That Grisly Animated Film Ending That Haunts Audiences
Out of every adult-oriented animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has stuck with me as much as the fear-filled ending of the explicitly bloody and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director developed a grim, bleak , often savage world that included several minor , forlorn glimmers of optimism.
Although Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from a desire to push the medium even more, the director clarified that it was more an attempt to convey a universal, multicultural message about “the mutual source of each battle.”
This theme is expressed through a band of vividly colored bears , clearly inspired by a popular series of lovable figures.
Growing up in a community centered on aggression as well as the defense industry, a lot of these creatures are obsessed with slaughtering unicorns, because of a sacred text that claims the bears they previously were rulers of the forest, before the unicorns expelled them.
A few have not completely bought into the indoctrination, and prefer to sample substances and mate outdoors.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these bright beings have visible genitals and definite sex drives.
For a particular especially vicious, cynical bear, Bluey, the war with unicorns becomes a path to power — and particularly to supremacy over his more tender, kinder brother Tubby.
This bear is a bully , an apparent antisocial figure , and while fear dominates his squad and claims his fellow soldiers individually, he seizes progressively influence personally, through ever more gory, harmful methods.
Simultaneously, the horned creatures are enduring their own horror, through a growing, harmful creature in their woods.
“Initially, it seems like a comedy,” the filmmaker stated. “But then it turns into a more intense and sorrowful movie. And by the end, it’s a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the more quirky features from a renowned animator, that uncover a mischievous joy in allowing drawn beings curse, fire weapons, or have intimate relations.
Afterward it becomes something more like a bleaker work from the same artist, with increasingly explicit brutality and a tangible connection to the actual tragedy of war.
In the finale, it becomes a complete Grand Guignol carnage.
The fear which makes this a perfect Halloween watch begins a lot earlier than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted fans of gore, for lovers of extreme cinema who desire to see a movie they’ve never watched previously, and are able to withstand a plot which delivers absolutely no punches.
View it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and that ending will dig into your mind and linger.
Availability: Offered for digital rental or sale on various digital platforms.
