That Gory Cartoon Movie Ending That Haunts Viewers
Out of every mature animated films I’ve personally watched, no other has remained with me quite like the fear-filled conclusion of a viscerally violent and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director created a dark, somber and often savage universe with a few small , forlorn twinges of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it came from an impulse to expand the medium further, the director clarified that it was more an attempt to express a universal, multicultural message regarding “the common origin of each battle.”
That idea is conveyed through a group of vividly colored bears , openly inspired by a well-known series of lovable characters.
Growing up in a society built around aggression as well as the war machine, numerous the bears are consumed by slaughtering the mythical beasts, because of a sacred text that tells the bears they used to be masters of the forest, before the horned beings forced them out.
A few haven’t fully accepted the brainwashing, and prefer to experiment with substances or fornicate outdoors.
In contrast to their gentle equivalents, these colorful critters show sexual organs , definite libidos.
For one particularly cruel, skeptical animal, Bluey, the battle against unicorns becomes a route to control — and especially to supremacy over his more tender, more compassionate sibling Tubby.
Bluey acts as a tormentor and a seeming antisocial figure , and when terror takes over his unit and kills his fellow soldiers sequentially, he seizes progressively power for himself, in increasingly bloody, damaging approaches.
Simultaneously, these mythical beings are suffering their own horror, through an expanding, destructive monster in their forest.
“In the early stages, it seems like a humorous movie,” the filmmaker stated. “But then it becomes a more serious and sorrowful film. And by the end, it transforms into a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars begins similar to one of the more quirky films by a legendary filmmaker, that uncover a mischievous joy in letting animated figures swear, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it turns into closer to a bleaker movie from that artist, with increasingly explicit brutality and a palpable link to genuine suffering of conflict.
Ultimately, it is a full-on theatrical horror bloodbath.
The fear which makes the film an ideal spooky-season watch starts much sooner than indicated.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the most dedicated fans of gore, for lovers of intense movies who desire to view something they haven’t ever viewed until now, and can endure a plot which delivers absolutely no punches.
See it in a dark room with no disturbances, and the finale will burrow into your mind and take up residence there.
Where to watch: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple online services.