| Legend of the Chupacabra DIRECTED BY JOE CASTRO |
| I used to be a pretty avid reader of the Fortean Times. The journal of strange phenomena. Until, that is I realized that the one phenomenon even stranger than accounts of crop circles, Bigfoot, and the like was the steadily rising price-tag every month. I think it was about twelve bucks a pop last time I checked! The reason for such a mark-up is a bigger mystery than the Mary Celeste!!! Before I respectfully bowed out of being gypped by my local newsagent every month, one of the most intriguing Fortean Times scoops was the Chupacabra; aka. The Goatsucker. This mischievous crypto zoological critter was reported to be causing havoc among the livestock of Mexico, and to a lesser extent Texas. There had even been several attacks on humans. Was this a previously unknown species? An extraterrestrial vampire? A satanic goatsucking acolyte? Or merely the halucenogenic result of a few Mexican ranchers going a little too heavy on the peyote? Whatever the case, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came calling. Bigfoot, Nessie, and all the other crypto zoological creatures have been done to death. Some new blood was needed. Thankfully, some zero budget filmmakers beat Hollywood to the punch before they could produce a boring over-produced waste of celluloid ala �The Mothman Prophecies�. �Legend of the Chupacabra� is a no-frills shot on digital epic inspired by �The Blair Witch Project�. Thankfully it isn�t inspired by Blair Witch�s motion sickness inducing cinematography. It also goes for some Roswell alien autopsy mileage as well to add to the generally Fortean feel of this bare-bones psuedo-documentary. The plot is somewhat bare-bones as well. Basically crusading crypto zoology student Maria Esperanza and her Goatsucker fodder; er I mean colleagues spend a lot of time running around, screaming, and firing tranquilizer darts at shadows in their quest to capture the Chupacabra in the backwoods of Texas. Along the way, we�ll see disembowellings, slashings, and even the odd case of Chupacabra infection along with a genu-wine Chupacabra alien autopsy that�d make the Roswell hoaxers proud. So is it worthwhile? Well, yes and no. Compared to the recent glut of CGI laden monster movies like �Frankenfish�, �Boa�, �Python�, and even �Boa vs. Python�, this good old fashioned rubber monster Goatsucker is leaps and bounds ahead. Unfortunately director Joe Castro (no relation to Fidel) breaks Roger Corman�s golden rule of �never show the monster before the third reel�. When you have next to no effects budget and you aren�t shooting for laughs (this one was clearly intended to be serious), then that rule is even more important. Believe it or not, this one actually shapes up into being a pretty effective fake documentary until they make that mistake. Castro also makes the mistake of lingering on his big rubber Chupacabra for way too long most of the time. Still, aside from that minor grievance, this film is a pretty solid example of what can be achieved on digital these days with little or no money and a little ingenuity. Of course it does make the mistake of trying to be a far bigger movie than it can ever hope to be on its format and budget ( a common mistake made by the new breed of zero budget digital filmmakers). But all in all �Legend of the Chupacabra is an interesting example of the new wave of exploitation that is being made possible, and is gaining momentum thanks to the inexpensive and user friendly nature of digital technology. �Legend of the Chupacabra� is now available in Australia through Stomp Visual. The DVD release includes an audio commentary track that will no doubt be of interest to budding zero budget filmmakers everywhere, deleted scenes, and even an alternate ending. �L.O.T.C� could have been a lot better, but it also could have been a hell of a lot worse. This�d make a great double bill with �Creature from Black Lake�. Well worth a look for crypto zoology and no-budget exploitation fans. Entertainment : 2.5 out of 4 Watchability : 2 out of 4 Overall : 2.25 out of 4 Reviewed by Blake |