Director and writer Izzac Ezban’s Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse was recently released in select U.S. theaters after first premiering at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2024. The coming-of-age horror story features emerging actors Farid Escalante Correa as Salvador, Leonardo Cervantes as Oliver, and Mateo Ortega Casillas as Benjamín. They all give fantastic, compelling performances, especially with little to no major roles under their belts.

The movie follows three brothers as they grow up and navigate their way through a post-apocalyptic, undead-ridden world, seemingly without their parents. Salvador, Oliver, and Benjamín have to scrounge through the barren wilderness and rely on each other to survive, all while sibling dynamics jeopardize their thus far successful way of life.

If a horror movie hasn’t made you squirm in a while, the grotesque pieces of this morbid puzzle are guaranteed to make your skin crawl. A protein shake of crushed-up worms guzzled down in one sip. Bony, peeling, rotting zombies having sex with each other, surrounded by their own muck. Murdering precious dogs with sharp arrows. Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse is a biohazard of a movie, filled with all of the filthiness and physical vulgarity that an apocalyptic situation would offer.

The film was very humorous at times, and it also succeeds in painting a realistic depiction of youth in a world like this. The youngest brother is childish. He plays with toys. On hunts, he catches small animals just to make them his toys. His scratchy, scribbly, crayon drawings are scattered all over their base. In many apocalyptic stories, such as The Walking Dead, young children are shown to be completely adjusted, hardcore warriors. This was a refreshing perspective that warmed our hearts. The older brothers put in a lot of effort to preserve their youngest sibling’s childhood. This sweet sentiment added to the charm and lure of the movie.

But, while the picture succeeds in making viewers wildly uncomfortable, it seems to be confused about its storyline. At the core of the film lies a message about familial and parental love, and how far some people are willing to go to preserve it. While the central idea remains quite evident, the plot loses itself along the way. Audience members are left with many twists and turns that feel out of place, events that don’t exactly match up with characters’ personalities and goals as they are shown, and an ending that feels like it was glued together from an entirely different movie. This movie got tripped up on its ambition. It threw so many dystopian events on the wall, hoping they would stick, that it ended up making the movie feel dizzying, tiring us out near the end.

Stylistically, the film also fell flat. The choice of coloring was questionable. The desaturation aligns well with the narrative and circumstances, but it was rather excessive. It’s as if they were attempting to propagate that the characters were in a scary situation by prioritizing the harsh coloring. It was so jarring that many on-screen details were hard to notice, including the very impressive production design.

It’s challenging to introduce something fresh in this genre due to the congestion of apocalyptic narratives in the media, but there’s a reason for the abundance: the concept makes us so hungry for what-ifs that our adrenaline starts pumping rapidly into our veins. It can amusingly comfort us, because it shows that the world isn’t as bad as we currently think it is; it illustrates to an ironic level how dire things can get. While it’s challenging to create something fresh, it’s completely possible and widely encouraged by fanatics and horror filmmakers everywhere. This film felt incomplete, burdened by ideas the makers pursued but ultimately abandoned.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse is a zombie film about 3 brothers trying to survive the end of the world.