The Gruesome Animated Film Ending That Haunts Viewers
Out of every mature animated films I have personally watched, nothing has remained with me quite like the terror-laced finale of the explicitly bloody and overwhelingly transgressive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish writer-director crafted a grim, melancholy , often savage universe with several minor , forlorn hints of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from a drive to advance animation even more, the filmmaker stated that it was more a try to communicate a universal, multicultural theme concerning “the shared root of each battle.”
This theme is communicated by means of a group of vividly colored bears , obviously inspired by a well-known line of lovable characters.
Growing up in a culture built around warmongering as well as the military-industrial complex, many of these creatures are consumed by exterminating the mythical beasts, because of a religious scripture that claims the bears they previously were masters of the woods, until the unicorns forced them out.
A few have not completely bought into the indoctrination, and would rather try out substances and fornicate in the forest.
Unlike their friendly counterparts, these colorful critters have visible sexual organs and obvious sex drives.
For a certain notably brutal, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the war against the unicorns becomes a road to control — and especially to authority above his softer, kinder brother the character Tubby.
This bear is a bully , a seeming antisocial figure , and when terror dominates his squad and claims his comrades sequentially, he takes increasingly power for himself, in increasingly violent, harmful methods.
At the same time, these mythical beings are experiencing their own nightmare, as a spreading, destructive monster in their woods.
“Initially, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “However it turns into a more intense and sad movie. And by the end, it becomes a scary feature.”
The Unicorn Wars commences feeling a bit like one of the more playful movies from a legendary animator, that uncover a naughty glee in permitting animated figures swear, fire weapons, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it becomes more akin to a bleaker work by that same artist, including ever more visual gore and a noticeable link to the real suffering of battle.
By the end, it’s a full-on extreme drama bloodbath.
The horror that makes the film a Halloween-friendly viewing begins much sooner than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the hardcore lovers of violence, for lovers of graphic films who desire to see a movie they have not watched previously, and who can handle a story that pulls no restraint.
Watch it with the lights off free from interruptions, and the finale will burrow under your skin and linger.
Availability: Accessible via rental or purchase on multiple streaming sites.