That Gruesome Animated Movie Ending That Haunts Fans
Among every mature animated films I have ever viewed, nothing has stuck with me quite like the dread-soaked ending of a graphically gory as well as deeply subversive film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, bleak , often savage universe with several minor , desolate glimmers of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it originated from a drive to expand animation further, the filmmaker explained that it was more an effort to express a universal, cross-cultural message regarding “the common origin of all wars.”
That message is expressed via a band of vividly colored bears , openly inspired by a famous line of cuddly figures.
Being raised in a society built around militarism as well as the war machine, a lot of the bears are obsessed with exterminating unicorns, thanks to a sacred text that tells them they were once masters of the forest, until these creatures drove them out.
Others haven’t fully bought into the indoctrination, , would rather sample drugs and engage sexually in the woods.
Unlike their friendly equivalents, these bright beings show genitals and clear urges.
For a certain especially vicious, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the conflict with the unicorns turns into a route to power — and particularly to supremacy over his softer, nicer brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey behaves aggressively and a seeming psychopath , and while terror overcomes his unit and kills his teammates one by one, he takes more and more influence on his own behalf, through ever more violent, damaging approaches.
Simultaneously, the unicorns are enduring their own nightmare, in the form of a growing, deadly beast in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it seems like a humorous movie,” the director commented. “Yet it becomes a more serious and sorrowful film. And by the end, it transforms into a scary feature.”
Unicorn Wars commences similar to one of the more whimsical films from a renowned animator, that discover a mischievous joy in allowing cartoon characters curse, fire weapons, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it evolves into something more like a darker film from the same director, with increasingly explicit brutality , a palpable link to genuine suffering of war.
In the finale, it’s an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The fear which makes this a Halloween-friendly watch starts a lot earlier than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of graphic films who want to see a movie they have not seen on-screen before, and are able to withstand a plot that offers no restraint.
Watch it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and the finale will dig deep within you and linger.
How to view: Accessible via streaming or buying on several digital platforms.
