Carla Adell, Emilio Galvan, Farid Escalante Correa, Horacio F. Lazo, horror, Isaac Ezban, Jason Luis Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Remolina, Leonardo Cervantes, Marco Rodriguez, Mateo Ortega Casillas, Mexico, movies, Noe Hernandez, Norma Flores, Parvulos: Children of the Apocalypse, reviews
April 30, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse”
Directed by Isaac Ezban
Spanish with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Mexico, the horror film “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” features an all-Latin cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: During a zombie apocalypse, three underage brothers live in a house where they are hiding a big secret.
Culture Audience: “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching above-average zombie movies that do a very good job of balancing human storylines with realistic gore.
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” is a well-acted and haunting depiction of a family trying to survive during a zombie apocalypse. This gruesome movie tends to drag with slow pacing and repetitive scenarios. However, the story is not predictable. This unpredictability—along with some suspenseful and emotionally gripping scenes—make “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” worth watching for people who can tolerate watching zombie movies that has explicit bloody violence.
Written and directed by Isaac Ezban, “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” had its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Festival. (The word “párvulos” means “little ones” in Spanish.) The movie’s synopsis describes the story setting as “a dystopian future ravaged by a viral apocalypse.”
However, there’s a distinctly retro look to “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” because the technology and clothing shown in the movie suggest that this story could have taken place in the 1980s. There are vinyl record players and an illustration of a 1980s-styled computer in a book, but there is no mention or indication of cell phones or Internet technology. The movie’s cinematography is also drenched in a sepia and gray tone that’s reminiscent of old film footage.
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” takes place in an unnamed city in Mexico, where the movie was filmed on location. Like many zombie apocalypse movies, the terror happens in a remote and isolated area. Unlike many zombie apocalypse movies, the story is told from the perspectives of children who have no adult supervision. The events of the movie take place after much of the Earth’s population has died from a virus-spreading pandemic that turned people into zombie from the most recent vaccine. It’s mentioned later in the movie that there are only an estimated 144,000 people left on Earth.
The movie begins with a voiceover narration from a boy who is later revealed to be Oliver (played by Leonardo Cervantes), the middle of three underage brothers who are living in a two-story house in a remote wooded area. Oliver is about 12 or 13 years old and has a fearless and logical personality. The eldest brother is bossy and paranoid Salvador (played by Farid Escalante Correa), who is about 16 or 17 years old. The youngest brother is inquisitive and perceptive Benjamin (played by Mateo Ortega Casillas), who’s about 8 or 9 years old.
In the voiceover narration, Oliver talks about not remembering much about school except for the day he learned about natural constants in his natural history class. Oliver says he father (whom Oliver describes as “the smartest person I ever met”) wasn’t impressed with this academic lesson. Instead, Oliver’s father said that he believed in only two constants: family and change.
“I didn’t understand what he meant for a long time.” It’s later revealed that before the apocalypse. The brothers’ father (played by Horacio F. Lazo) was an engineer, and the brothers’ mother (played by Norma Flores) was a nurse. The names of the parents are not mentioned in the movie.
Salvador and Oliver have told Benjamin that their parents have gone missing. When Benjamin asks Salvador if their parent could have died from the virus, Salvador says no because the virus is from “the old world.” Salvador also explains that the pandemic’s Omega virus mutated faster than the vaccines that were available. There’s a possibility that another vaccine exists that could be a cure, but there is no mass communication to find out if this vaccine really exists.
Salvador is the leader of the brothers, who have to hunt for their own food. They communicate by walkie talkie. They also have a shotgun and bullets. Salvador’s left leg is amputated at the knee, but he uses a brace, crutches and a makeshift prosthetic leg to help with his mobility. The movie later shows how and why Salvador’s leg was amputated.
An early scene in the movie shows how desperate the brothers are for food because they shoot a stray dog, which they later eat after butchering it and putting the dismembered parts in the freezer. The brothers also keep rats in a box. These rats are also used as food. One day, Benjamin finds out that the meal that Salvador served for them was their pet frog Manchitas. Benjamin gets very upset and starts crying. There are also indications of other death, because the brothers see three dead zombies hanging from a tree, early on in the movie.
The brothers have a big secret: There are growling sounds that are coming from the house’s basement. Salvador and Oliver know what’s causing these noises, but Salvador says that Benjmain can’t go inside the basement until he is 10 years old. It’s very easy to figure out who’s in the basement. The secret is revealed to Benjamin about in the first third of the movie.
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” also shows the brothers encountering various strangers in or near their house. One of these strangers is a feisty young woman named Valeria (played by Carla Adell), who presents the brothers with the option to stay where they are or to go with her to try to find the miracle vaccine. The brothers also encounter a man in the woods named Rogelio (played by Juan Carlos Remolina) in one scene that becomes a turning point in the story. And a religious fanatic named Enoch (played by Noé Hernández) shows up at the house with three sidekicks (played by Marco Rodríguez, Emilio Galván and Jason Luis Rodríguez), leading to one of the movie’s most intense sequences.
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” (which has a total running time of nearly two hours) could have used better editing in the first third of the film because it takes too long to reveal the “family secret” that’s easy to guess within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Still, the movie excels in other areas, such as showing some unexpected dark comedy with family dynamics after this secret is revealed. The comedy is a good counterbalance to other parts of the movie that are unquestionably brutal to watch.
The acting performances are convincing, with Cervantes showing a maturity that makes it believable when Oliver reveals he’s a lot more complex than he originally seemed. In addition to Rodrigo Sandoval’s compelling cinematography, “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” benefis from an effective music score composed by Edy Lan and Camilla Uboldi that give thrills and chills in all the right scenes. The movie has also proficient sound design that adds to the realistic gore.
“Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” also significantly depicts morality dilemmas in an environment where survival often means being cruel to other living beings. The movie also shows psychological trauma, as Salvador is shown frequently having nightmares, as he experiences the heavy responsibility of being the “father figure”/protector of his young brothers. But the movie also authentically shows that he’s a teenager who’s discovering his sexuality and doesn’t quite know to handle his raging hormones. Despite a few flaws in the story (such as not really explaining how the brothers can watch a movie on a film projector when there’s no electricity), “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” is a memorable zombie horror film that shows how family loyalty can be tested in a deadly “survival of the fittest” apocalypse.
Firebook Entertainment released “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” in select U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on June 3, 2025. “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” was released in Mexico on November 7, 2024.