Death of a Unicorn (2025)

Score: 6 / 10
Category: Movie
Platform: HBO Max

One-line verdict

A strange, messy, and oddly entertaining horror-comedy that feels like it’s making up its own rules as it goes — and somehow gets away with it.

What worked

• Going in blind helped. I didn’t expect the movie to be this literal, and that alone made it interesting.
• The story escalates fast once the unicorn is hit, and from there it just keeps getting wilder.
• Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega are both strong on their own. You can feel their genre strengths bleeding into the movie.
• The deaths are ridiculous, over-the-top, and oddly funny. As violent as it gets, it’s played in a way that feels satirical rather than cruel.
• The ending is surprisingly satisfying. For all its chaos, the movie does land somewhere coherent.

What broke

• The father-daughter dynamic feels generic. We’ve seen this dysfunctional setup countless times before.
• Despite the casting, Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega don’t quite sell the family chemistry. They feel more like two leads sharing a screen than actual father and daughter.
• The unicorn lore feels random and reactive. It’s introduced only when the story needs it, which makes it feel invented on the spot.
• Instead of grounding the world, the lore exists purely to justify the next escalation.
• Some of the gore feels unnecessary, even if it’s intentionally absurd.

What others are saying

• Divisive reactions across the board.
• Some enjoy the satirical tone and absurd violence.
• Others find the lore underdeveloped and the genre blend uneven.

The section below discusses plot details.

Why this half-worked for me

This feels like a movie made by people having fun rather than trying to be precise. That’s both its strength and its weakness.

The genre blend is obvious. Paul Rudd brings comedy, Jenna Ortega brings horror and gore, and the movie lands somewhere in the middle — not fully committing to either, but not collapsing under it either.

I think the film would’ve benefited from establishing the unicorn lore earlier, instead of retrofitting it scene by scene. That would’ve made the chaos feel intentional rather than convenient.

Oddly enough, even though I usually hate violence in movies, it worked here. Maybe because it’s so ridiculous it stops feeling exploitative. Thank God this is Rated R, only to make sure kids don’t walk in expecting a wholesome unicorn movie and leave traumatised.

This settles at a 6 for me. Flawed, strange, unnecessary in places — but still fun, and weirdly memorable.