Death of a Unicorn is an American supernatural comedy horror film written and directed by Alex Scharfman. It stars Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, and Will Poulter.
Premise[]
Elliot Kintner and his teenage daughter Ridley accidentally hit a unicorn while enroute to a crisis management summit with Elliot's boss, Odell Leopold, and his family. The Leopolds seize the unicorn, and their scientists discover that the creature is endowed with supernaturally curative properties, which the Leopolds seek to exploit. However, as they delve deeper into their research, the unicorn's parents arrive and begin to slaughter one by one those involved in the exploitation of their dead foal.
Plot[]
Elliot Kintner and his teenage daughter Ridley are spending a weekend at the estate of Elliot's boss, the ailing Odell Leopold, and his family, consisting of his wife Belinda and their son Shepard. While driving to their destination, Elliot accidentally strikes a baby unicorn with his car, injuring it. When Ridley touches the horn, she experiences strange visions, which Elliot abruptly stops after he bludgeons the creature to death with a tire iron.
The Kintners arrive to the Leopold estate with the unicorn hidden in their car. Shortly after their arrival, Ridley discovers that the blood of the unicorn has cleaned away the acne on her face, and Elliot realizes his vision has improved and his allergies are gone. Eventually, the Leopolds discover the unicorn in their car, still alive, which is promptly shot dead by the Leopold's assistant, Shaw. Odell realizes that, with the unicorn's magical properties, it could help cure his ailments.
Later, a group of scientists working for the Leopolds successfully create a concoction by grating off some of the unicorn's horn, which successfully cures Odell. As a result, Odell orders the unicorn to be taken their labs for further testing, wanting to capitalize off its benefits. Ridley, having read the story behind The Unicorn Tapestries, tries to argue that they shouldn't be messing with the unicorn, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. While wheeling the unicorn away, the group is ambushed by a larger unicorn, killing a scientist and a guard. After it escapes into the woods, Odell organizes a search party to hunt it down, to which Elliot joins.
At the estate, Shepard steals a vial of the unicorn's grated horn, and orders Dr. Bhatia, one of the scientists, to saw off the unicorn's entire horn. Ridley, realizing the unicorn is still alive, attempts to text Elliot to head back. At the same time, the search party finds the older unicorn, only to get ambushed by a second older unicorn, where they slaughter several people. They follow the group back to the estate, where Odell is killed by one of them. Coming to the conclusion that the two unicorns are the parents of the baby unicorn, the group decides to offer them their child in the hopes that they'll leave them alone. Unfortunately, the plan proves to be unsuccessful, as they discover the horn missing, and proceed to kill Dr. Bhatia. Following the remaining group into the estate, one of the unicorns kills Belinda, and Elliot, having stolen the horn, offers to keep them distracted so Ridley can escape.
The following morning, Ridley is held at arrowpoint by Shepard, having learned that unicorns are docile towards pure-hearted people. The two unicorns arrive, and immediately lay themselves to the ground, where Shepard ties their hooves together. Elliot proceeds to stab Shepard with the horn, only to get stabbed back by his arrow. After Shepard is bucked to death, Elliot dies from his injury, but the unicorns bring him and their baby back to life with their magic. The Knitters deeply apologized to the unicorns for the accident, and they accepted it, as everything went back to its regular normal state. However, he and Ridley are promptly arrested after the Leopold's butler, Griff, having escaped to get help, arrives with a policewoman who assumes they committed mass homicide.
As they are being driven to jail, the three unicorns arrive and, upon seeing their predicament, proceed to help them out by ramming themselves into the police car, causing it to crash. The unicorns let out neighing sounds and the screen cuts to black, leaving Ridley and Elliot’s fates unknown.
Cast[]
- Paul Rudd as Elliot
- Jenna Ortega as Ridley
- Richard E. Grant as Odell Leopold
- Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold
- Will Poulter as Shepard Leopold
- Anthony Carrigan as Griff
- Sunita Mani as Dr. Bhatia
- Jessica Hynes as Shaw
- Steve Park as Dr. Song
- Kathryn Erbe as the voice of Tapestry Video Narrator