This Mexican zombie movie faces the apocalypse through children's eyes

Los Angeles Times

04-04-2025

As a film student in the mid-2000s, Mexican writer-director Isaac Ezban watched Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece 'Pan's Labyrinth' in awe. That Del Toro juxtaposed luminous elements fit for a fairy tale with unflinching violence prompted an epiphany for Ezban.
The then-emerging filmmaker thought to himself: Are you allowed to do that in a movie?
'In an interview, Del Toro talked about the contrast between beauty and brutality, and that really stuck with me,' Ezban told De Los during a recent Zoom conversation. 'It's something I've tried to do in my work, and this movie is the one that reflects that contrast the most.'
Ezban is referring to his latest genre effort, a tonally unpredictable zombie movie titled 'Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse,' which hits theaters across the country on Friday,
In the aftermath of a global pandemic, three young brothers fend for themselves in an isolated home tucked away in a forest.
The youngest, Benjamin (Mateo Ortega Casillas), believes their parents will eventually return to join them, but Salvador (Farid Escalante Correa), the teenage sibling whose firm hand has kept the boys alive, knows the harsher truth. Beyond the illusion of safety they've procured, rabid undead creatures and religious fanatics lurk.
Historically, there have been few examples of zombie films made in Mexico, even if the horror genre at large has always proven widely popular with Mexican audiences.
'Mexicans aren't as fond of gore or guts, which zombie films often lend themselves to,' Ezban offers as a reason for the lack of homegrown iterations. 'What Mexicans love are paranormal stories, demonic possessions, exorcisms, witchcraft, haunted houses.'
With his 2022 film 'Mal de ojo' (Evil Eye), which is streaming on Vix, Ezban tapped into that taste for the supernatural with a story inspired by folktales about witches.
But while otherworldly horror films are more commercially viable in Mexico, with 'Párvulos,' the director took a chance on the zombie subgenre as a vehicle to explore his fascination with narratives where young protagonists mature after a difficult ordeal.
'Coming-of-age tropes and horror go hand in hand, because horror is always about discovering another world, and coming-of-age stories are indeed also about discovering a new world,' he explains.
Despite what anybody might think, Ezban assures me that 'Párvulos' was conceived long before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world in 2020. Even though the notion of a deadly disease and the consequences of an untested vaccine only serve as the setup, those aspects of the story have garnered the most attention.
'My intention was to include it just as a little hint. The story isn't about that,' he says, 'but it's very interesting that that's always been the first question from the press and what the distributor decided to include in the trailer. That's what causes controversy in the reviews.'
Ezban wrote the first treatment for 'Párvulos' in 2016. It would take five years to secure financing, and two more years to finally shoot the picture in 2023. In that time span, Ezban directed two other movies: his English-language debut, 'Parallel,' and 'Mal de ojo.' He also had two children, and, of course, a real pandemic occurred, further delaying his plans.
'I truly believe that projects you are passionate about should be fought for until they happen,' he says about seeing 'Párvulos' come to fruition through every setback.
Over the course of those years, the screenplay for 'Párvulos' would become infused with Ezban's interactions with his children Naomi and Alexander. The dialogue he wrote for Benjamin in the final version of the script feels more naturalistic, he thinks, because it was directly referencing his daughter and son's behaviors and reactions.
Aside from Del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Devil's Backbone,' Ezban also cites as key references the Austrian psychological horror flick 'Goodnight Mommy,' as well as George A. Romero's 'Day of the Dead' and the Spanish found-footage zombie saga 'Rec.'
Played by actors Norma Flores and Horacio F. Lazo, whose physicality earned them the parts, the two main zombies in 'Párvulos' required 3 ½ hours of makeup each day. The result makes them look terrifying but still human, which is particularly important when they interact with the children in some of the more strangely lighthearted scenes.
'The film is a roller coaster, which has divided audiences,' Ezban admits. 'Some people love the first half and don't like it when it suddenly takes on a more comic tone. Others, on the other hand, love that part and don't like the serious tone at the end. I've always had this love for cinema that isn't rigidly tied to one genre.'
This amalgamation of tones is a 'flirtation with the bizarre,' as Ezban describes it. 'Depending on the sensitivity and openness of the viewer, it can sometimes be grotesque, or it can be funny,' he adds about a disturbing dinner scene laced with comic relief.
Aesthetically, 'Párvulos' also takes inventive swings. After watching Antoine Fuqua's 'Emancipation,' a period piece about slavery starring Will Smith, the director decided on a desaturated look for the film that would reflect the emotional state of the kids' reality.
'We're talking about an oppressed world, a world without hope, a world without joy, and therefore, a world without color,' Ezban says. 'Hope is always in the past. Things like the family photo you see, the book they read, their drawings, the movie they watch on TV.'
Though he originally intended to shoot 'Párvulos' in Guadalajara, budget issues pushed him to look at other options, eventually settling on locations near Mexico City, namely La Marquesa National Park. There, the production found the ideal house, which belongs to a retired pilot who divides his time between the forest and the country's bustling capital.
Accustomed to the challenges of realizing his ambitious ideas with humble means, the Mexican director was introduced to a different industry when he made the 2018 sci-fi thriller 'Parallel,' about a mirror that works as an interdimensional portal, in Vancouver.
'Even though we make a lot of films in Mexico and there are great crews here, there's a different discipline over there,' he says. 'It was a pleasure to learn in the big leagues.'
Following the success of his first two features, 'The Incident' and 'The Similars,' Ezban landed representation in the U.S., which allowed him to pitch himself to direct English-language projects. The screenplay for the sci-fi thriller 'Parallel' caught Ezban's eye for its originality among more generic prospects and became his first crossover venture.
To complete 'Parallel,' Ezban spent four months living in Los Angeles during the postproduction process, which revealed to him trials he hadn't experienced before.
'During filming, [the producers] never interfered — not with my vision, nor with my casting decisions,' he says. 'But in postproduction, I did have to experience how editing a studio film works — all the test screenings and focus groups, which can be complicated for a director. But in the end, the film ended up just the way I wanted it.'
Now, having dipped his feet in the English-language market, Ezban plans to develop projects both in Mexico and abroad. 'I like to have one foot there and one foot here and see what happens first,' he adds. The U.S. release of 'Párvulos' will hopefully help that goal.
While this is best reviewed movie yet and has amassed more than 30 awards at film festivals, when the film opened in Mexico last November it went up against Hollywood behemoths such as 'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II,' which hindered its box-office potential.
Though Ezban's early films were theatrically distributed in the U.S., 'Párvulos' marks his widest release stateside with about 200 screens across the country at multiplex chains like AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas. The film's distributor, Firebook Entertainment, seems to be strategically targeting areas with high concentrations of Latino residents.
In California alone, the film will play in South Gate, Norwalk, Riverside, Long Beach, Torrance, San Bernardino among several other cities.
'I know a release in Mexico is very different from one in the United States, because there are so many screens here — in Mexico there are only 5,000 screens — but I'm excited to see how we do,' he concludes.