That Grisly Animated Film Ending That Haunts Fans
Among every adult-oriented animated films I have ever watched, nothing has lingered in my mind quite like the dread-soaked ending of the viscerally violent as well as overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, this Spain-based filmmaker developed a grim, melancholy , frequently brutal world that included a few small , forlorn glimmers of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it originated from an impulse to push animation further, the director explained that it was rather an attempt to communicate a global, cross-cultural theme concerning “the shared root of all wars.”
This theme is communicated by means of a group of colorful pastel bears , openly based on a famous series of cuddly characters.
Being raised in a culture centered on militarism and the military-industrial complex, many of these animals are fixated on exterminating the mythical beasts, because of a sacred text that tells the bears they were once masters of the woodland, until the unicorns forced them out.
A few haven’t fully bought into the brainwashing, and choose to experiment with drugs or fornicate in the woods.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these bright beings show genitals and clear libidos.
For one particularly cruel, cynical bear, Bluey, the conflict against the unicorns becomes a route to control — and particularly to supremacy over his more tender, kinder brother Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively and a seeming antisocial figure , and when fear dominates his unit and takes his fellow soldiers one by one, he grabs increasingly control personally, through ever more gory, harmful methods.
At the same time, the unicorns are enduring their own nightmare, through an expanding, harmful creature in their forest.
“Initially, it seems like a humorous movie,” the filmmaker commented. “Yet it turns into a more dramatic and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it becomes a scary feature.”
Unicorn Wars begins similar to one of the most whimsical features from a renowned animator, that discover a wicked pleasure in permitting drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it turns into more akin to a bleaker film from that director, with increasingly explicit brutality , a palpable connection to the real tragedy of conflict.
Ultimately, it becomes a full-on Grand Guignol massacre.
The fear that makes the film a Halloween-friendly watch starts well before than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted lovers of violence, for lovers of extreme cinema who desire to see a film they haven’t ever watched previously, and are able to withstand a story that pulls unflinching brutality.
View it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and that ending will dig deep within you and take up residence there.
How to view: Available for rental or purchase on various online services.
