10 More Horror Movies So Sad You Can Only Watch Them Once
5. Tigers Are Not Afraid
If using supernatural horror as a stand-in for historical, cultural violence is another relatively well-worn cliche these days, Tigers Are Not Afraid is nevertheless among the most successful of all attempts.
A bleak fairy-tale of sorts, Issa López's film chronicles the efforts of five children trying to survive in the slums of Mexico while contending with cartels, drug trafficking, kidnappings, and gang war.
Not unlike Pan's Labyrinth, Tigers Are Not Afraid takes a magical realist bent, using wishes and ghosts to further underline the trauma inflicted upon the nation's citizens by the drug war, where they represent a need to escape the utterly hellish conditions of life under cartel rule.
Indeed, the fantasy aspect never overpowers the agonising reality of the situation, which carries all the way through to its brutally affecting crescendo.
Even with a swifter-than-swift 83-minute runtime, this is enough of a tough-going watch that you'll probably be content with viewing it just once.