Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 19, 2025

Note: While this is also available on A24's own website, I'd recommend those interested read my opening note in my recent A Different Man Blu-ray review for a potential warning. Unlike A Different Man as of the writing of this review, Death of a Unicorn is also being released on Amazon, and I'd personally opt for that purchasing option should you be interested in adding this Blu-ray to your collection.

Everything Everywhere All At Once was one of those rare films which seemed to raise awareness of the studio releasing it, and those who have been waiting for a recurrence of the giddy heights and flat out gonzo sensibilities of that Oscar winner from A24 will probably get a huge (equine?) kick out of Death of a Unicorn, even if this film's tone and content are quite a bit different from the earlier outing. If Everything Everywhere All at Once exploited alternate universes to the point of absolute chaos, Death of a Unicorn concentrates on what might be thought of as one alternate universe, one that is quite like the one we currently inhabit, but which has the decidedly unusual element of live unicorns running amok in a protected wildlife reserve being run by one of the most hilariously despicable families to ever grace (?) the screen.

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is a high powered attorney who has more or less conscripted his estranged daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) to accompany him on a supposed business trip to the estate of his employer, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), in order to project some wholesome "family values" to the Leopold clan. That clan could arguably use more than a little help to project their own wholesome family values, since Odell's wife Belinda (Téa Leoni) is a social climbing fool and their son Shepherd (Will Poulter) is an insufferable twit. Before the Kintners even arrive at their location, though, Elliot strikes some kind of marauding animal that has wandered onto the highway, and when the father and daughter duo stop to see what happened, they discover a badly wounded (baby) unicorn bleeding out in the middle of the road. The beast's horn starts to glow, which encourages Ridley to touch it, resulting in her experiencing a cosmic vision of sorts. Until, that is, Elliot pummels the beast (supposedly) to death with a tire iron, in just the first moment where this film rather amazingly achieves a blend of metaphysical wonderment, laugh out loud comedy and liberal doses of "ewwww" horror.

Thinking the poor animal is dead, the Kintners stuff it into the back of their SUV and arrive at the Leopold estate, where of course everything quickly goes to hell in a handbasket. Odell is mortally ill and soon to shuffle off the mortal coil, and plans are being made, while also a team of doctors is urgently searching for a cure. Ridley's interaction with the baby unicorn magically cures her of her acne, and evidently even the spray of purple unicorn blood after the tire iron "incident" onto Elliot has helped his vision and allergies. When the baby is discovered to be "not quite dead yet" (something that is "remedied" by an assistant with a pistol), and then its curative properties disclosed, you can probably guess what ensues, as the Leopold clan, under the guise of "helping the world cure cancer", decides to synthesize the unicorn blood to miraculously cure Odell, which it does. Unfortunately, the baby unicorn's parents are missing their toddler, and the film then kind of hilariously ventures into near "slasher" mode, albeit with the killer in this case being feral unicorns dicing, slicing and stomping their way through a variety of victims.

For all of its patently lunatic sidebars, as even the main supplement on this disc overtly mentions this is ultimately the story of an estranged father and daughter overcoming any number of hurdles to forge a new relationship. The two focal performances by Rudd and Ortega are spot on, and they're matched by some of the most ebulliently reprehensible supporting characterizations in recent memory.

Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death of a Unicorn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb specifies the Arri 35 was utilized, but as of the writing of this review no resolution for a DI has been provided. Kind of interestingly in doing some background reading on this camera, which is one I haven't seen much mention of in technical specs, it's evidently a "lower budget" Arri model, though their website touts its similar capabilities to higher priced models. One way or the other, the imagery throughout the film and the transfer it receives on this Blu-ray is often quite striking in both its more realistic and fanciful moments. The palette is gorgeously suffused a lot of the time, and the beautiful purple and teal colors which spread across the sky in a kind of quasi Aurora Borealis to announce the nearness of the unicorns really pop superbly. All of the brightly lit outdoor material has generally great detail levels and the same impressive suffusion. There is just a bit of what I used to call "Arri murk" in the early days of their captures in some of the lower light moments, and as such shadow definition can kind of ebb and flow. The CGI unicorns are intentionally on the slightly whimsical to frighteningly horrific sides at various times, and detailing on things like their bristly fir is quite precise looking.

Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death of a Unicorn features an intermittently impressive Atmos track, by which I don't mean to suggest that surround activity is problematic, only that "showy" Atmos effects can be most prominent in some of the "visionary" material experienced by both Ridley and then later Elliot when they've had up close and personal contact with various unicorns. Those moments feature clear whirlwinds of activity that are invitingly spatial and really surround the listener on all sides and from top to bottom. A number of other outdoor scenes have some really well done ambient environmental sounds (the spooky unicorn calls in the pool scene featuring Elliot and Spencer is one good example). Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Writer-Director Alex Scharfman


• How to Kill a Unicorn (HD; 15:17) is an enjoyable piece with some good interviews with the principal cast and Scharfman.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 13:04)

This comes with A24's standardized exclusive packaging, with a slipbox enclosing a DigiPack. Art cards are inside the pocket on the left.

Death of a Unicorn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite the general acclaim it received, there were of course a lot of people who just didn't get (or at least consistently enjoy) Everything Everywhere All at Once, and my hunch is those people should probably stay far, far away from the Leopolds, Kintners and associated unicorns. For those who like their humor extremely dark, and who aren't averse to the occasional (okay, maybe more than occasional) impaling of a human by a unicorn, this may be the film you've been waiting for. Technical merits are solid, and the supplements enjoyable. With the above stated caveat about the probably better place to order a disc from, Death of a Unicorn comes Recommended.