That Gruesome Cartoon Movie Ending That Lingers Fans
Out of all the mature animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind quite like the fear-filled finale of a graphically gory as well as overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director created a grim, melancholy , often savage world with a few small , desolate twinges of hope.
While Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from a desire to expand the medium further, the filmmaker clarified that it was actually an effort to convey a widespread, cross-cultural message concerning “the mutual source of every conflict.”
That message is expressed by means of a squad of colorful pastel bears , clearly based on a well-known line of lovable characters.
Growing up in a community centered on aggression as well as the war machine, numerous the bears are consumed by exterminating the mythical beasts, because of a sacred text that tells the bears they previously were rulers of the woods, before the horned beings expelled them.
Others haven’t fully fallen for the propaganda, and prefer to sample drugs and mate in the woods.
In contrast to their gentle equivalents, these vivid animals show genitals , obvious urges.
For a certain particularly cruel, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the war against unicorns becomes a path to control — and particularly to supremacy above his more tender, nicer brother Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively and an obvious antisocial figure , and when horror dominates his group and claims his teammates individually, he seizes more and more control for himself, in increasingly gory, destructive ways.
At the same time, the unicorns are suffering their own horror, in the form of an expanding, harmful creature in their woods.
“In the early stages, it seems like a humorous movie,” the director said. “However it evolves into a more dramatic and sorrowful movie. And by the end, it transforms into a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars commences resembling one of the most playful movies from a legendary animator, that discover a naughty glee in letting drawn beings swear, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Afterward it becomes more akin to a darker work from that director, with increasingly explicit brutality , a palpable relation to the actual suffering of conflict.
Ultimately, it is a complete Grand Guignol massacre.
The terror that turns the film an ideal spooky-season viewing begins much sooner than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who desire to watch a movie they have not viewed until now, and can endure a narrative that pulls absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and that ending will crawl into your mind and take up residence there.
Availability: Available for rental or purchase on various digital platforms.