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Death of a Unicorn
Movie

Death of a Unicorn

2025 • Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature's miraculous curative properties.

Overall Series Review

The film functions primarily as a creature-feature satire, heavily focused on the modern "eat the rich" trope. The plot centers on the moral corruption of the ultrarich Leopold family, a pharmaceutical dynasty explicitly compared to the Sacklers, who attempt to exploit the magical unicorn for corporate profit. The narrative is a straightforward parable where untamed nature, in the form of vengeful, ancient unicorns, delivers violent, deserved retribution to the wealthy, greedy antagonists. A middle-class father (Elliot) is initially weak, compromising his ethics to climb the corporate ladder, while his teenage daughter (Ridley) acts as the moral and intellectual conscience who understands the mythological creatures. The entire Leopold family—who are portrayed as exclusively white, capitalist elites—are satirized and brutally killed off as a form of class-based and cultural reckoning. The themes of corporate greed and anti-oligarchy sentiment are explicit, with the writer/director clearly framing the conflict as a commentary on capitalist exploitation and cultural appropriation. The film is less concerned with identity politics beyond its class/moral critique, and contains no discernible queer or anti-theistic messaging.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics6/10

The central conflict pits the morally righteous middle-class protagonists against the corrupt, ultrarich Leopold family, which consists of exclusively white characters. This creates a strong class-based power dynamic where white elites are vilified and violently destroyed. The villainous heir is explicitly depicted as engaging in "cultural appropriation" and "cultural consumption colonialism," tying his evil directly to political critiques of Western cultural power dynamics.

Oikophobia8/10

The film is a focused condemnation of the American corporate and financial establishment, using the billionaire Leopold pharmaceutical family as a proxy for systemic capitalist exploitation and greed. The family's isolated wilderness estate is framed as a literal monument to this exploitation. A fantastical creature drawn from ancient mythology is presented as a force of moral purity and societal reckoning that must destroy the corrupt institutions of the home culture.

Feminism6/10

The teenage daughter, Ridley, is consistently established as the superior moral and intellectual character, acting as the father's conscience. She is the one who researches the unicorn's true, savage nature and attempts to correct the family's ethical error. The father, Elliot, begins as a compromised, bumbling corporate climber, making the daughter the primary competent lead who carries the film. However, the narrative arc culminates in the father's moral redemption and a self-sacrificing act for his daughter.

LGBTQ+1/10

The plot focuses on the heterosexual father-daughter relationship and their confrontation with the greedy family. No alternative sexual identities are centered or emphasized in the narrative, and there is no presence of gender ideology or critique of the nuclear family structure.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film centers on the transcendent morality and purity of the mythological unicorn, which acts as an avenging angel, punishing the subjective, profit-driven morality of human greed and exploitation. The mythical creature represents an objective, higher moral law, with its blood even offering miraculous healing and resurrection. Traditional religion is not a subject of discussion or attack.