Death of a Unicorn (2025) – A Horror Movie Review a Day Halloween 2025 - October 20th
Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s day 20 of our 31 days of Halloween 2025 movie-review-a-day feature. Let’s be honest, killer unicorns impaling a bunch of obnoxious humans sounds like a great horror movie plot, right? Well, let’s take a look at why today’s movie, Death of a Unicorn, doesn’t quite deliver on expectations.
I’ve been catching up on a lot of 2025 releases this month. This is going to one of the last, though. I really need to see this October out with some horror classics. It’s been a real mixed bag when it comes to 2025 releases and today’ movie is no exception.
The story here is pretty simple, a Lawyer father and his rebellious daughter hit a unicorn while on their way to a business meeting. Unsure of what to do, they throw the body into the car and keep on moving. After arriving at the home of the father’s client, their business discussions are interrupted by a ruckus outside. Little do they realise, they are about to unleash a magical vengeance of mythological proportions.
I Wasn’t Exactly Excited For This One
This was a bit of a tough movie to get excited about. While I absolutely love the potential of the story and the thought of some unicorn creature feature carnage. It really didn’t seem as though this movie was aimed at an actual horror audience.
It’s clear, early on, that it is going to have a strong lean towards comedy and familial drama. This is something I am rarely a fan of. To be perfectly honest, it’s a really delicate balancing act. Too much comedy and you lose the scares, too many scares and the film isn’t funny. When you are throwing in familial stuff as well, it only gets more precarious.
There’s always that distinct risk that those themes will clash and, ultimately, detract from the horror. This is a particularly big problem when it takes the horror a long time to get going, as is the case here. We start off with the drama stuff. It’s the usual father daughter thing you might expect and not remotely original.
Paul Rudd’s Elliot and Jenna Ortega’s Ridley have a bit of a strained relationship. He works too much, she’s a bit rebellious, the usual stuff. After hitting a small unicorn, Ridley touches its horn and suddenly experiences cosmic visions. Not before her father bashes its head in with a tyre iron, though.
These visions, obviously, hint at her not just being any ordinary vapid, vaping teen. She’s going to be the star of the show, one way or another. There’s one more thing. The unicorn’s blood instantly cures the acne breakout she has been experiencing. What do you know? The magical mythological creature actually is magical and it’s those healing properties that will cause all the trouble.
Creature Feature, Familial Drama, Or Satirical Comedy?
When the pair arrive at the estate of Richard E. Grant’s Odell Leopold, things switch up a little. The familial stuff is abandoned rather hastily and we get our first big tonal pivot. Death of a Unicorn quickly turns into more of a satire of the mega-rich courtesy of the almost comic book villain like Odell Leopold and his pompous family.
These guys are ridiculous. Odell is sickly and determined to go to any lengths to get better. Even to the point of forcing scientists to work around the clock finding a cure for his ailment. I am sure you can probably see where our magical unicorn is about to come in? His wife is demanding, his son is absolutely obnoxious, and the family’s staff are easy to feel sorry for.
For the next thirty minutes or so, we share our time with them. It’s all interpersonal family drama stuff, the occasional laugh, and a drip feeding of minor exposition. We can’t forget about our unicorn that’s currently tearing up the insides of Elliot’s car, though. This is where things change yet again and Death of a Unicorn transforms into a full blown creature feature complete with gory deaths, unicorn hunts, and an utterly farcical side plot.
Feeling any whiplash, yet? This is a movie that is very tonally confused and really unsure of what it wants to be. Is it a family fantasy? Is it a horror comedy? Or is it a satire poking fun at the rich? I’m not really sure because it is trying desperately to be all of those things.
A Bit of Everything, A Lot of Nothing
I really struggle to see who this film is aimed at. The familial drama stuff feels very misplaced given the level of gore and the definitely not child-appropriate themes. But I can’t shake the feeling that adults won’t appreciate the sugary father-daughter stuff, either. Even teens will probably find a lot of that stuff completely unpalatable, too.
I’m not even sure if fantasy fans are the target audience because the more fantastical elements of the story are not that well developed. This doesn’t feel like a magical world where mythological creatures existing makes sense or where it can at least be explained away with some interesting fantasy story-telling. It’s just an ordinary, bland, world with limited intrigue and no reason to prompt wonder.
The satirical elements probably won’t hit for fans of that type of comedy. Much of it is witless to the point of feeling a bit unnecessary. This is a social commentary on an issue that has been talked about a thousand times before and is ruthlessly overdone. It’s not even an intelligent or challenging take on the topic.
That leaves us with the horror but there are problems there, too. When the bloodletting actually starts, it’s actually a bit of a shock. You aren’t prepared for it because the story has meandered so much on the redundant family stuff and satire. While it’s not bad and does have its moments, nobody would describe Death of a Unicorn as thoroughly scary. It’s more of a gore-fest than anything. It ultimately lacks identity and that drags everything down.
Get To The Killer Unicorns, Already!
I suppose, at its core, this is a creature feature but it never really feels as though writer and director Alex Scharfman was all that comfortable ticking just that box, alone. Instead, it’s a mad mix of shady business dealings, science-fiction stuff, fantastical mythological creatures, familial drama, and a whole lot of almost slapstick comedy.
The distinct lack of applied focus means that everything feels a bit half baked. Characters aren’t well fleshed out, we don’t know all that much about Ridley and Elliot’s past relationship, the horror never fully takes over, and the more fantastical elements of the plot aren’t expanded on outside of some brief explanations. It’s quite ordinary and this makes it very unsatisfying.
I think that Scharfman would have been far better served by just jumping straight to the killer Unicorns. This is what everyone paid the price of admission for so let’s shave twenty minutes off the film and just get to it. None of the side stuff is really necessary and it adds very little to the plot. A lot of it is so sugary and sticky that it feels hugely out of place anyway.
A Few Redeeming Qualities (and Some Terrible CGI)
So, what works? Well, Paul Rudd is great, as always, and very likable, even when you consider a misguided attempt to turn him to the dark side halfway through. If you are here for killer unicorns, which I am sure most of you are, you will probably enjoy that element quite a lot. The effects are absolutely terrible and the CGI is punishing on the eyes but there are things to like if you push that to one side.
Some of the kills, for example, are a lot of fun and there are even a few tense moments scattered throughout. You wouldn’t expect a group of characters sneaking around under threat of being impaled by a unicorn to actually work but it kinda does. It will probably have you begging for more but disappointed that it took so long to emerge in the first place.
Jenna Ortega is well liked by many viewers so that’s always a plus if you are a fan. She starts off very lethargic but gets a lot better later on. Will Poulter is tons of fun. He’s smarmy, self important, and hilariously cowardly, for the most part. Richard E. Grant seems to be having a great time hamming it up in an ultra-villain role that is really quite a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing Téa Leoni, as well.
The absurdity of the script actually creates some inadvertent humour every now and then which is worth a mention, I suppose. Some of the moments where Death of a Unicorn leans into the macabre also work pretty well. Nobody is safe from ending up on the business end of the Unicorn’s horn and that makes for some surprisingly dark moments. Be careful who you root for in this movie.
Should You Watch Death of a Unicorn
Death of a Unicorn is tonally confused which, ultimately, impacts heavily on the level of enjoyment viewers might have. Its strong focus on satire and familial drama detracts from some, ultimately, rather enjoyable creature feature stuff. While it does manage a few laughs thanks to great performances from its all-star cast, it would have benefited from leaning fully into the fantasy b-movie stuff. It’s not awful as a pop-corn horror but it never really finds its feet which leaves it feeling a bit half-baked and rather unsatisfying.
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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.
A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.
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