The Gruesome Cartoon Film Ending That Haunts Audiences
Out of all the adult-oriented animated films I have ever watched, nothing has lingered in my mind as much as the dread-soaked finale of the explicitly bloody as well as highly provocative 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, somber , often savage universe that included several minor , forlorn glimmers of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from an impulse to expand the medium further, the filmmaker stated that it was actually a try to express a universal, cross-cultural theme about “the shared root of all wars.”
That idea is communicated through a group of vividly colored bears , obviously based on a famous series of lovable characters.
Being raised in a community focused on militarism as well as the military-industrial complex, many of the bears are consumed by slaughtering the mythical beasts, due to a sacred text that claims them they were once rulers of the woodland, before these creatures expelled them.
A few did not entirely accepted the indoctrination, , prefer to try out substances or fornicate in the woods.
Unlike their friendly counterparts, these colorful critters show sexual organs and clear libidos.
For a particular notably brutal, skeptical animal, Bluey, the battle against unicorns transforms into a route to control — and particularly to authority above his softer, nicer brother Tubby.
This bear acts as a tormentor , an apparent antisocial figure , and as terror takes over his squad and takes his fellow soldiers one by one, he seizes progressively power for himself, via progressively violent, harmful methods.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own horror, in the form of a growing, harmful creature in their woods.
“At the beginning, it feels like a humorous movie,” the director said. “However it becomes a more dramatic and melancholic film. And by the end, it becomes a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out resembling one of the most quirky films by a legendary animator, which find a naughty glee in allowing drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Then it evolves into more akin to a darker film from the same director, with increasingly visual gore , a noticeable link to the real horror of conflict.
In the finale, it becomes an outright Grand Guignol bloodbath.
The fear which makes this a perfect Halloween movie kicks in well before than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the devoted fans of gore, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who desire to view a movie they have not seen on-screen before, and who can handle a narrative which delivers unflinching brutality.
View it in a dimly lit space without any distractions, and that ending will crawl deep within you and linger.
How to view: Accessible via digital rental or sale on various online services.