Tigers Are Not Afraid – Vuelven (2017)

Directed by: Issa Lopez | 90 minutes | fantasy, horror | Actors: Paola Lara, Hanssel Casillas, Rodrigo Cortees, Ianis Geurrero, Tenoch Huerta, Juan Ramón López

In Mexico, Issa López is widely known as a writer of books as well as popular TV series and movies. She doesn’t do much directing, though. ‘Tigers Are Not Afraid’ (original title: ‘Vuelven’) is only her third film, after ‘Efectos Secundarios’ (2006) and ‘Casi Divas’ (2008). By the way, all three are based on their own script. In ‘Tigers Are Not Afraid’, López combines the already existing horror for Mexican citizens of cities taken over by Mexican gangs and corrupt officials looking the other way, with fantastic elements. And all this seen through the eyes of a couple of children.

The story revolves around Estrella (Paola Lara), who roams the streets after her mother disappears without a trace and her school is closed due to terror from the Huasca’s (the local gang). She ends up with a club of four boys, who have also lost their parents. Shine, the leader of the pair, stole the cellphone and gun from Caco (one of Huasca members) while he was pissing drunk in an alley. In addition to a photo of Shine’s kidnapped mother, the phone also happens to contain information that is harmful to El Chino (Tenoch Huerta), the leader of the Huasca’s and also a local politician. Morro, the youngest, invariably walks around with a tiger cuddly toy and has not spoken since a violent event. And then there’s Tucsi and Pop, who seem to do everything together.

At first, the boys don’t want a girl on their team, but Shine (an impressive role by Juan Ramón López) allows Estrella to stay when she kills Caco, his mother’s kidnapper, with his own gun. Before the school closed, Estrella received three wishes from her teacher, in the form of crayons. With the first wish, she hoped to get her mother back, but she only appears in a terrifying, ghostly guise. With her second wish, she wants to avoid having to kill Caco. Promptly it turns out that he is already dead, but now Estrella is wanted by the Huasca’s, because she is said to be the murderer. And because she doesn’t dare to tell Chino the truth, for fear of being rejected after all, great tensions arise within the close-knit club. Estrella’s wishes seem to backfire completely.

López knows how to convey the tension and despair fantastically in her story, helped by the strong cast. ‘Tigers Are Not Afraid’ is essentially a brutal movie. People die in it. Also some of the kids. The danger is completely believable. How hopeless the situation is becomes clear the moment that Tucsi and Pop go to the police with the evidence against El Chino. The agents sighed to each other that they are not eager to go after the clearly corrupt politician and simply abandon the children. They just have to figure it out themselves. It is particularly clever how López nevertheless manages to retain a certain light-heartedness in the film. The children behave like adults in how they take care of themselves, but just remain children in their further doings. There is romping, there is fantasizing about a large house with football field and swimming pool, and there is dancing.

The world that López portrays is a completely realistic one, given the current situation in some Mexican cities. The fantastical elements she adds (graffiti tigers walking walls, a blood trail that literally continues to follow Estrella, a dragon breaking free from Caco’s cellphone, dead people communicating with Estrella) seem primarily intended to portray Estrella’s fantasy. The more exciting it gets, the more her fantasy breaks through reality. It is unclear whether any of the other children see or experience the same as she does. But Estrella’s world is fascinating and compelling, and so is this film. The beautiful cinematography (Juan Jose Saravia) and the atmospheric soundtrack (Vince Pope) should not be left unmentioned. ‘Tigers Are Not Afraid’ is a wonderfully dark fairy tale, which can easily cope with an irrevocable comparison with Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (2006).