Among all the mature cartoon movies I’ve personally watched, nothing has remained with me quite like the dread-soaked conclusion of a graphically gory and overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, the Spain-based filmmaker crafted a grim, bleak , frequently brutal universe with some tiny , desolate glimmers of optimism.
Although Unicorn Wars seems like it came from an impulse to expand the medium even more, the filmmaker explained that it was actually a try to communicate a universal, cross-cultural theme concerning “the common origin of all wars.”
That idea is communicated through a group of colorful pastel bears , clearly based on a famous series of lovable characters.
Growing up in a society focused on aggression as well as the war machine, numerous these animals are fixated on exterminating unicorns, due to a sacred text that claims the bears they previously were rulers of the forest, until these creatures drove them out.
Others haven’t fully accepted the indoctrination, , choose to experiment with substances and mate outdoors.
Unlike their friendly equivalents, these vivid animals display genitals , obvious urges.
For a particular particularly cruel, cynical bear, the character Bluey, the battle with the unicorns turns into a road to power — and particularly to dominance over his gentler, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey acts as a tormentor , an obvious sociopath , and as horror takes over his unit and takes his comrades one by one, he grabs more and more influence on his own behalf, via progressively bloody, destructive ways.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own nightmare, in the form of an expanding, destructive monster in their forest.
“Initially, it seems like a lighthearted film,” the director stated. “But then it evolves into a more serious and melancholic film. And in the finale, it becomes a horror film.”
The Unicorn Wars commences similar to among the quirky movies from a legendary filmmaker, that discover a naughty glee in permitting drawn beings swear, shoot each other, or engage sexually.
Afterward it turns into closer to a darker film from that director, with increasingly visual gore and a noticeable connection to the real suffering of battle.
Ultimately, it becomes an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The terror that makes the film an ideal spooky-season viewing kicks in much sooner than indicated.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who wish to watch a movie they’ve never seen on-screen before, and can endure a plot that offers unflinching brutality.
View it in a dark room with no disturbances, and that ending will crawl deep within you and stay with you.
Where to watch: Offered for streaming or buying on various online services.
A tech journalist and VR specialist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and digital culture.