‘Death of a Unicorn’ Review: Paul Rudd Kills the Wrong Magical Creature in A24’s Biting Horror Satire

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Is there anything sadder than seeing a unicorn die? These majestic (imaginary) beasts represent the original endangered species — something innocent and pure that may once have existed, but certainly doesn’t today, from which we can conclude that they must have been snuffed out by mankind’s cruelty.

Repeated across the centuries in art and lore, this painful sacrifice inevitably reveals something essential about human nature.

That was true of both “The Last Unicorn” and Ridley Scott’s “Legend” back in the ’80s, and it’s been the elegant creatures’ allegorical purpose for at least 500 years, since the world-famous “Hunt of the Unicorn” tapestries were made.

Now comes writer-director Alex Scharfman’s funny-sad A24 satire “Death of a Unicorn,” which fits squarely within the indie studio’s bizart-house brand, using the title tragedy as license to make a highly eccentric and unapologetically grisly horror movie.