That Gruesome Animated Film Ending That Lingers Audiences
Among all the mature cartoon movies I’ve personally watched, nothing has lingered in my mind as much as the terror-laced ending of a explicitly bloody and deeply subversive 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, this Spanish filmmaker crafted a dark, somber , frequently brutal world that included several minor , desolate twinges of hope.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from a drive to expand animation even more, the director stated that it was more an attempt to convey a global, multicultural theme concerning “the shared root of all wars.”
This theme is expressed by means of a band of colorful pastel bears , clearly modeled after a well-known line of cuddly figures.
Maturing in a society centered on warmongering and the military-industrial complex, many of these animals are obsessed with exterminating the mythical beasts, because of a holy book that tells the bears they were once rulers of the woodland, before the horned beings forced them out.
Some haven’t fully bought into the indoctrination, and choose to experiment with narcotics or fornicate in the woods.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these bright beings have visible genitals , clear libidos.
For one particularly cruel, pessimistic creature, the bear named Bluey, the battle with unicorns turns into a road toward dominance — and particularly to dominance over his more tender, more compassionate sibling the character Tubby.
The character acts as a tormentor , an obvious psychopath , and as fear overcomes his squad and takes his fellow soldiers one by one, he grabs more and more power personally, via progressively bloody, harmful methods.
At the same time, these mythical beings are enduring their own nightmare, as an expanding, destructive monster in their forest.
“In the early stages, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “But then it turns into a more intense and melancholic film. And in the finale, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out similar to one of the most quirky features from a renowned filmmaker, that uncover a wicked pleasure in permitting cartoon characters curse, shoot each other, or have intimate relations.
Then it becomes more akin to a bleaker film by that same director, including ever more visual gore , a palpable connection to genuine horror of war.
In the finale, it’s an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The fear which makes this a perfect Halloween movie begins a lot earlier than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the devoted fans of gore, for fans of intense movies who wish to see a movie they haven’t ever viewed until now, and are able to withstand a story that pulls no restraint.
Watch it in a dark room free from interruptions, and that ending will dig into your mind and linger.
How to view: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple streaming sites.