Tigers Are Not Afraid

When you think of dark fairy tale films from Mexico, you tend to think of the work of Guillermo del Toro, no? It’s not a misguided thought, to be sure, but it is slightly narrow in scope. In fact, it seems others have tossed their hats into the ring, crafting fables with pitch black hearts for everyone to love. The one that skittered onto my desk recently and that I wanna talk about is Tigers Are Not Afraid.

The plot centers on young Estrella, whose school is the victim of a shoot-up by members of a local gang. Whilst taking cover, she is given a trio of sticks of chalk by her teacher and told they represent wishes. When she gets home, she finds her mother has disappeared, another apparent target of the gang. Pretty understandably, she uses her first wish to bring her mother back. Unfortunately, her mother returns in a form unbefitting proper humanity, if you catch my drift. (You can see why the original Spanish title Vuelven (or “They Come Back”) fits, right?) Unable to stay at home, Estrella falls in with a local group of kids, fellow homeless casualties of the violence surrounding their town. As the children go along and Estrella makes her wishes, she notices that a mysterious darkness seems to be following her, just as closely as the gangsters and consequent impending doom.

No doubt about it, writer/director Issa López and her crew have done a spectacular job with Tigers. The recent It movies are joined in having a strong cast of younger kids, all of them shining here with material that isn’t exactly easy for more mature actors. These kids not only give the usual childlike grandstanding and cowering and whatnot, but they also have to deal with some truly grisly stuff, like the deaths of their peers and the creeping dread that comes with the omnipresence of a deadly threat surrounding them. Indeed, it’s this very brutality and darkness that elevates both Lopez and her film in my eyes.

I haven’t said my bit about It: Chapter Two as of yet, but I thought it was pretty damn solid. The reliance on jump scares had a thematic purpose, the pacing was well done, and the acting from both groups of characters was definitely strong. There was a bit of unevenness, wherein the filmmakers didn’t let many scenes end without some kind of tension deflation, but that wasn’t enough to sink things for me. I bring it up, because there are some similarities between that film and this one, most of them pretty obvious, but the one area in which Tigers is superior is the smoothing of that aforementioned tonal unevenness.

It just so happens that the tone is kept bleak, unhappy, cruel throughout most of the film. The magical realism brought into things doesn’t change this, and in fact helps deepen the darkness, a sort of monkey’s paw situation taking hold over the proceedings. I will admit that certain plot beats seem to unnecessarily stymie the otherwise relatively brisk pacing, and some of the basic setup points, like the exact situation regarding the gang, its membership, and its connection to the town, aren’t completely established, but these imperfections, like those from It, don’t scuttle the film for me. Plus, the quick bits of digital effects work add a nice bit of whimsy to the proceedings, while simultaneously showing the power of restraint in such areas. Take notes, Hollywood.

Overall, Tigers is an immensely enjoyable film, one that provides a flutter of chills and a heaping helping of emotionality while wallowing in a pretty depressing morass. There’s a lot to laud here, and the film is more than deserving of the accolades it has received since debuting a couple of years ago on the festival circuit. Give it a go if del Toro’s more low-key works are your bag, and keep an eye out for López’s next effort, a so-called “haunted western” produced by none other than del Toro hisself. Now that’s a combination I’ll be keeping on my calendar for sure, kiddos!