The Grisly Animated Film Ending That Haunts Viewers
Among all the adult-oriented cartoon movies I’ve personally viewed, no other has lingered in my mind as much as the fear-filled conclusion of the explicitly bloody and highly provocative 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spain-based filmmaker crafted a dark, bleak , frequently brutal world that included some tiny , desolate twinges of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from a desire to expand animation further, the director explained that it was actually an attempt to convey a universal, multicultural message concerning “the shared root of every conflict.”
This theme is communicated through a squad of vividly colored bears , obviously modeled after a well-known line of cuddly figures.
Growing up in a community focused on aggression and the military-industrial complex, numerous the bears are fixated on exterminating unicorns, due to a holy book that claims them they were once kings of the woodland, until the unicorns expelled them.
A few have not completely bought into the propaganda, and would rather sample substances or engage sexually in the forest.
Unlike their cuddly counterparts, these colorful critters have visible sexual organs , obvious sex drives.
For a particular notably brutal, skeptical animal, Bluey, the war against unicorns becomes a route to control — and particularly to authority over his more tender, kinder brother the character Tubby.
This bear behaves aggressively and an obvious psychopath , and as fear takes over his group and takes his comrades one by one, he grabs increasingly power personally, in increasingly violent, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are suffering their own terror, as a growing, destructive monster in their habitat.
“Initially, it seems like a comedy,” the filmmaker said. “Yet it evolves into a more dramatic and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it becomes a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars begins resembling among the playful features by a renowned filmmaker, which find a naughty glee in allowing cartoon characters curse, fire weapons, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it turns into something more like a more grim movie from the same director, featuring progressively explicit brutality and a palpable relation to the real horror of conflict.
By the end, it’s an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The horror that makes the film an ideal spooky-season viewing begins a lot earlier than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who wish to watch a movie they have not watched previously, and can endure a story which delivers absolutely no punches.
See it in a dimly lit space free from interruptions, and that ending will dig deep within you and take up residence there.
Where to watch: Available for digital rental or sale on various streaming sites.
