The Gruesome Animated Movie Conclusion That Stays With Viewers
Among every mature animated films I’ve ever watched, no other has remained with me quite like the fear-filled ending of the viscerally violent and deeply subversive film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spanish filmmaker created a dark, somber , frequently brutal universe that included some tiny , desolate hints of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it originated from a drive to expand the medium further, the filmmaker explained that it was more a try to convey a universal, multicultural theme regarding “the shared root of all wars.”
This theme is expressed through a squad of colorful pastel bears , clearly modeled after a popular series of lovable figures.
Growing up in a community centered on militarism as well as the defense industry, many of the bears are fixated on exterminating the mythical beasts, due to a religious scripture which states the bears they used to be masters of the forest, until these creatures expelled them.
A few have not completely fallen for the propaganda, and would rather experiment with substances and engage sexually in the woods.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these vivid animals have visible genitals and obvious sex drives.
For one notably brutal, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the war with the unicorns becomes a road toward dominance — and specifically to dominance above his more tender, nicer brother the bear Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively and an obvious antisocial figure , and while terror overcomes his unit and takes his teammates one by one, he takes progressively control on his own behalf, through ever more gory, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the horned creatures are experiencing their own horror, in the form of an expanding, destructive monster in their forest.
“Initially, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “Yet it turns into a more intense and sorrowful film. And ultimately, it’s a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars commences resembling one of the more playful films by a renowned filmmaker, which find a naughty glee in allowing cartoon characters curse, shoot each other, or have intimate relations.
Then it becomes more akin to a bleaker movie by that same creator, featuring progressively explicit brutality , a palpable connection to the actual horror of conflict.
By the end, it becomes an outright theatrical horror massacre.
The fear which makes the film a perfect Halloween viewing kicks in much sooner than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted gorehounds, for fans of graphic films who want to watch something they’ve never viewed until now, and are able to withstand a story that pulls unflinching brutality.
Watch it in a dark room without any distractions, and the finale will crawl under your skin and stay with you.
Where to watch: Accessible via digital rental or sale on several streaming sites.
