Movie Review: Death Of A Unicorn (2025) seen in theatres

Horror/Thriller; Not recommended for young children; coarse language, scenes depicting animal abuse and death, frightening scenes, violence, some graphic scenes, some gory scenes, scenes which depict illness from cancer, medical scenes throughout, scenes depicting a possible medical breakthrough, scenes which discuss death, minor scenes depicting law enforcement, scenes depicting an auto collision resulting in the death of an animal, sci fi elements throughout

This movie follows a teenage girl and her father who accidentally run over a unicorn while on a road trip only to discover that the animal may possess the means needed to beat cancer. However, this animal who could present an end to the deadly illness comes with it’s own set of problems and returns after initially being murdered in some way stronger than before and viciously attacks the people who were responsible for it’s demise.

This movie was not at all what I was expecting it to be. When I hear the word unicorn, it makes me think of a child’s fantasy to own one as a pet. They’re supposed to be able to fly and help children enhance their imaginations. Well, the truth is that these unicorns were probably nothing likes the ones any child would envision having as they are killers. I thought this movie would follow the premise of the teenager discovering the unicorn and hiding it to be able to keep it as a pet as those around her don’t believe the unicorn exists. This was the initial thought I got from watching the trailer to this movie, that it would be similar to that premise, if not the exact same where the teenager befriends the animal and must convince those around her that it exists as they continue to initially believe that it’s all in her head. I never thought that this movie would be as violent and gory as it was, especially since it appears to be a child’s imagination come to life.

There’s been one word that has been thrown around too much these days. This word is cancer. In the past few months, every second conversation was that (insert person,) has cancer and he/she may not make it and in the case of some people, they actually don’t make it. Now unfortunately I would be lying if I said my mother has never had it before. It is a known fact that she has and it was hard for me to deal with when she had it and it’s just as hard for me to deal with even though she has gone into remission from the illness but is now suffering through the aftermath of the illness. This is to the point where her health is the highest point of concern to me, and it even results in my own life and problems taking a back seat as I seem to care about nothing but how she is feeling and sometimes I even feel like crying anytime she is in any sort of pain, (though I always seem to be able to hold back tears.) This movie ruthlessly points out the illness which to me is a fault on it’s own but then from out of nowhere, the person who had it is shown to be magically cured supposedly with the help of the unicorn. As mom has yet to have this happen to her, this part of the movie really bothered me. It was a slap in the face that it didn’t seem like a big enough deal than it initially was thought to have been, as well it upset me that mom could not overcome her pain that easily. I’m so sick of hearing that word as it is but then to have them make a mockery of the illness that my mother has suffered from before and still is to this day is just not something I can forgive.

Having said all of this, this is one of those movies where the presence of an actor or actress, (in this case, actress,) who I admire is enough to boost the rating of the film no matter how bad it was otherwise. There was one other movie that was saved by this occurrence and I think it was “Snow White,” where despite me not agreeing or understanding the premise, the appearance of Rachel Zegler was enough to make me happy to not give the movie a complete fail where it would have gotten a fail otherwise. In this particular movie, it’s the appearance of Jenna Ortega that makes all the difference. While there isn’t much to be admired about the movie itself, I’ve always had a strong admiration for Jenna Ortega as long as I have known her. Anything she is in gets a pass no matter how bad the rest of the movie was. The same can be said for anything that stars Rachel Zegler from this point forward. It doesn’t matter if I hated the movie or didn’t understand it’s premise or knew anything about it, (this is usually the criteria used in determining the final rating of the review in question,) as long as I get to see one of these actresses, it’s enough for me to boost the otherwise failing rating. Recently, I’ve cited Jenna Ortega as one of my favorite actresses so anything she is in obviously gets a pass going forward and this starts with this movie. Now if only there can be a movie with the appearance of both Jenna Ortega and Rachel Zegler. That would surely be something I would pay to see.

Movie rating: 20 out of 20

Next movie review: TBD