That Grisly Cartoon Movie Ending That Lingers Audiences
Among every adult-oriented animated films I’ve personally viewed, nothing has stuck with me as much as the dread-soaked ending of the explicitly bloody and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, this Spain-based filmmaker crafted a dark, melancholy and often savage universe with several minor , desolate twinges of hope.
While Unicorn Wars feels like it originated from a drive to push animation further, the filmmaker explained that it was rather an effort to convey a universal, multicultural theme about “the shared root of every conflict.”
That message is communicated by means of a band of colorful pastel bears , obviously based on a popular line of lovable characters.
Maturing in a culture built around aggression and the war machine, many of these creatures are fixated on exterminating the mythical beasts, thanks to a religious scripture which states them they were once masters of the woodland, until the unicorns forced them out.
Some did not entirely accepted the brainwashing, and choose to try out substances or engage sexually in the forest.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these colorful critters have visible genitals , definite urges.
For a certain especially vicious, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the battle against unicorns becomes a route toward dominance — and particularly to supremacy over his more tender, more compassionate sibling the character Tubby.
Bluey is a bully and an apparent psychopath , and as fear dominates his unit and claims his comrades sequentially, he takes increasingly influence for himself, through ever more gory, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are suffering their own horror, in the form of a spreading, destructive monster in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker commented. “But then it evolves into a more dramatic and sad movie. And in the finale, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars starts out similar to among the quirky movies by a legendary animator, which find a mischievous joy in allowing cartoon characters curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it evolves into closer to a bleaker film from the same director, featuring progressively explicit brutality and a tangible connection to genuine suffering of conflict.
Ultimately, it’s an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The terror that makes the film a Halloween-friendly watch kicks in a lot earlier than indicated.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the devoted gorehounds, for fans of graphic films who desire to see a movie they’ve never seen on-screen before, and can endure a plot that pulls absolutely no punches.
View it in a dimly lit space without any distractions, and the finale will crawl into your mind and linger.
Where to watch: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple streaming sites.
