Recently released for English language audiences on Shudder, only the second most inconvenient streaming service after DC Universe, “Tigers are Not Afraid,” originally titled “Vuelven,” directed by Issa López, is a sort-of horror, sort-of realist drama film that tackles both the devastation of the Mexican drug wars and the fantasy world of childhood, focusing on how the two intermix and the consequences thereby.

There are some things this film does very well. The main characters, all being children, do quite well with their performances, with special mention going to the leads Shine (Juan Ramón López) and Estrella (Paola Lara). Both are believable and have good onscreen rapport with each other and the other kids. Each actor portrays a vivid playfulness that contrasts sharply with their bleak surroundings, affording the audience a peek into their fundamental experiences. Though their dialogue can sometimes come across as heavy-handed, they handle themselves with a quickness that makes the viewer root for them. The camerawork of the film is also quite visually stimulating, with many shots emphasizing the vastness of certain areas to create a “fairy-tale” feeling or to invite the viewer into the emptiness of the city, while others linger on the light of the sunset. The atmosphere the film creates with its dialogue and, more completely, the behavior of its characters is quite captivating. Very quickly it establishes that gangs and kidnapping are accepted norms in this part of the world, with a matter-of-factness that hangs heavy in the gut.

Problems in this film are complicated, so let us start with what absolutely does not work. Many of the special effects used to convey horror or fantasy elements simply look fake. At some points, it appears as though the rotoscoping for certain objects was left unfinished, and so their interaction with the real people and things onscreen are out of sync. At others, the computer graphics are not convincing enough to instill the desired sense of wonder, and the audience is taken out of the film. Another element that does not give much to the film is the horror itself. Points in the film attempt to use jump scares to frighten the audience, which considering the heavy subject matter of the piece, feels almost insulting and definitely cheap. Besides that, most of the scares are tied-in to either the ineffective computer graphics or basic staging that involves shadows moving quickly past doors. Most of what is presented is not enough to elicit real chills, which is disappointing since the fear Estrella feels in the film is clearly supposed to be empathized with by the audience through the use of the aforementioned horror cliches. This, however, leads into the biggest problem with the film’s storytelling: it hinges too much on sentimentality. The film wants to be a story about the horrors of gang warfare, human trafficking and how children are affected by these things, but it struggles to dig for an original way to convey it. The motifs and symbolism lack subtlety that would make them clever, and in fact, they are constantly repeated to the audience through dialogue. Many of the story beats feel too familiar, with elements hitting very close to “Pan’s Labyrinth” but never exceeding or even matching it. Character arcs and certain deaths in the film feel as though they were put in because the film needed structure rather than because they were earned. Overall, not a bad film but definitely in need of something more than it gives.

Photo from Shudder via YouTube