The Gory Animated Film Ending That Stays With Audiences
Out of all the mature animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind as much as the terror-laced conclusion of the explicitly bloody as well as highly provocative 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, melancholy , frequently brutal universe that included a few small , desolate glimmers of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it originated from an impulse to push animation further, the filmmaker clarified that it was rather an attempt to express a widespread, multicultural theme regarding “the common origin of all wars.”
That idea is expressed via a squad of colorful pastel bears , openly based on a famous series of cuddly characters.
Growing up in a community built around militarism as well as the war machine, a lot of these animals are fixated on killing unicorns, because of a sacred text that tells the bears they used to be kings of the woods, before the horned beings expelled them.
Others did not entirely bought into the indoctrination, , prefer to experiment with narcotics or fornicate in the forest.
In contrast to their gentle equivalents, these vivid animals show sexual organs and definite urges.
For a certain particularly cruel, pessimistic creature, the bear named Bluey, the war with unicorns becomes a road toward dominance — and specifically to supremacy over his softer, kinder brother Tubby.
This bear behaves aggressively and an apparent antisocial figure , and as terror overcomes his unit and takes his teammates sequentially, he takes increasingly control personally, in increasingly violent, damaging approaches.
Simultaneously, these mythical beings are enduring their own nightmare, in the form of an expanding, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker commented. “However it turns into a more dramatic and sad movie. And ultimately, it transforms into a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out resembling one of the most whimsical movies from a legendary animator, that uncover a naughty glee in permitting drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Afterward it turns into something more like a bleaker work by that same artist, including ever more graphic violence and a palpable link to genuine tragedy of war.
By the end, it’s a full-on extreme drama carnage.
The horror that turns the film a perfect Halloween watch starts much sooner than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the most dedicated lovers of violence, for lovers of intense movies who want to view something they’ve never watched previously, and are able to withstand a narrative that offers unflinching brutality.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and the finale will dig deep within you and stay with you.
How to view: Accessible via streaming or buying on various digital platforms.
