The Gruesome Cartoon Film Ending That Lingers Audiences
Out of every adult-oriented animated films I’ve personally watched, no other has lingered in my mind as much as the dread-soaked finale of the viscerally violent and deeply subversive 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spanish writer-director developed a dark, bleak , often savage universe that included several minor , desolate hints of optimism.
Although Unicorn Wars appears as it stemmed from an impulse to advance the medium further, the director clarified that it was actually an attempt to communicate a global, cross-cultural message regarding “the common origin of each battle.”
That idea is conveyed by means of a group of vividly colored bears , clearly modeled after a popular series of cuddly characters.
Being raised in a culture focused on militarism and the defense industry, numerous these creatures are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, due to a religious scripture which states the bears they used to be masters of the forest, until the horned beings expelled them.
Some haven’t fully bought into the brainwashing, , choose to sample substances and fornicate in the woods.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these colorful critters display genitals and definite libidos.
For a certain particularly cruel, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the conflict against the unicorns becomes a road toward dominance — and specifically to authority over his softer, kinder brother the character Tubby.
The character acts as a tormentor and a seeming antisocial figure , and while horror takes over his unit and takes his teammates sequentially, he seizes progressively power on his own behalf, through ever more gory, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the horned creatures are suffering their own terror, as a spreading, destructive monster in their forest.
“At the beginning, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “But then it becomes a more dramatic and sorrowful film. And ultimately, it’s a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars commences resembling one of the more playful features from an iconic filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in letting animated figures swear, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Afterward it becomes more akin to a more grim film from the same creator, with increasingly visual gore , a noticeable connection to the real tragedy of war.
Ultimately, it becomes a full-on extreme drama carnage.
The horror that turns this an ideal spooky-season viewing starts a lot earlier than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted gorehounds, for enthusiasts of graphic films who desire to watch a movie they haven’t ever watched previously, and are able to withstand a plot which delivers unflinching brutality.
See it in a dimly lit space free from interruptions, and the finale will dig into your mind and stay with you.
Where to watch: Available for digital rental or sale on several online services.