, the ending, like so much of what came before, is missing that certain magic, which not even a unicorn can provide. Read full review
45
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 27, 2025
A pharmaceutical-industry satire so flaccid that it’s in desperate need of Cialis, Death of a Unicorn is destined to fade into the mythical margins of cinematic history, with future moviegoers convinced that – like its title creature – the film never really existed at all. Read full review
42
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMar 12, 2025
The lurching between genres, whether horror or comedy or heartfelt father-daughter movie, becomes increasingly transparent and frustrating as the movie tries to win our hearts back over with sentimental weepie moments in the film’s last act. Read full review
40
Little White LiesBillie WalkerApr 11, 2025
Death of a Unicorn relies heavily on a mythical gimmick and the comedic prowess of its cast, and yet gives neither actor or equine enough material to gallop with. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentApr 1, 2025
This is sadly unsuccessful as both an eat-the-rich satire and a schlocky B-movie. Not even Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega can rescue Death Of A Unicorn from expiring on arrival. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 28, 2025
Mostly, though, Death of a Unicorn just feels like exhausting, enforced fun: its plot goes everywhere all at once for no discernible reason. All the actors are appealing and engaged with the task at hand, but they're at the mercy of an unfocused plot. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 28, 2025
It has homicidal fantasy critters, lots of sharp and pointy horns, and absolutely no teeth. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMar 27, 2025
While the film is partially redeemed by a couple of surprisingly touching late scenes involving Ridley and her dad, for the most part it’s merely a weak satire in which we’re meant to cheer as the moneyed class gets a sanguinary comeuppance, with crushed skulls and spilled intestines presented as hilarious. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 12, 2025
There’s enough material for a rollicking 25-minute short in Death of a Unicorn, which unfortunately spreads its goods out over the stretch of a feature. Read full review
40
The GuardianAdrian HortonMar 9, 2025
By large, this beastly feature is exactly what you would expect it to be: fashioning itself different but in fact much like the others. A unicorn, this is not. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 31, 2025
Love the cast, and scattered moments of this play as cutting or funny. The problem is, almost every one of those bits is in the trailer, which plays as a lot more amusing than this drag. Read full review
20
The TimesKevin MaherApr 11, 2025
It doesn’t help either that the cheap-looking CGI unicorns are wildly unconvincing or that Jenna Ortega, as Elliot’s disaffected daughter Ridley, seems to have wandered on to the set from a different and far more subtle movie. Read full review
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