That Grisly Animated Movie Ending That Haunts Viewers
Among all the mature cartoon movies I have ever viewed, nothing has remained with me quite like the fear-filled finale of a explicitly bloody as well as highly provocative film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director developed a grim, melancholy , frequently brutal world with a few small , desolate glimmers of hope.
While The Unicorn Wars appears as it stemmed from a drive to expand animation even more, the filmmaker explained that it was more a try to convey a global, cross-cultural theme concerning “the mutual source of each battle.”
That idea is expressed via a band of vividly colored bears , clearly modeled after a famous line of lovable characters.
Maturing in a culture focused on warmongering and the military-industrial complex, many of these creatures are consumed by killing the mythical beasts, due to a sacred text which states the bears they previously were masters of the woods, before the unicorns expelled them.
Others haven’t fully bought into the propaganda, , prefer to experiment with substances and mate in the woods.
Unlike their cuddly counterparts, these vivid animals show genitals and clear libidos.
For one especially vicious, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the conflict with the unicorns turns into a path to control — and especially to supremacy over his more tender, nicer brother the bear Tubby.
The character is a bully and an apparent psychopath , and when fear overcomes his group and kills his comrades sequentially, he takes progressively control for himself, via progressively gory, harmful methods.
Simultaneously, the horned creatures are experiencing their own horror, through a spreading, destructive monster in their woods.
“Initially, it feels like a humorous movie,” the filmmaker said. “But then it becomes a more intense and melancholic movie. And ultimately, it transforms into a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars begins resembling one of the more playful films by a legendary animator, that uncover a naughty glee in allowing drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or sex each other up.
Afterward it evolves into closer to a more grim work from that director, including ever more visual gore , a palpable connection to the real suffering of conflict.
Ultimately, it becomes an outright Grand Guignol carnage.
The fear which makes this a perfect Halloween watch starts a lot earlier than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the most dedicated fans of gore, for enthusiasts of intense movies who wish to see a film they haven’t ever viewed until now, and are able to withstand a story that pulls absolutely no punches.
View it in a dark room with no disturbances, and the finale will dig into your mind and stay with you.
How to view: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple online services.
