The Gory Animated Film Conclusion That Stays With Audiences
Among all the mature cartoon movies I’ve ever watched, no other has remained with me as much as the terror-laced finale of a graphically gory and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, this Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, bleak and often savage universe that included several minor , desolate hints of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from a drive to push animation further, the filmmaker explained that it was actually an effort to convey a universal, multicultural theme about “the mutual source of all wars.”
This theme is communicated via a squad of brightly hued teddy bears , obviously inspired by a well-known line of cuddly characters.
Maturing in a community centered on warmongering and the military-industrial complex, many of the bears are obsessed with slaughtering unicorns, because of a holy book that tells the bears they previously were rulers of the woods, until the unicorns drove them out.
Some did not entirely fallen for the brainwashing, , choose to experiment with drugs or mate in the woods.
Unlike their friendly counterparts, these colorful critters show sexual organs and definite libidos.
For a particular especially vicious, cynical bear, the character Bluey, the conflict against the unicorns turns into a path to power — and particularly to dominance above his softer, more compassionate sibling the character Tubby.
This bear is a bully and an obvious sociopath , and while horror takes over his squad and claims his fellow soldiers sequentially, he grabs increasingly control on his own behalf, via progressively bloody, harmful methods.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own nightmare, as a growing, harmful creature in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it appears as a comedy,” the director said. “However it evolves into a more intense and sad movie. And in the finale, it becomes a scary feature.”
The Unicorn Wars begins resembling one of the most playful films by an iconic animator, which find a mischievous joy in letting cartoon characters swear, shoot each other, or sex each other up.
Afterward it evolves into something more like a bleaker film from the same creator, with increasingly visual gore and a palpable relation to genuine horror of war.
By the end, it’s an outright extreme drama carnage.
The terror that makes the film an ideal spooky-season viewing kicks in much sooner than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the hardcore gorehounds, for lovers of graphic films who want to see a film they haven’t ever seen on-screen before, and who can handle a plot which delivers unflinching brutality.
Watch it with the lights off free from interruptions, and the finale will crawl under your skin and stay with you.
How to view: Accessible via rental or purchase on multiple digital platforms.
