That Gruesome Animated Film Ending That Haunts Viewers
Out of all the adult-oriented cartoon movies I have ever watched, nothing has remained with me quite like the fear-filled ending of a explicitly bloody and deeply subversive 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, the Spain-based filmmaker created a dark, somber and often savage universe with several minor , forlorn hints of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars appears as it stemmed from an impulse to expand animation further, the director clarified that it was more an effort to express a universal, multicultural theme about “the common origin of each battle.”
That message is expressed through a squad of brightly hued teddy bears , obviously modeled after a well-known series of lovable characters.
Maturing in a culture focused on warmongering as well as the war machine, many of these animals are fixated on exterminating the mythical beasts, thanks to a sacred text which states the bears they previously were masters of the forest, until the unicorns forced them out.
A few have not completely bought into the propaganda, , choose to try out drugs and fornicate outdoors.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these colorful critters show genitals , definite libidos.
For a particular especially vicious, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the battle with unicorns transforms into a route to power — and specifically to supremacy above his gentler, more compassionate sibling the bear Tubby.
The character is a bully , an apparent psychopath , and as horror takes over his squad and claims his fellow soldiers one by one, he takes increasingly influence for himself, via progressively bloody, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, these mythical beings are enduring their own horror, as a spreading, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it seems like a humorous movie,” the director said. “However it evolves into a more serious and sorrowful film. And ultimately, it’s a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars starts out resembling one of the more playful features by a legendary filmmaker, that discover a mischievous joy in letting cartoon characters swear, engage in violence, or sex each other up.
Subsequently it becomes closer to a darker film from the same artist, including ever more explicit brutality and a noticeable link to the actual suffering of war.
In the finale, it is an outright Grand Guignol carnage.
The terror that turns the film a perfect Halloween movie begins a lot earlier than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the hardcore gorehounds, for lovers of extreme cinema who desire to watch a movie they’ve never viewed until now, and are able to withstand a story which delivers unflinching brutality.
Watch it with the lights off without any distractions, and that ending will burrow under your skin and linger.
How to view: Accessible via digital rental or sale on multiple streaming sites.
