Unicorns are usually not the first creatures that come to mind when skewering the ultra-rich, but Death of a Unicorn flips that expectation. Released in 2025 and directed by Alex Scharfman, the movie follows Elliot and Ridley Kintner (Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega), a father-daughter duo who accidentally hit a baby unicorn on their way to a billionaire’s estate. The accident spirals into a darkly comic horror fantasy as the unicorn’s magical healing powers become an obsession for the Leopold family. The rich see the unicorn as a resource to exploit, and when its parents arrive, the movie erupts into a final act of cosmic justice like no other.
Which is to say that Death of a Unicorn explores moral ambiguity and the absurdity of unchecked privilege in the most inventive ways. It is the kind of movie that leaves you craving more. More satire, more comedy, and more stories where the rich get exactly what they deserve. The eat-the-rich comedies on this list don’t just mock the elite, but also dissect their wealth and expose the hollow core of excess.
The 10 eat-the-rich movies in this list are the best of the bunch, each one a clever and cathartic follow-up to Death of a Unicorn.
10 ‘The Joneses’ (2009)
Kate, Steve and their children move to a pristine suburban neighborhood that radiates wealth and perfection. But behind their carefully structured façade is a stealth marketing operation. Each member of the family is a planted salesperson that tries to influence their neighbors to buy luxury goods by simply living their lifestyle. When Steve, a new recruit, struggles to keep up with sales quotas, he starts to question the ethics of their work.
Selling Domestic Bliss
Directed by Derrick Borte, The Joneses is a satirical takedown of aspirational capitalism with a setting of faux-marriage that’s oddly compelling. Demi Moore and David Duchovny lead the cast with a cool detachment. The comedy is subtle and sly, but the commentary is razor-sharp and unsettling. It goes without saying that the film didn’t explode at the box office, but it has aged well and hits close to home.
9 ‘Hustlers’ (2019)
Constance Wu’s Destiny lives a life stuck in neutral. She works at a strip club to support her grandmother but is barely scraping by. Then she meets Jennifer Lopez’s Ramona, a veteran dancer who knows how to work the room and the system. Together, they flip the power dynamic by drugging wealthy Wall Street clients and maxing out their credit cards. The men never report it because they’re too embarrassed.
Wall Street Gets a Gut-Punch
What starts as a hustle becomes a full-blown operation, complete with spreadsheets, hotel suites, and a rotating cast of accomplices. Hustlers is directed by Lorene Scafaria, who balances grit, glamor, and genuine emotion without ever letting the movie lose its edge. The film’s eat-the-rich energy is deliciously unapologetic. These women aren’t just stealing, but also reclaiming power from a system that chewed them up.
8 ‘The Favourite’ (2018)
The Favourite takes you back in time to early 18th-century England and tells the story of Queen Anne, who is fragile and unpredictable and surrounded by opulence she barely notices. Her closest confidante, Lady Sarah, effectively runs the country. But when Abigail, a fallen aristocrat with crazy manipulation tactics, arrives at court, a vicious power struggle begins between the two women and they engage in a darkly comedic battle of wits.
Scheming in Corsets
Yorgos Lanthimos never opts for an ordinary tale, and The Favourite is a movie that skewers the toxic dynamics of class, gender, and political intrigue that penetrates the royal household. It is wickedly funny, visually sumptuous, and emotionally twisted in all the right ways. Olivia Colman’s Oscar-winning turn as Queen Anne, as well as Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone’s duel, are about dismantling the aristocracy from within.
7 ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ (2022)
In Bodies Bodies Bodies, a group of wealthy Gen-Z friends are having a hurricane party at a lavish mansion. Armed with glow sticks, drugs, and emotional baggage, they decide to play a murder-in-the-dark game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” Bee, a working-class outsider, tags along with her girlfriend Sophie, only to find herself trapped in a night of bloodshed and betrayals.
Gen Z Eats Itself in Neon
Director Halina Reijn’s genre-blending satire turns a slasher setup into a biting commentary on performative wokeness and class privilege. The game kicks off as the power goes off, and the bodies start piling up, but soon, every character is both a suspect and a victim, and the final twist reveals that the deaths were a result of not malice, but sheer stupidity. The comedy is pitch-black and deeply generational, with the dialogue feeling absurd and painfully accurate at the same time. A24 did it with Bodies Bodies Bodies, and then again with Death of a Unicorn.
6 ‘Trading Places’ (1983)
In Trading Places, Louis Winthorpe III is a smug and successful commodities broker living the high life in Philadelphia. On the other hand, Billy Ray Valentine is a fast-talking street hustler scraping by on charm. When two bored and obscenely wealthy brothers make a casual bet, they swap the lives of Louis and Billy Ray, and it leads to chaos first and a satisfying finale next.
Most Enduring Class Comedy
John Landis directs this classic screwball comedy with a satirical edge that still feels relevant decades later. It stars Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd as the opposites, while Jamie Lee Curtis adds grit as a savvy sex worker who helps Louis rebuild his life. The movie makes incisive jokes on the casual cruelty of the ultra-rich, who treat the poor like poker chips, so the eat-the-rich theme is baked into every scene.
5 ‘Ready or Not’ (2019)
A young woman named Grace is thrilled to marry into the wealthy Le Domas family, who own a sprawling gaming empire. But her wedding night takes a sinister turn when she’s forced to play the traditional game of Hide and Seek with the family. The rule is, she hides, they hunt. With the intent to kill. But if she survives till dawn, she wins.
Gory Takedown of Inherited Wealth
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Ready or Not is a gleefully twisted horror-comedy that combines gore with satire. Samara Weaving’s Grace fights off her crossbow-wielding in-laws and learns that the Le Domas fortune may be tied to a literal deal with the devil. She goes from being a wide-eyed bride to a blood-soaked survivor and becomes the cause of the rich family’s downfall, and it is both karmic and cathartic to watch.
4 ‘Knives Out’ (2019)
Rian Johnson’s popular whodunit begins with celebrated mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey being found dead on the morning after his 85th birthday. Benoit Blanc, a Southern-fried detective with a taste for theatrics, is anonymously hired to investigate the murder. As he interviews the dysfunctional Thrombey clan, the story twists through inheritance drama, immigration politics, and a nurse named Martha, who cannot lie like a normal person.
Well-Crafted Crowd-Pleaser
Knives Out is a wildly entertaining eat-the-rich comedy that pays homage to classic whodunits and also functions as a biting satire of the entitlement and moral bankruptcy of the upper class. When the family learns that Marta, the immigrant caregiver, inherits everything, each of the family members brings their own brand of absurdity to the mix. A box office hit and awards darling, Knives Out launched a franchise that’s only getting sharper.
3 ‘Triangle of Sadness’ (2022)
Triangle of Sadness centers on Carl and Yaya, a model-influencer couple, who are invited to a luxury yacht filled with billionaires, arms dealers, and tech moguls. Their glamorous cruise, however, devolves into a nightmare when a storm hits during the captain’s dinner and the yacht sinks. The survivors wash up on a deserted island, where the social hierarchy flips, and Abigail, a toilet cleaner, becomes the de facto leader because she can make fire and catch fish.
Savage Dismantling of the 1%
Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning eat-the-rich finds the rich getting stripped of their status and groveling for pretzels. It is discomforting, absurd, and unrelenting, but never preachy. Each moment of commentary is woven into visual gags and power shifts, with Dolly de Leon’s revelatory performance as Abigail turning the tide. The comedy is grotesque and also surreal at times, but it is grounded in observations about class and beauty.
2 ‘Saltburn’ (2023)
Emerald Fennell’s sophomore directorial effort, Saltburn, is another eat-the-rich comedy worth watching after Death of a Unicorn. It revolves around Oliver Quick, a scholarship student at Oxford, who is drawn into the orbit of Felix Catton, a golden boy from a wealthy family. When Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s enormous estate, the visit spirals into obsession and manipulation, and by the end, the estate is Oliver’s.
Obsession Wrapped in Velvet
A chilling, psychologically complex drama that’s also darkly comedic, Saltburn operates as both a gripping character study and a scathing indictment of the fine line between admiration and annihilation. Starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, and Richard E. Grant, the movie is seductive and insidious because Keoghan’s Oliver doesn’t rage against the elite. He consumes them from within. It stirred debate and fascination and became one of the most talked-about films of 2023.
1 ‘The Menu’ (2022)
In The Menu, a group of elite diners, including a food critic, tech bros, and a washed-up actor, arrive at Hawthorn, an exclusive island restaurant run by a brilliant and tyrannical Chef Julian Slowik. Each course of his carefully crafted, high-stakes culinary meal reveals a layer of psychological torment and steers towards a final dish that is both performance art and execution.
The Simplest Meal Is the Most Subversive
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Margot is a last-minute guest and outsider to the world introduced in The Menu, so her grounded defiance anchors the premise. And when she challenges the entire experience with a cheeseburger, it is iconic. Mark Mylod’s theatrical direction, Ralph Fiennes’s mesmerizing Slowik, and the dry and delicious comedy, all make The Menu one of the most original genre blends of the year. The eat-the-rich theme here is quite literal, as the guests are served their own sins on a plate.
Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Like Follow Followed Death of a Unicorn Horror Fantasy Comedy 3 /5 Release Date March 27, 2025 Runtime 107 minutes Director Alex Scharfman Writers Alex Scharfman Producers Jacob Epstein, Michael Williams, Paul Rudd, Drew P. Houpt, Lars Knudsen, Lucas Joaquin, Tim Headington, Ari Aster, Jenna Ortega, Tyler Campellone Cast See All Paul Rudd Elliot Jenna Ortega Ridley
Powered by Expand Collapse
