I first caught wind of Death of a Unicorn at the beginning of the year as I was bolstering my 2025 watchlist, and as more information and trailers became available, I became more interested. It was difficult to picture a world where I didn’t enjoy a Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega-led unicorn movie, and luckily I didn’t have to find out the hard way. Death of a Unicorn was pretty enjoyable, not groundbreaking, and a film worth the wait.

Predictably, Rudd and Ortega held the film up pretty well, providing strong moments in both the humor and the heart. The single dad-distant daughter path is well-tread by this point, and while this duo didn’t add much to the conversation, they were still a fun pair of leads. Will Poulter, without a doubt, held down the humor. More than anyone did he understand what movie he was in, and his part-pretentious, part-manic performance was my favorite (and the funniest) of the bunch.

As far as the unicorns are concerned, they were more scarily depicted than I was expecting, while still mysterious and mystical enough to keep me engaged. Their rougher presentation did lend itself to a more predictable storyline, but their novelty as unicorns kept the experience fun. I did wish for some more creative kills, though, because they used the same kill shot like three or four times and it got a bit stale. I enjoyed the spooky cinematography and the prominent, sweeping score, and while some of the ending was a little too silly for me (the touching horns and the magical cloud and whatnot), I liked the sweet family scene in the police car and the ambiguous involvement of the unicorns in the final shot.

Death of a Unicorn underwhelmed a bit when it came to creativity and susceptibility to horror tropes, but it made up for it in its humor, its lovable cast (thanks, Will Poulter), and an interesting exploration of the rich and the commodification of any and every advantage that befalls them. While my favorite depiction of unicorns in film and TV is probably still the self-righteous, princess-voiced one from Gravity Falls, Death of a Unicorn was nevertheless a worthy entry into the unicorn canon.