Legend of the Chupacabra (2000)

"Legend of the Chupacabra" is a "documentary" that follows a team of cryptozoologists, a macho ex-Marine, a farmer, and assorted others as they venture into the backwoods of Santa Maria, Texas. It seems that the monster of the title (it translates as "goat sucker") has crossed the border from Mexico to the states, and has even been caught on tape. Maria Esperanza (super cute Katsy Joiner) loses her uncle to the monster, so she's personally motivated to locate and subdue this creature, and find out more about it.Yeah, this is a lousy film, this viewer won't deny that. It's obviously micro-budgeted, crude as hell, and often incoherent. I don't think the screenwriters put a lot of thought into this screenplay. But that's not the hook of this movie. The hook is what director Joe Castro does with the effects. The Chupacabra is played by Kevin Sloan, and it's a gloriously tacky, silly looking thing with enormous eyes, a big forked tongue, forward protruding tusks, and flat feet. Also, Castro seems to take great delight in grossing out his audience at any and every opportunity, especially during the inevitable creature autopsy late in the movie.The acting may not be particularly impressive, but who in their right mind watches something like this and expects Oscar worthy emoting? Some of the characters are beyond aggravating (Castro and company fall back upon that old cliché of having guys on hand who forever bitch and moan), but the actors are remarkably sincere, no matter if the talent just ain't there. Joiner is appealing in the lead.Interest starts to seriously wane after a while, but at least this is hilarious whenever the creature makes an appearance.Five out of 10.

A film crew from the University of the Rio Grande is formed to investigate the strange presence of the "Chupacabra" (or goat sucker), a mythical creature that has been implicated in the killing of livestock and the death of the crew leader's (Joiner) uncle in a small town in Texas. While local authorities have attributed the deaths to an unidentified "animal attack", Joiner is convinced it's the work of the Chupacabra and her personal vendetta leads the crew into a deadly encounter in which they attempt to trap and capture the animal for scientific purposes. Told as a documentary, with snippets of expert commentary interspersed, the movie looks like a student film shot entirely on a camcorder and while that element arguably lends 'authenticity' to the narrative concept, it doesn't bode well for mainstream film audiences, who will likely find this too amateurish to digest.The acting is mostly very poor, with Joiner the key culprit, her performance is stilted, the dialogue she delivers at times forced and unconvincing. Despite being supposedly isolated (which McKinney, as the hulking ex-marine reinforces several times), as they prepare to take-on the ferocious Chubacabra, inconceivably, no one has a mobile phone (it's set in 1997), and for some reason, the constant traffic that is audible to the viewer, is ignored by the cast, as if it doesn't exist. Disappointingly, director Castro has left too many plot holes open with his storyline, and the end result is tedious and inadequate.Special effects deserve some credit in part, notably the scene in which McKinney is dispatched is utterly grotesque and fully effective but unfortunately, it's a standard that is applied inconsistently throughout the movie, with the Chupacabra itself looking like some twit dancing around in a martian outfit. Ahead of the game in terms of the subject matter (it's Chupacabra fever in film land) but if you want to learn more about the Chupacabra folklore, this won't necessarily be the best place to enquire.

To start off, I am not sure if this is the right movie or not. I rented Blood Thirst: Legend of the Chupacabra from the local BB and this is what popped up when punched it into IMdB. I have seen some of Castro's other movies, so I am sure I am not too far off.Well, the movie I saw was a total borefest. Crappy acting, crappy filming, and extremely crappy effects, lack of any gore. Every time something would happen, the camera would fade off. This film also had CGI effects that could have been made by a 6th grader.Again, this is probably not the same movie since the one I watched was not a mockumentary like the Blair Witch project. This movie was just a total waste of time and as scary as an episode of Goosebumps. I take that back, goosebumps is scarier.

Troma is famous for it's bad movies. This one is right up there. But it's still fun to watch. The creature is actually pretty cool looking. If this film ever got the big budget treatment, it could have a fighting chance. Just think of all the people who like their shot at making a film. These people got their shot. More than most can say. This film is fun. So check it out. You could do worse.