That Gruesome Cartoon Movie Ending That Lingers Viewers
Out of every mature animated films I have personally viewed, no other has lingered in my mind as much as the fear-filled ending of the viscerally violent as well as deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish filmmaker created a dark, bleak , frequently brutal universe that included several minor , forlorn hints of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it originated from a desire to push the medium further, the director explained that it was rather an effort to express a widespread, cross-cultural message concerning “the mutual source of all wars.”
That message is communicated via a squad of brightly hued teddy bears , openly based on a popular line of lovable characters.
Being raised in a community built around militarism and the military-industrial complex, many of these creatures are fixated on killing unicorns, due to a holy book that tells them they previously were kings of the forest, before the horned beings expelled them.
A few haven’t fully bought into the propaganda, and choose to sample drugs and mate in the woods.
In contrast to their friendly equivalents, these bright beings have visible genitals , definite sex drives.
For one especially vicious, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the battle with the unicorns transforms into a route toward dominance — and particularly to authority over his more tender, nicer brother the character Tubby.
Bluey acts as a tormentor , an obvious sociopath , and while horror overcomes his squad and takes his comrades sequentially, he seizes progressively control for himself, through ever more gory, damaging approaches.
At the same time, the unicorns are suffering their own terror, as a spreading, harmful creature in their habitat.
“Initially, it seems like a humorous movie,” the filmmaker commented. “Yet it evolves into a more serious and sorrowful movie. And in the finale, it transforms into a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars starts out similar to one of the most playful films by a renowned filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in letting drawn beings curse, shoot each other, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it becomes more akin to a bleaker work from the same director, with increasingly visual gore , a noticeable relation to the real tragedy of conflict.
In the finale, it is a full-on theatrical horror bloodbath.
The terror that makes this a Halloween-friendly watch kicks in much sooner than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the hardcore lovers of violence, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who desire to view a movie they’ve never watched previously, and who can handle a plot that pulls absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off without any distractions, and that ending will crawl under your skin and linger.
Where to watch: Available for rental or purchase on several digital platforms.
