Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | Film | March 15, 2023
Under no circumstances should any of your children look up the name of Netflix’s soon-to-be-released children’s movie, Chupa without SafeSearch on.
It is entirely possible that writer/director Jonás Cuarón (why yes, he is the son of Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón) is just trying to troll the gringos with this title. But really there aren’t a lot of ways to dress up a Chupacabra as an adorable children’s playmate besides giving it a cutesy nickname and a boopable snoot.
The first reported sightings of Chupacabra were in Puerto Rico in 1995, which makes it pretty young in the field of cryptozoology. It was blamed for attacks on domestic and farm animals, leaving uneaten carcasses that were drained of blood. There have been many unsubstantiated sightings throughout Central and Latin America and up into Mexico over the years but no one can quite agree on what this thing looks like. Early reports said it resembled a large reptilian kangaroo with huge red eyes. Other people described a creature that looked more like a dog. Either way, no one ever said anything about a marketable critter with wings.
Based on how much this movie feels like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial mixed with Pete’s Dragon there’s going to be a lot of heart-string tugging, and moments of peril resolved with the use of booby traps and pratfalls. Sorry, Christian Slater.
Along with Slater, Chupa stars Demián Bichir (Showtime’s Let The Right One In), Julio Cesar Cedillo (The Harder They Fall), and Evan Whitten (Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon).
It premieres on Netflix on April 7th. I’m just going to leave this here as a final thought:
Imagine the sheer amount of people this title went through at @netflix all the way to “release promo movie poster” for no one to tell them that you can’t shorten the word “chupacabra” with “chupa” because it literally means “to suck off” … like kids should not google this word https://t.co/A3vSEOG5cJ
— El Norte Recuerda (@Vanessid) March 14, 2023
