The Grisly Animated Film Conclusion That Haunts Fans
Among all the mature animated films I have ever watched, no other has lingered in my mind quite like the dread-soaked conclusion of the explicitly bloody and overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spanish writer-director crafted a grim, melancholy , frequently brutal universe with a few small , desolate twinges of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars feels like it came from a desire to advance the medium further, the filmmaker stated that it was actually an attempt to express a widespread, cross-cultural theme about “the mutual source of all wars.”
That message is communicated through a squad of vividly colored bears , openly based on a popular series of cuddly characters.
Growing up in a culture built around aggression and the military-industrial complex, numerous these creatures are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, because of a sacred text which states them they were once kings of the woodland, before these creatures forced them out.
Others haven’t fully bought into the indoctrination, , prefer to experiment with substances or fornicate in the woods.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these colorful critters display sexual organs , obvious urges.
For one especially vicious, skeptical animal, Bluey, the battle against unicorns becomes a route to power — and specifically to dominance over his softer, more compassionate sibling Tubby.
This bear behaves aggressively and a seeming psychopath , and while terror takes over his squad and takes his comrades one by one, he grabs more and more influence personally, through ever more bloody, harmful methods.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are enduring their own horror, through a growing, deadly beast in their forest.
“At the beginning, it seems like a comedy,” the director stated. “However it evolves into a more intense and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it becomes a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars begins resembling among the quirky films by a legendary filmmaker, which find a wicked pleasure in allowing animated figures curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it turns into something more like a bleaker movie from the same creator, with increasingly explicit brutality , a palpable connection to the actual suffering of conflict.
By the end, it’s a complete theatrical horror massacre.
The fear which makes the film a Halloween-friendly viewing kicks in a lot earlier than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted lovers of violence, for lovers of graphic films who want to view a film they haven’t ever seen on-screen before, and can endure a plot that offers unflinching brutality.
Watch it with the lights off with no disturbances, and that ending will dig under your skin and stay with you.
How to view: Offered for rental or purchase on various digital platforms.
