That Gruesome Cartoon Film Ending That Haunts Viewers
Out of all the adult-oriented cartoon movies I have ever viewed, no other has stuck with me quite like the terror-laced ending of the graphically gory as well as highly provocative 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish filmmaker crafted a dark, bleak , often savage world with some tiny , desolate hints of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars feels like it came from an impulse to advance animation even more, the filmmaker explained that it was rather a try to communicate a universal, multicultural message about “the shared root of each battle.”
That message is expressed by means of a squad of brightly hued teddy bears , clearly based on a popular line of lovable characters.
Being raised in a society focused on warmongering as well as the war machine, a lot of the bears are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, thanks to a sacred text that tells them they used to be masters of the forest, until the unicorns drove them out.
Others have not completely bought into the brainwashing, and choose to experiment with drugs and mate outdoors.
Unlike their cuddly equivalents, these colorful critters show genitals , definite sex drives.
For a certain especially vicious, cynical bear, Bluey, the conflict against unicorns turns into a path to power — and specifically to supremacy above his gentler, more compassionate sibling Tubby.
This bear behaves aggressively and a seeming antisocial figure , and as terror takes over his squad and takes his fellow soldiers one by one, he grabs more and more power personally, in increasingly gory, damaging approaches.
At the same time, the unicorns are suffering their own terror, through a growing, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker stated. “However it turns into a more dramatic and melancholic movie. And in the finale, it transforms into a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the most playful movies by a legendary animator, that uncover a wicked pleasure in letting drawn beings swear, shoot each other, or engage sexually.
Then it turns into something more like a more grim film from the same artist, including ever more explicit brutality , a tangible connection to the real suffering of war.
By the end, it becomes a complete theatrical horror massacre.
The fear which makes the film a Halloween-friendly watch starts much sooner than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the most dedicated gorehounds, for lovers of extreme cinema who desire to watch a film they have not watched previously, and are able to withstand a plot that offers absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off free from interruptions, and the conclusion will burrow into your mind and linger.
Availability: Available for digital rental or sale on several streaming sites.
