Death of a Unicorn is the debut film from Alex Scharfman and the latest movie from distributor A24, of which while it’s nice to see a debut film and cheer on the creator, I was more interested through the A24 part of this. As someone knows what type of movies A24 normally chooses to give financial backing to I can, to a certain extent, understand why this would be something they would put money into.

Anyway, Death of a Unicorn is about a father (Paul Rudd) and daughter (Jenna Ortega) going on a business trip when they hit a unicorn in the road. Then later when they find out that unicorn blood can cure anything, including cancer, they want to profit off the idea until the mayhem begins.

I would like to start with the positives. The CGI of the unicorns is fantastic, and they went with the right design for the unicorns and the film visually looks amazing from beginning to end. The comedy in the film is done decently well. In my opinion Will Poulter (of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 fame) has majority of the laughs, being the funniest character. I also think the best acting performance comes from Richard E. Grant in the role of Odell. I also think that Anthony Carrigan who plays Griff does a great job too.

Now for what I was mixed on. This movie HEAVALY depends on type casting. Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd play the same characters they’re known for playing in other movies and sadly, Will Poulter (as much as I love him in this movie) feels type casted with how close this role feels like Adam Warlock. Another thing I’m mixed about is the kills. While the kills visually look great, they leave much to be desired, as they’re not anything memorable or exciting.

The only negative I have is the ending, not the end of the movie but more the first ten minutes of the last 20 minutes. Otherwise, I have nothing really negative to say. So, I’ll give this movie a 3.5/5 with the comedy and visuals really bringing this score up. With another watch I do believe this movie will grow on me.