That Gruesome Animated Film Ending That Stays With Viewers
Out of all the mature animated films I’ve personally viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind as much as the dread-soaked finale of a graphically gory and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spanish writer-director crafted a dark, melancholy , frequently brutal world that included some tiny , forlorn twinges of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from an impulse to push animation further, the director stated that it was more an effort to communicate a universal, cross-cultural message concerning “the mutual source of every conflict.”
That idea is communicated through a group of vividly colored bears , obviously based on a well-known line of cuddly figures.
Growing up in a community focused on warmongering as well as the war machine, a lot of these animals are fixated on exterminating the mythical beasts, because of a religious scripture that claims them they previously were kings of the forest, before the unicorns expelled them.
Others did not entirely bought into the indoctrination, , would rather experiment with drugs and mate outdoors.
In contrast to their friendly counterparts, these vivid animals have visible sexual organs and definite urges.
For one particularly cruel, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the war with the unicorns transforms into a route toward dominance — and especially to authority above his softer, more compassionate sibling the character Tubby.
Bluey behaves aggressively , an obvious sociopath , and as fear takes over his group and claims his teammates sequentially, he seizes increasingly power for himself, in increasingly violent, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the horned creatures are enduring their own horror, through a growing, harmful creature in their woods.
“At the beginning, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director said. “Yet it turns into a more dramatic and sorrowful movie. And in the finale, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars commences resembling among the quirky features from a renowned animator, that discover a naughty glee in letting cartoon characters swear, shoot each other, or sex each other up.
Afterward it turns into more akin to a darker work by that same director, including ever more explicit brutality and a tangible relation to the real tragedy of battle.
By the end, it is an outright Grand Guignol carnage.
The fear that makes this an ideal spooky-season watch kicks in much sooner than indicated.
Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted lovers of violence, for fans of extreme cinema who wish to watch a movie they’ve never viewed until now, and are able to withstand a narrative that offers absolutely no punches.
View it in a dark room with no disturbances, and that ending will crawl under your skin and linger.
Where to watch: Offered for rental or purchase on multiple streaming sites.
