- Directed by: Issa Lopez
- Written by: Issa Lopez
- Stars: Paola Lara, Juan Ramon Lopez, Nery Arredondo
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoE0mSJXO8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
If you watch this, see it in Spanish with subtitles, not the English dubbed version that has adults doing the children’s voices. It’s a grim story set in a grim place, with kids dealing with it the best that they can. Horrorguy Brian enjoyed it quite a bit more than Horrorguy Kevin.
Spoilery Synopsis
As the credits roll, we are told how many have been killed since the drug wars of 2006 happened. Some whole cities have become ghost towns. A class of kids write stories; one writes a story about a tiger. They can see in the dark and never forget; tigers are fighters and are not afraid.
A little boy watches the drunken Caco peeing in an alley. The boy steals his gun and then sneaks away.
Back in school, there is shooting, and everyone jumps to the floor. The teacher talks to Estrella, keeping her mind off the shooting. Classes are suspended until further notice. As Estrella walks home, she passes a murder victim in the street. As she arrives, we watch as a trail of blood follows her inside and crawls along the walls.
Elsewhere, Morro wants to hear the story of the tiger again from Shine. This is a group of children without parents, and he tells them the scary story. Tucsi and Pop listen as well.
Estrella calls her mother, but there’s no answer. She’s hungry and doesn’t know what became of her mother. That night, she has a terrible dream that the Huascas took her mother.
In the morning, Estrella comes to the four boys for food. If they don’t help her, the Huascas will get her. They begrudgingly help the girl. Estrella has a nightmare vision of her mother that night.
Caco and his friend come for Shine and his gun, and the whole group runs away. They get Morro, the smallest one. The Huascas are going to sacrifice him to Satan, or so they think. Shine tells Estrella that if she can kill Caco, she can join their group. He gives her the gun.
Estrella sneaks into Caco’s apartment, but sees that he’s already dead. She shoots the gun, and the boys think she did it. She also finds several children, including Morro, in cages and releases them. Later, Shine explains where each of the boys came from; they all lost their families to the cartels, mostly Caco specifically.
Estrella dreams about her zombie-mother again. “The one who killed him is looking for you and will find you. You have to bring him to me.”
All the kids leave their place and move elsewhere, even some of the kids they released last night. Everyone knows El Chino, the head of the Huascas, is looking for Shine’s gang now.
At the new place they find, Estrella notices the animated blood trail is still following her, but it cannot pass over her chalk-lines on the ground. Shine has Caco’s phone, as it has a photo of his mother on it. They find a bunch of soccer balls and have a lot of fun that night.
El Chino’s man grabs Shine and demands Caco’s phone back. He comes to the place where the kids are, and Estrella hides. That doesn’t work, and there’s a gunfight between one of the men and Morro, who dies. Estrella wonders why they want that phone so badly? There’s a video on it of El Chino killing someone. El Chino is running for office, so that’d be really bad if it got out. They call him and make a deal. El Chino was the man who killed Caco, because he had that phone.
Estrella has a vision of Dead-Morro and his now-animated toy tiger. She sees all the people Chino has killed, and there are a lot of them. They keep following her. “Bring him to us!” All the dead, the blood trail, and the little flying dragon-thing terrorize her for a while. Meanwhile, Pop, Tucsi, and Shine argue about what to do with the phone. Pop shows the video to a policeman, but they drive away, wanting no part of that.
Shine brings Estrella a photo of her mother that he took from their house, along with a photo of her on Caco’s phone. Now they both want to go see Chino.
Chino gets the phone and then kills his two Huasca guards, as agreed. He also lets the kids go. Estrella wants to know what happened to her mother, and Shine shows her the video of her mother’s death– he swapped the phones. Chino soon figures out that he has the wrong phone.
The blood trail crawls up Shine’s leg, and then Chino shoots him in the head. Estrella runs through the old building. As she hides, Morro’s toy tiger shows up and tells her what to do.
She hides in a place stacked high with decomposing bodies, her mother included. She leaves the phone with them, and when Chino comes for it, the dead tear him apart.
Estrella sees dead-Chino again and says goodbye to him. She gives back his lighter. On the way out, she sees a real tiger, and it takes her to a big, clean field, where she can be happy.
Brian’s Commentary
We started out watching the dubbed version, and it was atrocious– all the children were voiced by adults. We switched to Spanish and subtitles part way through, and that helped a lot.
Just living in this city in the first place is a nightmare. Having children be the only real characters makes it even worse. The more typical horror is mostly in Estrella’s dreams and visions, but there’s enough magical realism going on that it’s hard to know what’s really happening here.
The acting is surprisingly good from an all-child cast, and the visuals are excellent. It’s very good! Between the children in peril, magical realism, bleak world, and vague ending, I’d compare it mostly to “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006). If you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this.
Kevin’s Commentary
Brian summed that up well by comparing it to Pan’s Labyrinth and saying if you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this. I didn’t care for Pan’s Labyrinth or this one very much. Kids and maybe imaginary magic, or if it’s not imaginary, so what? I didn’t feel invested in it. The acting was good and it’s well put together, but it didn’t grab me.