Pluskylang Great Film overall

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Scott LeBrun "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.

Chase_Witherspoon 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.

Crap_Connoisseur The Legend of the Chupacabra belongs to that sub-genre of Horror involving documentary filmmakers capturing horrific events before usually dying a very unpleasant death. These films range from the sublime ("Cannibal Holocaust") to the ridiculous ("The Blair Witch Project"). This film belongs to the latter category but it is far more entertaining than "The Blair Witch Project" because something actually happens in this movie - it does not simply involve an ugly woman speaking into a camera.The Legend of the Chupacabra can really only loosely be described as a horror movie. The film is in no way scary, just a little bit gross in the tried and true Troma fashion. Troma has distributed far better movies, but this one is camp and ridiculous enough to be worthy of carrying the Troma seal of approval. Apart from the mildly amusing spoof of "The Blair Witch Project", the main reasons to watch this film are the intentionally atrocious special effects and the amazing latex Chupacabra suit.The special effects in this film are a joy to behold. I haven't seen anything as crap-tastic as the paper-mache corpses that litter the Chupacabra's lair in a long time. Almost as funny are the fluffy toy animals used as slain goats and the severing of an obviously plastic arm. However, it is the breathtakingly obvious latex suit of the Chupacabra that deserves the most praise. The Chupacabra suit harks back to the creature effects of the 1950s. It must have involved literally minutes of not so meticulous work to design this amazing monster.The Legend of the Chupacabra never tries to be anything other than a high camp, B-Grade horror film. And for that I am truly grateful. This is far from Troma's best but genre fans will enjoy it regardless.

randall pennington This flick is so bad its beyond belief.Even for an independent low budget film...it just, well, sucks.I can't even believe even Troma would put out such crap.I have been a fan of some Troma flicks for years(Toxic Avenger,Squeeze Play,Rockabilly Vampire to name a few).But LLoyd, come on,this goes way beyond the boundaries of any taste.It features some of the worst acting imaginable.I think it would have been possible to find unemployed street people who could have been as good...oh,wait, that is what they did.I mean it,these characters have negative charisma.With any luck, the producer and director of this film will have a huge karmic debt because of this atrocity.As will the special effects people.But beyond the terrible acting and the horrid special effects,the dialogue is absolutely traumatic to the ears.The script is full of plot holes the size of Alaska, and there are severe continuity problems.The worst part however, is that it not entertaining in even the smallest way.And this is the most unforgivable sin in film making.But, don't take my word for it.Go out and waste four bucks renting it.Just don't say I didn't warn you.