A24 deliver a fun but flawed creature feature.

In their twelve years of existence, A24 have had their fingers in many movie pies. However, despite the admirable variety in the films they’ve both produced and distributed, the company has largely stuck to their trusty low budget, lo-fi, idiosyncratic indie formula. 

With a renowned back catalogue that boast multi award-winning hits like Moonlight, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Brutalist, together with a whole host of wild and weird projects liberally dotted in between, it’s a business model that has, for the most part, worked out handsomely for them, both critically and financially. Yet, despite all this success, it’s fair to say they’ve never fully stepped over the line into the mainstream.

Until now, that is.

When Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit a unicorn with their car on a desolate woodland road, the creature’s death sets off a chain of dark, surreal events. When Elliot’s mega-wealthy pharmaceutical bosses discover the remarkable curative properties of the mythical beast, secrets begin to unravel – about the unicorn, about the nefarious motives of the aristocratic family, and about the true nature of life and death itself.

While it definitely has an A24 aura about it, in many ways, Death of a Unicorn looks and feels unlike anything they’ve done before. Although there are certainly elements to the film that appear in line with A24’s previous efforts, there’s a distinct broadness and an overtly mainstream appeal to Death of a Unicorn that represents a relatively big swing for the company as they look to fully transition over into the commercial end of cinema.

Blending satirical comedy, horror, and a big dose of fantasy, Death of a Unicorn outdoes even the likes of Everything Everywhere All at Once in its broad genre ambitions while going one step further with a simplified plot that feels readymade for a casual mainstream audience. It’s a big, brash genre flick that really does feel like the first of its kind for A24, and while it’s certainly a noble maiden attempt at such a thing from them, it’s not an entirely successful one.

With so much going on genre-wise, Death of a Unicorn ultimately finds itself stuck in the middle of it all. Too tame to offer much satirical bite, too half-hearted with its horror, and just not ambitious enough to land its fantasy action elements - despite A24’s ambitions to push the boat out and appeal to the masses, their film appears a little lost.

As a satirical swipe at the narcissistic, capitalism-at-all-costs nefariousness of the uber-wealthy, Death of a Unicorn never really gets out of second gear thematically. With a script that has little to say beyond telling us that the rich can and will be despicable wankers, there’s nothing much than that beyond its surface, and while it’s never a bad thing to be reminded of the foibles of the super-rich, it’s all so basic it never feels substantial enough to satisfy.

From beginning to end, it’s all very shallow and predictable, with writing that often feels like it never made it past a first draft. Whether it’s Parasite, The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, or even Saltburn, we’ve had plenty of similarly themed “eat the rich” films of late, and while Death of a Unicorn certainly has its moments, many of these efforts have done it far better and far smarter than the entry-level satire we have here.

It’s all extremely surface-level stuff, and it’s a distinct lack of depth that extends to the film’s horror and fantasy elements too. With one-note jokes, predictable monster scares, and some rather limp, low budget fantasy, despite Death of a Unicorn making for a fun, easy going watch, it never offers anything more than that.

Making up for a lot of these issues, however, Death of a Unicorn’s cast are pretty excellent all round. With Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd leading the way; Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, and Richard E. Grant in support; and Anthony Carrigan, Jessica Hynes, and Sunita Mani as solid side players; the ensemble is pretty damn stacked, with everyone clearly enjoying themselves and fully understanding the assignment.

It’s an amiable, effortlessly likeable cast who all appear very much up for embracing the weirdness and the wackiness of the concept, and while the writing is far from perfect throughout, they all do a solid job of carrying it further than it would otherwise go. It may not be enough to take Death of a Unicorn to the next level, yet their efforts are more than good enough to produce an easily enjoyable and thoroughly watchable experience.

Blending satirical comedy, horror, and wacky fantasy action, Death of a Unicorn is undoubtedly A24’s biggest, most commercial swing to date, and while not all of it connects, it’s still a very fun watch nonetheless. Despite its easily enjoyable nature, it does, however, feel like we’ve been here many times before. Not that it’s a bad thing to be reminded that the rich can and will be despicable arseholes, yet Death of a Unicorn executes its satire, horror, and fantasy on such a basic level it all feels too shallow, predictable, and lightweight to properly land.

Death of a Unicorn is in cinemas now.