The Gruesome Animated Film Conclusion That Stays With Audiences
Out of all the mature animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has stuck with me quite like the fear-filled conclusion of a explicitly bloody and overwhelingly transgressive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, the Spain-based filmmaker developed a grim, melancholy and frequently brutal world with several minor , forlorn hints of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from an impulse to expand animation further, the director explained that it was more an effort to convey a universal, cross-cultural theme regarding “the shared root of all wars.”
That idea is expressed via a group of brightly hued teddy bears , openly modeled after a well-known line of lovable figures.
Growing up in a culture built around warmongering as well as the war machine, a lot of these creatures are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, thanks to a religious scripture that tells them they used to be masters of the forest, before the horned beings drove them out.
A few did not entirely accepted the indoctrination, , prefer to experiment with narcotics or fornicate outdoors.
In contrast to their friendly equivalents, these colorful critters display genitals , definite sex drives.
For a certain particularly cruel, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the battle against unicorns becomes a road to control — and specifically to supremacy above his gentler, kinder brother Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively , a seeming sociopath , and while terror takes over his group and takes his comrades sequentially, he grabs increasingly power on his own behalf, in increasingly bloody, harmful methods.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are experiencing their own horror, in the form of a spreading, destructive monster in their habitat.
“Initially, it appears as a comedy,” the director stated. “However it evolves into a more serious and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it becomes a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars starts out similar to one of the more playful films from an iconic animator, that discover a naughty glee in letting animated figures swear, fire weapons, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it evolves into closer to a bleaker film from that creator, including ever more graphic violence , a palpable relation to the real tragedy of battle.
In the finale, it’s a full-on theatrical horror carnage.
The fear that turns this a perfect Halloween watch starts a lot earlier than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted fans of gore, for enthusiasts of graphic films who want to view a movie they’ve never watched previously, and are able to withstand a plot that pulls absolutely no punches.
See it in a dimly lit space free from interruptions, and that ending will crawl deep within you and stay with you.
Where to watch: Available for rental or purchase on several streaming sites.
