Legend of the Chupacabra (Video 2000) Poster

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3/10
No wonder people make fun of cryptozoology
orc029428 June 2002
This movie had very little good points, the special effects and acting was horrible for sure. But it was a movie made on a low budget so you dont expect much from it, it does have some laughs (I doubt they are intended though :) ). The scene where the old woman bends down and touches dung that was on the floor, then puts it to her nose and goes CHUPACABRA! in a really stupid raspy voice was priceless. All in all if you have nothing else to watch and just want to laugh at a really crappy flick trying to cash in on the Blair Witch Project's success, then grab it other then that dont bother.
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5/10
Fairly amusing junk.
Hey_Sweden3 June 2017
"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.
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1/10
It could be decent independent film....NOT!!!
moviemeister12 September 2004
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.
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1/10
Worst movie ever
bill150010 September 2003
We rented the movie and it maybe the worst movie ever. The box they had in the video store had a cool looking monster on the cover but in reality the monster was a creature from the black lagoon mask. Awful, awful, awful...you actually might have to rent it it's so bad. It feels like you are watching a bizzare-o home movie.
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If you thought Blair Witch was horrible... take a look at this.
kallok26 June 2003
I bought this film on my weekly trip to the video store. I am a big time Troma fan, but I have never heard of this title. I bought it at the reasonable price of seven bucks and went home to watch it. I love Troma movies... all of them from Surf Nazis Must Die to there most famous character the Toxic Avenger. But Legend of the Chupacabra was just plain borring. I was very dissapointed in this movie. I loved that suit the creature was wearing (there's a extra on the dvd showing how he gets into it... the dvd might be worth getting to watch. I thought it was funny). I thought the old mexician lady was funny, that was about it.
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1/10
The Crap That Legends Are Made Of
NoDakTatum31 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The chupacabra, according to this mockumentary, is a mysterious creature that has been killing and eating goats in Latin America and Mexico for years. One has crossed the border into southern Texas, and a cute, intrepid cryptozoologist (I did not know that was a word until I watched this film) go to an isolated ranch to find one. Her uncle was killed by the creature, and some grainy video footage of the monster exists. She takes along tough guy with a gun, and two cameramen (for easy-to-edit coverage), and they go a-huntin' for chupacabras. Ten minutes into the film, they find it. The rest of the film has the team of documentarians getting attacked by the bloodthirsty monster, and stilted dialogue. At one point, the team runs into a couple of hottie witches who lead them to the chupacabra's nest for $100. If only the FBI knew about how cheaply Tex-Mex witches could be bought as informants. Whole decades of mythical beast reports could be cleared up with an ATM withdrawal. In the end, after the bloody deaths of characters you don't give a goat's patoot about, a chupacabra is captured, killed, and autopsied. The only point of the autopsy scene is to highlight the makeup department's efforts in such a cheap film.

The film is shot on video, yet the cameraman characters never reload their tapes or recharge their camera batteries. The lead actress here is awful. The beauty of the otherwise average "The Blair Witch Project" was its use of improvisation during the production. Here, all the lines are written, and are delivered like a poorly rehearsed Christmas pageant. At one point the crew breaks into an abandoned house and find a trio of illegal immigrants who "comically" ask them if they are from the INS- chortle, chortle, the filmmakers should be deported. The monster itself is a guy in a rubber suit, and nothing more. For such a lumbering and awkward beast, he is able to sneak up on the cast pretty quietly, whether they have idiotically locked themselves in a giant cage as bait, or cannot seem to get their only vehicle started. The gore is gruesome, but when surrounded by this kind of stupidity, it loses all of its effectiveness. I can honestly say this is the worst film ever made in southern Texas about a mythical beast. Pray there are not any sequels.
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1/10
NO ORDINARY MUTILATION
nogodnomasters15 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is perhaps one of the worse hand held camera documentaries out there. A group of college students from Rio Grande go exploring for the Chupacabra. Is it alien? Dinosaur? Demon? Government experiment? A big rubber head? The dialogue and acting are MST bad and had I not been so sober watching this film, I might have enjoyed it.

Maria Esperanza (Katsy Joiner) interrupts her acting career to lead the expedition. She is fed lines like "This was no ordinary mutilation." I imagined they had a rash of ordinary mutilations to compare to this one....and it had "supernatural strength." Superhuman strength maybe? What exactly is "supernatural" strength? She also offers medical advice about finding a comrade down and unconsciousness nect to a guy with his guts removed, "I think he is going to be okay. Just let him come to on his own."

Then the guy with the Alkaseltzer i his mouth. The last 10 minutes of the film consist of Chupacabra autopsy. Those big threatening looking horns on its back, bend as if they are made of rubber.

I would have not made it through the film without a lot of help from the fast forward button. Give yourself a punch on the hacker card if you can watch it without using the fast forward.

Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity on fast forward.
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1/10
Student film?
Chase_Witherspoon30 April 2011
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.
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9/10
'...The thing almost seems to fly sometimes!'
ocosis20 December 2019
Watch this documentary and you will believe... the Chupacabra is real.
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7/10
Bad Movies Can Be Fun
the_fog_198018 October 2002
Troma is famous for it's bad movies. This one is right up there. But it's still fun to watch. The creature is actually pretty cool looking. If this film ever got the big budget treatment, it could have a fighting chance. Just think of all the people who like their shot at making a film. These people got their shot. More than most can say. This film is fun. So check it out. You could do worse.
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The worst... And I mean that in the best way possible! :-)
redw1ng29 May 2002
If you like bad movie "classics" like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or Killer Klowns from Outer Space, then this movie is for you! I give it a full 5 groans (and several hearty laughs)! :-)

From the rubber monster suit, to the red & corn syrupy "blood", to the oh-my-gawd-awful acting... This movie is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes (in one way or another)!! ;-)
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As scary as a Chalupa, and made for the cost of one....
doomsyer23 June 2003
To start off, I am not sure if this is the right movie or not. I rented Blood Thirst: Legend of the Chupacabra from the local BB and this is what popped up when punched it into IMdB. I have seen some of Castro's other movies, so I am sure I am not too far off.

Well, the movie I saw was a total borefest. Crappy acting, crappy filming, and extremely crappy effects, lack of any gore. Every time something would happen, the camera would fade off. This film also had CGI effects that could have been made by a 6th grader.

Again, this is probably not the same movie since the one I watched was not a mockumentary like the Blair Witch project. This movie was just a total waste of time and as scary as an episode of Goosebumps. I take that back, goosebumps is scarier.
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Better Than Blair Witch
Crap_Connoisseur3 April 2006
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.
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