Consequence by Scout Tafoya

The film is replete with unforgettable images, stellar performances all up and down the cast, and genuinely original and thoughtful revisions of expected tropes.

TheWrap by Monica Castillo

Once the spell of Tigers Are Not Afraid ends and the credits roll, its story lingers in the air. It’s a story of sadness, loss and survival, a fairy tale tailor-made for our anxious times.

Austin Chronicle by Richard Whittaker

A sublime mixture of dark social realism and magical fantasy – social magical realism, if such a subgenre exists.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz

The filmmaker has such a strong command of mood, character and performances – especially impressive given the age of her cast – that her world quickly, seductively overwhelms.

The A.V. Club by Katie Rife

The Tigers’ rooftop hideout is like something out of Hook, and the film moves along at a brisk, Spielbergian clip; however, the combination of dark themes mixed with whimsical fantasy strikes a tone more similar to Guillermo del Toro’s early work.

The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak

López’s fairy tale is one seeking to remind us of an innocence not yet stripped clean.

Original-Cin by Jim Slotek

An emotionally moving thriller that smoothly negotiates the horrors of the supernatural and real world evil with haunting imagery and tension.

The Verge by Caroline Siede

It’s visceral in its grim realism, yet it’s also poignant and cathartic in its use of the fantastical. Above all, it’s a reminder of how genre storytelling can provide real-world social commentary, not just breezy escapism.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

It is by turns harrowing, affecting, unexpectedly funny, truly scary and fantastical. (The cinematographer was Juan Jose Saravia.) The fantasy grows overlush from time to time, but Ms. López has created an original work of art in genre disguise.

Village Voice by April Wolfe

By telling this story through the children’s eyes with a magical-realism element, López makes the tragically unthinkable somehow more palatable.

Film Threat by Bobby LePire

Tigers Are Not Afraid isn’t quite the masterful dark fairy tale it aspires to be. The humor is entirely unnecessary and tonally misplaced. But what it gets right, it does brilliantly. The acting is superb, the mix of fantasy and realistic drama is sublime, and the story is haunting and fascinating in equal measure.

Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang

The emotion and the horror might have taken still deeper root if the world of the movie felt less hectic and more coherently realized, if the supernatural touches and occasional jump scares welled up organically from within rather than feeling smeared on with a digital trowel.

The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

Thematically underdeveloped yet pleasingly creepy, Tigers Are Not Afraid balances its mild terrors with appealing moments of childish creativity.

Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez

It never resolves its commingling of the fanciful and the mundane into a particularly coherent argument about the legacy of trauma.