10 Spanish Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die

A lot of the films on this list feel a little familiar. They neatly fit into genres that transcend cultural boundaries or even heavily borrow from more familiar English-language cinema. Like Guillermo del Toro’s films before it, Tigers Are Not Afraid feels unique to the cultural back drop it is set against. In this case the film is set in a Mexican city devastated by the Mexican Drug War.

Telling the story of five children orphaned because of cartel human trafficking, Tigers Are Not Afraid is unflinching in its depiction of violence. The sole girl in the group has been granted three magical wishes, but like the monkey’s paw, the wishes never work out like she wants them too. For example, she is haunted by the ghost of her dead mother after wishing she would “come back”. Armed with two other wishes, a stolen gun and cellphone, the children are forced to eventually take on the cartel, face-to-face.

While some fairy tale visuals and an urban legend about an escaped tiger help emphasize the themes of the movie, there is no Pale Man devouring children here. Instead, most of the monsters are gangsters keeping children in cages to be sold off. Here the kids are fighting against a broken system that has allowed the cartel to ruin their lives. Tigers Are Not Afraid is a devastating film but ends with perhaps a hint of optimism depending on how you interrupt it. Either way prepare for quite a few scares and even more tears.