The Gruesome Animated Movie Ending That Lingers Viewers
Among every mature animated films I have personally viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind quite like the fear-filled finale of the viscerally violent and highly provocative film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, this Spanish filmmaker created a grim, melancholy and frequently brutal world with a few small , desolate glimmers of hope.
Although The Unicorn Wars appears as it came from an impulse to advance the medium even more, the filmmaker clarified that it was rather a try to communicate a widespread, cross-cultural theme regarding “the common origin of all wars.”
That message is expressed through a group of brightly hued teddy bears , openly inspired by a popular line of lovable characters.
Growing up in a community focused on militarism as well as the military-industrial complex, a lot of these animals are fixated on killing unicorns, due to a sacred text that tells the bears they were once masters of the forest, until the horned beings forced them out.
Others have not completely accepted the brainwashing, and prefer to try out substances or engage sexually outdoors.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these vivid animals show genitals , clear sex drives.
For one notably brutal, cynical bear, the character Bluey, the conflict with unicorns turns into a path to power — and specifically to dominance over his gentler, more compassionate sibling Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively and an obvious sociopath , and when horror takes over his unit and kills his teammates one by one, he grabs more and more control on his own behalf, via progressively bloody, harmful methods.
Simultaneously, the unicorns are enduring their own nightmare, in the form of a growing, deadly beast in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director stated. “But then it turns into a more intense and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it’s a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the more quirky features by an iconic animator, that discover a mischievous joy in allowing cartoon characters swear, shoot each other, or sex each other up.
Afterward it evolves into more akin to a more grim work from that director, including ever more explicit brutality and a tangible relation to the real tragedy of war.
By the end, it’s an outright Grand Guignol bloodbath.
The terror that turns the film a Halloween-friendly movie kicks in well before than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is ideal for the hardcore lovers of violence, for fans of extreme cinema who desire to see a movie they haven’t ever watched previously, and who can handle a story that offers unflinching brutality.
View it in a dark room with no disturbances, and the finale will dig into your mind and linger.
Where to watch: Offered for digital rental or sale on several streaming sites.
