Rent Death of a Unicorn (2025)

Confused, unfunny, and POINTless - Death of a Unicorn review by AER

Hollywood is going through an interesting time at the moment because we are back to seeing interesting films on the cinema once again. The stranglehold of remakes, reboots, sequels, superheroes is continuing to wain (thank goodness). However, Death of a Unicorn only serves to remind us that original content can yield bad results too. A few good ideas can't bring this wacky and unfunny horror comedy through. It reminded me of Hudson Hawk with it's big swings into thin air, it's cavalcade of unlikeable characters and (intentionally) shonky SFX. An all-star cast including Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Tea Leoni (where has she been!!!), Richard E Grant, and Steve Park pull in many different directions and (for once) the exposition of the original unicorn myth isn't made clear enough; all this adds up to a confusing, muddled, tonally uneven, unfunny film. It's not awful, but not as inspired or original as I had hoped it would be.

One Trick Phony - Death of a Unicorn review by griggs

Those early trailers had me genuinely excited—great cast, a comedy-horror-fantasy mash-up, A24 polish, Ari Aster attached. The online snark didn’t; dent my curiosity. I just wish the film returned the favour.

There’s a fun premise, but the execution trips itself. The jokes misfire, the horror pulls its punches, and the fantasy feels borrowed. It’s three decent films crammed into one confused script, and none of them win.

The derivatives grate the most. Those sterile quarantine scenes are pure Spielberg pastiche—E.T.’s white tunnels, Jurassic Park’s corporate menace and thunderous footsteps. You can almost hear the put: “Gen-X irony? Millennial nostalgia? Gen-Z bait?” In trying to hit every cohort, it commits to none.

The cast work hard, a few jokes land, but it’s mostly high concept with low follow-through. This could have been a cult classic. Instead, it’s a handsome misfire that aims everywhere and hits nowhere.