Contemplating graduating from High School, Anna Furlough, (Erika Fay) Miguel Gonzalez, (Gabriel Gutierrez) Rosie, (Martine Hughes) and Jill Gillespie, (Sara Erikson) try to find something meaningful with their lives stuck in a small Texas town. When the town is suddenly undertaken by a series of strange animal deaths, the residents blame a legendary animal called a chupacabra, only for the town to believe that their Mexican heritage is causing them to confuse the creature when it’s been a series of coyote attacks, and when the attacks turns to human residents, it makes them believe even more that the attacks are wild animals and not the chupacabra. Knowing better than to accept their racist views, they manage to put all the pieces of the mystery together and set out to capture the creature to end it’s rampage through town once and for all.
The Good News: There was some good stuff to this one when it matters. One of the best features with this one is that there’s a really nice-looking creature in here that is an actual monster on the screen rather than simply atrocious-looking CGI. It would’ve been so easy to have used that for the creature, especially with all the attacks being edited to pieces so as to make them mostly impossible to figure out and would’ve hid the creature even more, yet the decision not to follow that is a great plus since it manages to feel like the creature is really there in the shot, and that almost never happens. It really lends the creature a lot of credence and acceptance, and that’s not even getting into how cool it’s design is. This is a really neat design in what few scenes we can get a clear shot at the creature, with a large reptilian head, huge fang-like teeth, large claws, hairy, rat-like body and ability to walk around on all fours, which gives it a unique appearance and makes for an intriguing creature that really works well in here. The attack scenes, when we get to see them, are actually a lot of fun and certainly add a lot to the film. Especially worthwhile are the scenes early on, when no one knows anything about the creature’s existence and it’s allowed to run wild on the citizens. The goat massacre is simply fun, with the chaos of them running around in a panic while the citizens are stuck inside unsure of what to do, and the scene itself is a real standout. Also really good is another big scene later on when it attacks a campground with a witness stuck inside a car before the creature turns it’s attention to it, but the main thing here, which is where most of the film’s good points are held, is inside the finale, which is just full of fun and good points. From the stand-off in the shack to the big chase out in the open to the creature’s stalking and more, there’s just a lot to like in the scene and it’s a long, natural one that doesn’t disappoint. It’s also where we get the clearest look at the gore, which, while mostly limited to incredibly vicious scratch-marks along the back and stomach, leave it nice enough. Even other scenes, as the rednecks’ search for the creature or the first attempt at killing it in the desert aren’t bad either. These here are the film’s good points.
The Bad News: There was a couple of rather big flaws to this one. One of the biggest flaws present here is the fact that this one is just incredibly racist with how the town’s characters are with each other. Despite the constant racial slurs that are brandied apart with reckless abandon, the general attitude of many of the residents, simply looking down the other race enough to dismiss anything they said as part of their cultural hysteria and believing their own views to be the right one, despite the evidence pointing so far away from them it’s laughable to assume the view-point could be kept. Perhaps the biggest, and easily the most illogical one, is the subplot involving the father’s dislike of the boyfriend, which isn’t bad but leads into what is the scene that leads to the wrong, watching him don a chupacabra costume and sneak over to the hideout intending to scare the two of them, since it makes no sense, isn’t pulled off at all well and seems incredibly short-sighted and bigoted to be in the film at all. The voice-over narration setting up the scene does it little favors, and in the end, serves to up the body count anyway, leaving it’s inclusion all the more confusing. That leads into the second big flaw from this one, the inability to really tell what’s going on during the kill sequences. Just about every single kill or attack scene is shot so that it’s impossible to determine what has happened since it’s so quick-cut it’s hard to tell. By editing it in such a way, you lose everything in the sense of what’s going on. It leaves no idea as to what’s happening, and that’s not something you want in the main reason to see the film. In fact, the first few attacks are so jolting and impossible-to-see it’s impossible to see anything in them. These are bad enough to hold it down considerably.
The Final Verdict: Had it eliminated one of it’s problematic flaws, the film would’ve been a lot more interesting and entertaining than it is. Worthwhile look for those interested in the genre or can overlook the flaws, while those who can’t or who aren’t big fans of this style should heed caution.
