That Gory Cartoon Movie Conclusion That Haunts Audiences
Among all the adult-oriented animated films I’ve personally watched, nothing has lingered in my mind quite like the terror-laced conclusion of the explicitly bloody and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spanish filmmaker created a grim, somber , often savage universe with several minor , desolate glimmers of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it originated from a desire to push animation further, the director explained that it was more an effort to express a global, cross-cultural theme regarding “the mutual source of each battle.”
That message is conveyed through a band of vividly colored bears , obviously based on a popular series of lovable figures.
Maturing in a culture centered on aggression as well as the defense industry, numerous these animals are obsessed with killing unicorns, thanks to a sacred text that tells them they were once rulers of the forest, before the horned beings drove them out.
A few did not entirely bought into the indoctrination, and choose to experiment with substances and fornicate outdoors.
Unlike their friendly equivalents, these vivid animals display sexual organs and obvious urges.
For a certain notably brutal, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the battle against unicorns turns into a route to power — and especially to authority over his gentler, more compassionate sibling the character Tubby.
The character is a bully , a seeming sociopath , and when horror dominates his unit and kills his teammates individually, he takes progressively influence on his own behalf, through ever more bloody, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are experiencing their own nightmare, as a growing, destructive monster in their woods.
“In the early stages, it seems like a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker said. “But then it evolves into a more dramatic and melancholic film. And in the finale, it becomes a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like one of the more quirky films from a renowned filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in permitting cartoon characters swear, fire weapons, or have intimate relations.
Then it becomes closer to a bleaker film from that director, including ever more visual gore , a tangible connection to the real tragedy of war.
Ultimately, it is a full-on Grand Guignol carnage.
The horror that turns the film a Halloween-friendly movie starts a lot earlier than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the most dedicated gorehounds, for fans of graphic films who want to see a movie they have not seen on-screen before, and are able to withstand a story that offers absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and the conclusion will dig into your mind and linger.
Availability: Accessible via streaming or buying on various streaming sites.
