The Gruesome Animated Movie Ending That Haunts Fans
Out of all the mature animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has stuck with me as much as the dread-soaked ending of a graphically gory and deeply subversive film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish writer-director developed a dark, bleak , frequently brutal world that included a few small , forlorn twinges of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from a drive to expand animation even more, the director clarified that it was more an attempt to convey a universal, cross-cultural theme regarding “the mutual source of each battle.”
This theme is communicated through a band of brightly hued teddy bears , obviously inspired by a well-known series of lovable figures.
Growing up in a society focused on warmongering as well as the military-industrial complex, many of these animals are fixated on slaughtering unicorns, due to a sacred text which states the bears they were once rulers of the woods, until the horned beings forced them out.
A few did not entirely bought into the brainwashing, , choose to experiment with drugs or fornicate in the forest.
In contrast to their cuddly equivalents, these vivid animals show sexual organs , obvious sex drives.
For one notably brutal, pessimistic creature, the bear named Bluey, the battle against unicorns turns into a route to control — and particularly to authority above his gentler, kinder brother the character Tubby.
This bear acts as a tormentor and a seeming sociopath , and while terror dominates his squad and claims his fellow soldiers one by one, he seizes progressively influence for himself, through ever more violent, destructive ways.
At the same time, the unicorns are suffering their own terror, in the form of an expanding, deadly beast in their habitat.
“Initially, it feels like a comedy,” the director stated. “But then it becomes a more serious and sorrowful movie. And by the end, it’s a scary feature.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like among the playful movies by a renowned filmmaker, that uncover a naughty glee in permitting animated figures curse, shoot each other, or sex each other up.
Afterward it evolves into more akin to a more grim film from that artist, with increasingly explicit brutality and a tangible connection to the actual suffering of war.
In the finale, it becomes a full-on Grand Guignol carnage.
The terror that turns this a Halloween-friendly watch starts well before than indicated.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted fans of gore, for fans of graphic films who want to view something they haven’t ever seen on-screen before, and are able to withstand a plot that offers no restraint.
See it with the lights off with no disturbances, and the conclusion will dig deep within you and linger.
How to view: Available for digital rental or sale on multiple digital platforms.
