El Chupacabra

El Chupacabra tells the story of an Animal Regulation Officer (read dog catcher), Navarro (Eric Alegria), who is investigating a series of dog mutilations. A young scientist who has written a book about the mythical 'Chupacabra', Starlina (Elina Madison), explains to Navarro that it is the Chupacabra that is killing the dogs and later humans. As it turns out another scientist, Dr. Goodspeed (Anthony 'Treach' Criss), is responsible for bring the creature into the city as he wants to be the first to study and breed it. But the creature is out running amok through the city with police and the dog catcher in tow.

All in all this doesn't sound too bad, you have a rubber suite style monster (always a plus in my book), some eye candy in the form of Elina Madison and plenty of scope for gore and action sequences. But the film only really has the former two, the creature design and costume really is quite good although the actor inside does a very poor job as too does the director in showing the creature in successive quick edits that leave you wondering what just happened. As mentioned Madison is pleasing to the eye but she simply cannot act nor too can any of the other cast, especially the lead, Eric Alegia. But we cannot blame the actors completely when the script, written by Brennon Jones, is so atrocious. The two police officers are the most laughable characters ever. When Naverro and Starlina arrive at a murder scene, the female copper's first words are 'What are you scumbags doing here?' - serve and protect hey?

Production values are of course low as you would expect from a no budgeter although the locations are not as bad as the sets. The for-mentioned murder scene had only the two police officers conducting the enquiry - no forensics, no coroner, no taped off area, no blues, just the two detectives. The cage which the Chupacabra escaped from looked like it was made of kitchen rolls so I am not surprised, it wouldn't even hold my bet hamster. There really is very little to like about this film, which is a shame because I'm usually a fan of this kind of no-brainer sci-fi/ horror. It's an obscurity also because it falls well short of acceptable viewing yet doesn't transcend into para-cinema. The films of Edward D Wood Jr. or Andy Milligan have a certain charm to their crapness which El Chupacabra does not.

If you are a fan of rubber suite monsters watch Humanoids from the deep (1980, Barbara Peters) or even Aquanoids (2003, Reinhart 'Rayteam' Peschke) instead.

Extras:

Standard trailer, that gives the whole plot as well as glimpses of every action scene or attack. You'd be better off just watching this. It'd only take a few minutes too.

Chasing the myth: The making of El Chupacabra. This 10 minute behind the scenes look at the film features a glimpse of the make up process and some cast and crew interviews. It was quite enjoyable although it could have been a lot longer. Plus the usual Hard Gore trailer reel.

Review by Marc Woods