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THE LEGEND OF THE CHUPACABRA
Produced by Rudy Balli and Joe Castro
Directed by Joe Castro
Written by Mark Wesley Stephens and Rudy Balli
Photographed and Edited by Christian RemdeKatsy - Maria Esperanza
J.T. - Pete Cortez
Christ - Daniel Webster
George - Stan McKinney
Sarah - Brenda J. AmbrizeAccording to the dates on the video box, Joe Castro's THE LEGEND OF THE CHUPACABRA predates THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT by a year. Maybe Castro could have snagged some of the BLAIR WITCH mega-money like the guys from THE LAST BROADCAST with a nice little lawsuit. Like those other two movies, the premise is the same; a documentary crew investigates a localized urban legend and gets more than they bargained for.
The controversy that raged between those two films seemed so unwarranted, at least to me. Other than that same basic premise, the two movies were as different as night and day in terms of both style and execution. BLAIR WITCH was completely "found footage" of an investigative team that was never seen again while never revealing the existence of the legend. LAST BROADCAST used the premise to tell a whodunit while utilizing the medium of video to layer the story's complexities. THE LEGEND OF THE CHUPACABRA falls somewhere between the two, while delivering everything those two neglected - gore and fun. CHUPACABRA plays like a Discovery Channel documentary with one mean sense of humor.
The Chupacabra itself is a demon, and apparently well known in Central American folklore. Like the vampire bat, the creature mainly feeds off cattle. Every once in a while reports of human mutilations make the rounds and a team of Cryptozoology students try to see if there's any substance to the myth. Just like the masses out trying to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, an incalculatable number of man hours have yielded little in the way of evidence.
Leading the current team is Katsy. All she wants to do is prove the existence of the creature and make a name for herself and her profession. Bringing in any sort of proof of the Chupacabra would make her career with a lifetime of bookings on the lecture circuit. Played by beautiful Maria Esperanza, she's all spunk and determination. Esperanza never allows to the character to come across as self-serving, opting to play up Katsy's nobility. She's like the patron saint of Cryptozoology, only wanting to validate her field.
Castro wastes little time getting to the action, 5 minutes after Katsy's arrival on scene the demonic feces hits the fan full-tilt as the monster starts dismembering cast members one by one. The remaining bulk of the movie is a cat and mouse game where Katsy and fellow students just try to stay alive.
The tone and style of CHUPACABRA couldn't be more different than BLAIR WITCH or LAST BROADCAST. Those two movies tried to rise above the material and present the scares from a psychological standpoint. They allowed viewers to use their imaginations to play upon viewers fear of the unknown. CHUPACABRA is much less pretentious; its knows it's an old-fashioned monster movie and doesn't want to be anything more.
At the time CHUPACABRA was made, the documentary spin was a novel idea, and viewing the movie post-BLAIR WITCH does a immense disservice to the filmmakers. In the shadow of that deeply intense horror film, what should come across in CHUPACABRA as black comedy might appear as technical inadequacies. People might miss that the filmmakers had their tongues planted firmly in cheek. If CHUPACABRA was actually made after those two films, it could even be considered a parody of the Reality Horror sub-genre.
The DVD for the movie isn't as densely packed as other Troma releases. There is no making of documentary other than a short clip where director Castro explains how to get into the Chupacabra suit. It would have been nice to see some footage of how the actors went through the process of preparing their roles, especially since much of the dialogue is ad-libbed. The only insight into the film's production is through the anecdote-laden cast and crew commentary which sounds like it was recorded during an impromptu party in Castro's living room. From the sound of things the movie was as much fun to make as it is to watch.
The remaining extras are pretty standard. A handful of deleted scenes, including the original ending, as well as four trailers for upcoming Troma releases. One interesting inclusion on the disc is The Radiation Dance, a faux–performance art piece, dealing with pollution, that might have had more visual punch on the TOXIC AVENGER discs.