The Gruesome Animated Film Ending That Stays With Fans
Among every mature animated films I have personally viewed, no other has remained with me as much as the fear-filled finale of a explicitly bloody as well as deeply subversive film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spanish filmmaker crafted a dark, melancholy , frequently brutal world that included several minor , forlorn glimmers of optimism.
Although Unicorn Wars seems like it came from a drive to advance the medium further, the filmmaker stated that it was rather an attempt to express a universal, multicultural message regarding “the common origin of each battle.”
This theme is conveyed by means of a band of colorful pastel bears , openly based on a famous line of cuddly characters.
Growing up in a community focused on aggression as well as the military-industrial complex, many of these animals are fixated on killing unicorns, due to a sacred text that claims the bears they previously were masters of the forest, until these creatures forced them out.
Others have not completely bought into the brainwashing, and would rather sample substances and mate in the forest.
In contrast to their friendly equivalents, these bright beings have visible sexual organs and clear sex drives.
For a particular notably brutal, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the war with unicorns turns into a road toward dominance — and especially to dominance above his softer, nicer brother Tubby.
The character is a bully , an obvious antisocial figure , and when fear takes over his unit and takes his comrades one by one, he grabs progressively power personally, through ever more gory, damaging approaches.
At the same time, the horned creatures are experiencing their own horror, through a growing, harmful creature in their forest.
“Initially, it appears as a comedy,” the director stated. “However it evolves into a more serious and sad film. And in the finale, it becomes a scary feature.”
Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the most whimsical films by a legendary filmmaker, that discover a mischievous joy in allowing animated figures curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it turns into closer to a darker work from the same artist, featuring progressively graphic violence , a palpable connection to the actual suffering of conflict.
In the finale, it is a full-on theatrical horror bloodbath.
The horror that makes this an ideal spooky-season movie begins a lot earlier than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the hardcore lovers of violence, for fans of intense movies who want to watch something they haven’t ever viewed until now, and can endure a narrative which delivers unflinching brutality.
Watch it in a dimly lit space without any distractions, and the finale will dig deep within you and stay with you.
Where to watch: Accessible via digital rental or sale on multiple online services.