The Gruesome Animated Movie Ending That Lingers Audiences
Among all the mature animated films I have ever watched, no other has remained with me as much as the fear-filled ending of a viscerally violent and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish writer-director developed a grim, bleak and frequently brutal universe that included several minor , forlorn hints of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from an impulse to push the medium further, the director clarified that it was rather a try to express a universal, cross-cultural message regarding “the mutual source of every conflict.”
That idea is conveyed via a group of brightly hued teddy bears , openly based on a popular series of lovable figures.
Growing up in a community built around warmongering as well as the military-industrial complex, a lot of these creatures are fixated on slaughtering unicorns, because of a religious scripture that tells them they used to be rulers of the woods, until these creatures forced them out.
Others have not completely fallen for the indoctrination, and would rather sample narcotics and mate in the forest.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these colorful critters display sexual organs , obvious sex drives.
For a certain especially vicious, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the war against the unicorns turns into a route to control — and especially to supremacy over his more tender, more compassionate sibling the bear Tubby.
This bear acts as a tormentor and a seeming psychopath , and while horror overcomes his group and claims his comrades individually, he grabs increasingly control for himself, through ever more bloody, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are suffering their own terror, as a growing, destructive monster in their woods.
“At the beginning, it appears as a comedy,” the filmmaker stated. “But then it evolves into a more dramatic and melancholic film. And ultimately, it transforms into a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like among the playful films from an iconic animator, which find a mischievous joy in allowing animated figures curse, fire weapons, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it evolves into more akin to a bleaker work from that artist, including ever more explicit brutality and a palpable link to genuine suffering of conflict.
In the finale, it’s a full-on extreme drama carnage.
The horror that turns this an ideal spooky-season viewing begins a lot earlier than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the devoted gorehounds, for fans of extreme cinema who want to see a film they’ve never viewed until now, and are able to withstand a plot that offers absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and that ending will dig under your skin and take up residence there.
Where to watch: Available for streaming or buying on various digital platforms.
