That Gruesome Cartoon Movie Ending That Stays With Fans
Out of all the adult-oriented animated films I’ve personally watched, no other has lingered in my mind quite like the terror-laced ending of a graphically gory and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director created a grim, bleak , often savage universe that included a few small , forlorn twinges of optimism.
Although Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from a desire to push the medium even more, the director stated that it was more a try to express a global, cross-cultural theme about “the shared root of all wars.”
This theme is conveyed by means of a squad of brightly hued teddy bears , clearly inspired by a popular line of cuddly figures.
Growing up in a society focused on warmongering and the military-industrial complex, many of these creatures are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, because of a religious scripture that tells them they were once kings of the woodland, before these creatures drove them out.
Some did not entirely bought into the propaganda, and would rather experiment with substances or engage sexually in the woods.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these colorful critters show genitals and obvious libidos.
For a certain especially vicious, pessimistic creature, the bear named Bluey, the conflict with the unicorns transforms into a road to control — and particularly to authority over his gentler, nicer brother Tubby.
This bear is a bully and an apparent sociopath , and when fear dominates his squad and claims his fellow soldiers individually, he takes more and more control personally, in increasingly violent, damaging approaches.
At the same time, the unicorns are enduring their own nightmare, through an expanding, harmful creature in their habitat.
“Initially, it appears as a comedy,” the director commented. “But then it turns into a more dramatic and sorrowful film. And in the finale, it’s a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars commences similar to one of the more whimsical films from an iconic filmmaker, that discover a naughty glee in permitting animated figures swear, engage in violence, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it turns into something more like a bleaker movie from the same creator, with increasingly graphic violence and a noticeable link to genuine suffering of war.
By the end, it becomes a complete Grand Guignol bloodbath.
The horror that turns this an ideal spooky-season watch kicks in well before than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted gorehounds, for fans of extreme cinema who desire to see something they have not watched previously, and are able to withstand a narrative that pulls absolutely no punches.
Watch it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and the finale will burrow deep within you and linger.
How to view: Offered for rental or purchase on multiple streaming sites.
