Nik McGrath
Still: Paola Lara as Estrella in Tigers Are Not Afraid (López, 2017)
For 31 Days of Horror last year I watched 31 films directed by women. I was extremely keen to see Tigers Are Not Afraid (López, 2017), original Spanish title Vuelven, and eagerly searched online to find out when the Mexican film might become available on DVD with English subtitles. I saw a thread on Twitter by American comedy writer, producer and performer Megan Amram praising the film. I thought this was my chance to ask the question: ‘Any tips where I could get my hands on this film?!’ To my surprise, and excitement, Issa López replied to my tweet: ‘BR will come in English but will take a while. Patience…’ I patiently waited for almost a year, did a search every now and then, until mid July, David Lorensene sent me a text: ‘OMG OMG I am trying to find it for you… Tigers… has come out on Blu-ray.’ Then another message: ‘Amazon’. I excitedly got onto Amazon and found Tigers. Then I patiently waited for my steelbook to arrive in the post, which it did, last week. I did plan to hold off watching it until this October, because I’m doing 31 Days of Horror directed by women again this year. However, I couldn’t wait. So David and I watched it last weekend. The reason I tell you this is because I had hyped up this film in my mind for more than a year. My expectations high, my excitement palpable, tears in my eyes, this film does not disappoint. As I know many horror fans are yet to see this film, I’ll do my best to avoid any spoilers. I would also like to point out that you can now see this film on Shudder, a genre streaming service recently made available in Australia.
Image: Issa López
Before I talk about Tigers, I would like to talk about director, writer, and executive producer Issa López. One of the features on the Blu-ray is an in-depth interview at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) between Issa López and Guillermo del Toro. During the interview López opens up about writing romantic-comedies to pay the bills, her childhood, losing her mother to cancer, and how sci-fi, horror, comic books, and video games got her through tough times. López confessed that she hates romantic comedies, but they are hugely popular in Mexico, and women are expected to write romantic comedies rather than genre films. Fortunately due to López’s success in romantic comedies, she was able to fight to make Tigers by threatening the production company that she would no longer write romantic comedies for them, they quickly agreed to back her film.
Still: Juan Ramón López as El Shine in Tigers Are Not Afraid (López, 2017)
In October 2017 Stephen King tweeted: “TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID, directed by Issa López: this is one terrific film, both tough and touching. Two minutes in, I was under its spell”. López replied: “thank you, thank you Stephen King. This girl grew up on a steady diet of your words. This is a good, beautiful day, in a harsh world”. Stephen King is a master of the genre, and something he excels at is telling horror stories through the eyes of children. I think López, through her own unique view of the world, has masterfully told her story, her personal trauma of losing her mother abruptly, when she was young, never being able to say goodbye, through the cathartic medium of film. Although López lost her mother to cancer, not to the Mexican cartels like the children in Tigers, she understands their pain, and sensitively tells their stories, so believable, you too will be brought to tears.
The young people in this film had never acted before making Tigers. The children have experienced trauma, which López carefully and sensitively incorporated into the filmmaking process to bring out authentic feelings during the shooting of this film. In an interview in November 2017 on Switchblade Sisters, López shared that she had to go through the emotions with the children, be afraid, be vulnerable, in order for the children to be able to access those feelings in a safe space. However, when she said ‘cut’, the children couldn’t stop their emotions. However, López was careful to never cross a line, or to traumatise the children in accessing these dark feelings. She shot the film chronologically, so that the relationships between the characters could grow organically, a strategy Steven Spielberg also did on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), so that the tears at the end of the film when Elliott says goodbye to E.T., they are real tears.
Still: El Shine, Estrella and orphans in Tigers Are Not Afraid (López, 2017)
The key element of the story, which I’m being careful not to share in any depth to avoid spoilers, is the relationship between Estrella and El Shine, and a group of young orphan boys living on the street. In my mind Estrella is Wendy and El Shine is Peter Pan, and the orphan boys are Wendy’s Lost Boys. Just like Wendy telling stories to her Lost Boys (who desperately look to Wendy as a surrogate mother), storytelling is also a major thread in Tigers. The children tell each other stories as solace to escape the harsh reality of living on the streets in Mexico. The children live in constant fear of being murdered by the cartels. When Estrella tells stories, she believes in magic - it is her saviour. El Shine is more pragmatic about life, only believing that he can make a difference, not hoping and wishing for magic to save him.
I hope you watch Tigers Are Not Afraid, and tell fellow horror fans to check out this incredibly touching and important film. Keep an eye out on López’s future projects - López and Del Toro are planning to make a werewolf western! Be patient...