The Grisly Animated Movie Ending That Lingers Viewers
Out of all the mature cartoon movies I’ve personally viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind quite like the fear-filled finale of the explicitly bloody and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, melancholy and frequently brutal universe that included several minor , desolate twinges of hope.
While The Unicorn Wars seems like it originated from an impulse to advance animation further, the filmmaker clarified that it was rather an attempt to communicate a global, cross-cultural theme about “the common origin of every conflict.”
That message is conveyed by means of a group of colorful pastel bears , openly inspired by a famous series of cuddly figures.
Being raised in a society built around aggression and the defense industry, many of these creatures are obsessed with slaughtering unicorns, because of a religious scripture that tells them they were once rulers of the forest, before the unicorns expelled them.
Others have not completely accepted the indoctrination, and would rather try out drugs and engage sexually in the woods.
In contrast to their gentle equivalents, these bright beings have visible genitals , obvious sex drives.
For one particularly cruel, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the war against unicorns turns into a route to control — and particularly to authority over his more tender, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
This bear is a bully , an apparent sociopath , and while fear takes over his unit and takes his comrades one by one, he takes increasingly power on his own behalf, in increasingly gory, damaging approaches.
Simultaneously, the unicorns are experiencing their own terror, as an expanding, deadly beast in their woods.
“At the beginning, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the director stated. “Yet it turns into a more intense and melancholic movie. And by the end, it transforms into a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars starts out similar to among the quirky features from a renowned filmmaker, that uncover a mischievous joy in letting drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or engage sexually.
Then it turns into more akin to a bleaker work by that same creator, featuring progressively explicit brutality and a tangible relation to genuine horror of battle.
By the end, it is a full-on theatrical horror carnage.
The terror which makes the film a perfect Halloween viewing kicks in much sooner than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the most dedicated lovers of violence, for enthusiasts of graphic films who wish to see a movie they have not seen on-screen before, and can endure a story that pulls no restraint.
Watch it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and that ending will crawl under your skin and take up residence there.
How to view: Available for digital rental or sale on several streaming sites.
