I love those urban legends/mysterious creature stories. I can’t get enough about Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster. One of the creatures that I do not know as much about is the Chupacabra. Known as a “Mexican goat sucker” the Chupacabra has several iterations over the years. Now, a new Netflix film puts a young Chupacabra front and center.

Young Alex (Evan Whitten) was sent by his mother to spend some time with his grandfather (Demián Bichir) and his cousins in Mexico. Alex was depressed, dealing with the loss of his father. While on his grandfather’s farm, he discovered a baby Chupacabra hiding in the barn.

The youngling Chupacabra was being hunted by a scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater), who had led to the little animal being separated from its mother. Alex and the family have to put their lives in danger to try and help reunite Chupa with his family.

Okay, here is the thing with this movie. It’s dumb. The story is silly. Demián Bichir’s character is a former lucha libre wrestler and spends a bunch of the film dressed as such. This movie has a definite 1980s style feel to it. It is not terrible. It just is not that good.

There is a sweetness to the story. Alex and Chupa are fine together. Demián Bichir’s character is losing his memory, but the film does not treat that in a serious manner.

The film is a weird combination of a “boy and his dog” type of film and lucha libre wrestling. The tone was all over the place.

I shouldn’t say this because I do think they did the best they could and I do not want to be negative to them, but the kid actors in this film did not feel as if they were incredibly skilled. I would say that they were competent, and they were fine for this movie. They just were not going to be able to extend the plot much more than it was.

The movie was shallow in plot and character, but heartwarming at times. They did introduce some interesting ideas in the story, but they rarely paid off any of them. Chupa was a cute creature design, but the CSI effects were, at best, okay.

For a Netflix family film, Chupa was fine. I definitely have seen worse on the streaming platform. Unfortunately, most everything was surface level and lacking any true depth. It is a decent family film to watch together some Saturday night, but I would not necessarily seek it out.

2.7 stars