Death of a Unicorn director Alex Scharfman has explained how the A24 horror comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega sent him down a “rabbit hole” of unicorn research. The theatrical release of Death of a Unicorn starts on March 28, with the film following Elliot Kinter (Rudd) and his daughter, Ridley (Ortega), as they hit a unicorn on their way to a crisis management summit. This results in its parents hunting everyone down as the Leopold family attempts to exploit the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ mythical creature for money. The film got generally positive reviews after premiering at SXSW.

Speaking with ScreenRant about the horror comedy, Scharfman explained the “rabbit hole” of unicorn research Death of a Unicorn sent him down. The writer and director explained how the concept for the movie came before he knew anything about the mythical equines, with his research showing that the mythology surrounding them hasn’t changed much in thousands of years. This includes their ability to cure ailments, the reason they were sought after in times when they were perceived to be real. Check out what Scharfman had to say below:

The whole movie started as a rabbit hole exploration. The first idea for the movie was just the opening scene about a father and daughter hitting a unicorn with their car in the middle of an otherwise banal kind of conversation. I didn’t really know anything about unicorns, I was never really interested in unicorns. But sometimes, you get an idea in your head and it just sticks out, and you can’t stop running your brain over it, and thinking about it more. So, that then led me to start asking myself questions about, “What are unicorns?” and “What are our ᴀssociations with them? What’s the mythology actually based on?” And what I found that was interesting is that we have, I think, a very intuitive understanding of unicorns just from pᴀssive consumption. It kind of just, through osmosis, ends up in our brain, because unicorn mythology hasn’t really changed in 2400 years, which is kind of insane. The first written account of a unicorn was in 398 B.C., and obviously, we’re still telling unicorn stories now, and still know about unicorns. Jorge Luis Borges had a really interesting quote about unicorns that he wrote in his Book of Imaginary Beings, in which he said, “The first unicorn story is almost identical to the latest,” which is basically true, which is very odd. there’s not a lot of mythological creatures from antiquity that we haven’t changed over the course of 2400 years. We’re not talking about Manticores, and even that doesn’t go as far back. So, there was something really fascinating about that, and it just sort of led to this deeper exploration of what unicorns are and how they have changed, how they have not changed. But what I thought was interesting was, when I started doing this research, I kind of intuited, “Oh, right, they’ve always been a panacea. Unicorns cure things.” And then that was even before I started doing the research. And then, of course, I dug into the research, and it was like, “Yeah, of course, that’s what they have always been valued for.” But the point being I realized it was an interesting vein of exploration, just because there is so much about them that we kind of intuitively understand, because the lore has been so consistent over millennia. There’s so many details that just feel right in our brain, so it presented a fun opportunity to dig into that research as a means of subverting our expectations about what a unicorn is, but also satisfying them in unexpected ways. It became a fun exercise digging into the research and about how I can be honest to what unicorns used to be in history, but then also still connect them to our present. It’s only in the past 50-75 years that we’ve had unicorns as these rainbow, Lisa Frank creatures. Before that, for most of our history as a species, people thought unicorns were real. It wasn’t known to be a fictional creature. In the history of man, people have spent a lot of time and money and treasure trying to find unicorns for real. It just became a really interesting area of exploration, and then once that led me to the Middle Ages, that really became a major touchstone point for the movie. And obviously, it brought me to the unicorn tapestries, which are in the text of the movie. Those were actually tapestries that I had seen as a kid, and totally forgot about when I was researching, and came upon them, and I was like, “This feels like a keystone to understanding the movie.”

What Scharfman’s Research Says About Death Of A Unicorn

The Horror Comedy Is Based On Real Mythology

Scharfman’s research into unicorns clearly inspired the film’s story, which sees the Leopold family trying to exploit the unicorn’s powers for profit. This is what draws the ire of the unicorns who begin to slaughter anyone involved with the mishandling of their young’s corpse. Reviews for Death of a Unicorn indicate this key element of the movie ties everything together, with the writer and director’s own research signaling the film’s mythological accuracy despite being set in the present day.

The film’s approach to unicorn mythology sounds like it will be rooted in fact while still maintaining a modern storyline about exploiting a deceased animal for money. Given how detailed Scharfman’s research is, it seems the film’s monstrous depiction of unicorns will still be playing into the magical mythos that has defined them for thousands of years. Since the story of Death of a Unicorn will play into tropes of the legend, it seems like their depiction will be mostly accurate, even if the horror comedy takes some liberties for the sake of the story.

Our Take On Scharfman’s Research For Death Of A Unicorn

His Dedication Could Mean Some Surprises In The Movie

Since the film is pulling accurately from unicorn mythology based on Scharfman’s research, there could be some surprising elements in the final product not hinted at in the trailers. Since the mythological creatues have thousands of years of history behind them, Death of a Unicorn could surprise by bringing in subtle, lesser-known details about the creatures. Just how much of its lore makes it into the final product, however, won’t be clear until the movie’s theatrical debut.

Death of a Unicorn arrives in theaters on March 28, 2025.